ABSTRACT
The primary objective of the research was to assess the therapeutic impact of a "naturalistic" treatment program administered by the parents and designed to modify a wide variety of autistic behaviors. Because laboratory evidence had consistently indicated that several months were required to administer such a program, another objective of this research was to assess the impact of the treatment over an extended time period. Inter-observer agreement per cents were computed separately for each response class by adding the total number of interval agreements to the total number of interval disagreements and dividing the sum into total interval agreements. Although a "naturalistic" treatment approach has several distinct advantages, its success depends upon the ability of professionals and parents to satisfy the following conditions: first, the parents must be willing to make a prolonged commitment to the program.
