The Impact of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Based on Verbal Behavior on the Development of Verbal Behavior Cusps in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study aims to examine the effects of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI), based on verbal behavior, on the development of Verbal Behavior Cusps in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to identify the characteristics of these cusps according to language age. The participants were 46 children diagnosed with ASD who received EIBI based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for 12 months at a specialized ABA institution. Developmental levels were assessed before and after the intervention using the ELCAR curriculum evaluation. Paired sample t-tests were conducted to analyze the data, revealing significant differences in the foundational verbal behavior, listener, and speaker Verbal Behavior Cusps, along with their subcategories, following the intervention. Furthermore, an examination of the patterns by pre-intervention language age indicated that children with a language age of 12 months or below showed underdeveloped foundational verbal behavior cusps, while those with a language age of 13 months or more demonstrated a progressive expansion from listener to speaker cusps. For children with a language age of 24 months or more, the speaker cusps were more evenly developed, and bidirectional naming emerged. Based on these findings, the study discusses the implications of verbal behavior analysis and the development of Verbal Behavior Cusps in the context of research conducted in Korea.