Early intensive behavioural interventions and other developmental and behavioral interventions to children aged 0 to 6 years with autism spectrum diagnosis: Mapping of specialist health care services and evidence and gap map
Mapping review
|Published
We were commissioned to prepare a survey (equivalent to a preliminary study) on the Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) measure intended for children 0-6 years old with autism diagnoses.
Key message
The specialist health service offers various interventions for children aged 0–6 years with autism, including early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) and other approaches based on principles from developmental psychology and applied behavior analysis. The Norwegian "New Methods" system is considering conducting a health technology assessment of EIBI and asked the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) for a mapping review to gather more information before making a decision.
We conducted a simple mapping in three steps:
- Non-systematic searches for Norwegian publications (2015–25) on the organization of developmental and behavior-based interventions for children 0–6 years with autism within the specialist health service.
- An electronic survey (“Nettskjema”) targeting specialist health services regarding the use of such interventions.
- Systematic searches for systematic reviews (2018–2025) on intervention effects and parental experiences, accompanied by a simplified evidence map.
Results:
- We found no Norwegian evidence syntheses on the organization of relevant interventions.
- Registry studies provided information on the prevalence of autism among children aged 0–6 years.
- The survey indicated that EIBI, EIBI principles, and numerous other developmental and behavior-based interventions are used within the specialist health service. The organization of these services appears to vary across health regions, between units within regions, with “local” adaptations.
- We identified 50 systematic reviews on intervention effects, including six umbrella reviews.
We employed non-validated methods, which means the information should be interpreted with caution.
The mapping indicates a need to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of one or more of the interventions offered to children aged 0–6 years with autism, in order to strengthen the evidence base for treatment decisions.