The Use of Evaluation in Treatment Programs for Children with Autism

Abstract

Program evaluation is the use of planned activities to monitor process, outcomes, and impact of a health program or intervention. The application of program evaluation to be- havioral analytic treatment programs for children with autism is a useful and necessary activity to inform practitioners and other stakeholders of the efficacy of these programs and to promote adherence to best-practice treatments. A brief survey of behavioral providers in California and Texas and search of the behavioral literature suggest that the practice of program evaluation is underutilized among providers of behavioral ser- vices. Current organizational practices primarily involve reporting on individualized consumer goals. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to evaluation processes and procedurestopromote theimplementationofsome orall of these components. Areas discussed include defining the population served and program stakeholders, describing the program and intervention, selecting evaluation goals and ob- jectives, ethical considerations, and reporting.