Ole Ivar Lovaas

O. Ivar Løvaas
Born Ole Ivar Løvaas
8 May 1927
Lier, Norway
Died 2 August 2010 (aged 83)
Lancaster, California
Nationality Norwegian
Occupation Clinical Psychology Professor
Employer University of California, Los Angeles – UCLA
Known for Applied behavior analysis
Discrete trial training
Website http://www.lovaas.com/

Ole Ivar Løvaas (8 May 1927 – 2 August 2010)[1][2] was a Norwegian-American clinical psychologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is considered to be a pioneer within the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) through his development of discrete trial training (DTT), and was the first to provide evidence that the behavior of children with autism could be modified through teaching.[3] In 1999, the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General described Lovaas's techniques as having been shown to be efficacious at "reducing inappropriate behavior and in increasing communication, learning, and appropriate social behavior" which is based on "thirty years of research."[4]

Personal life

Lovaas was born in Lier, Norway on May 8, 1927 to Hildur and Ernst Albert Lovaas.[5] He had 2 siblings: an older sister named Nora and a younger brother named Hans Erik.[6] He was a farm worker during the 1940s Nazi occupation of Norway. After graduating high school, he served in the Norwegian Air force for 18 months. After the war, Lovaas moved to the United States for college and made a name for himself in the field of psychology. Lovaas married Beryl Scoles in 1955, and together they had four children. After his divorce from Beryl, he married his second wife Nina, with whom he had no children. He is survived by his wife Nina, his children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.[7][8]

Education

Lovaas attended Hegg Elementary School in Lier from 1934 to 1941. He attended junior high school at Drammen Realskole until 1944, and then moved on to Drammen Latin School for high school, graduating in 1947.[6]

Lovaas attended Luthor College in Decorah, Iowa, graduating in 1951 after just one year with his BA in sociology. He received his Masters of Science in clinical psychology from the University of Washington in 1955, and his Ph.D. in learning and clinical psychology from the same school 3 years later.[6]

Career

Early in his career, Lovaas worked at the Pinel foundation, which focused on Freudian psychoanalysis.[6] After earning his PhD, Lovaas worked at the University of Washington’s Child Development Institute, where he first learned of behavior analysis. He began teaching at UCLA in 1961 in the Department of Psychology. Here he worked with children with autism spectrum disorder at the school’s Neuropsychiatric Institute.[5] He started an early intervention clinic at UCLA called the UCLA Young Autism Project, which focused on intervention in the home setting. He was a well-known professor at UCLA, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1994. Lovaas also established the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (LIFE), which provided services to children with autism.[6]

Lovaas method

At the University of Washington, Lovaas was influenced greatly by pioneers in the field of applied behavior analysis, such as Sidney W. Bijou, Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, Todd Risley and James Sherman.

Findings of independent peer reviewed and replicated research studies associated with the Lovaas method[9] have shown that approximately 47% of children can achieve normal functioning and subsequently succeed in regular education without assistance, 43% will make significant progress but continue to demonstrate language delays, 10% will make little progress, though some have disputed these findings.[10]

In his original studies in the late 1950s aversives such as electric shock successfully treated many individuals engaging in extreme self-injury (eye gouging, head banging) whose life expectancy was reduced by secondary infection. Subsequent studies were on extinction methods, in which attention is given only when persons are not engaging in self-injury. Lovaas's use of highly aversive methods, uncommon even in his time, are now very rarely used and controversial in the field.[11]

The "Lovaas method" includes high treatment intensity up to 40-hours per week in a 1:1 teaching setting using discrete trials, treatment is done at home with parents involved in every aspect of treatment, the curriculum is highly individualized with a heavy emphasis on teaching language, and ABA principles are used to motivate learning and reduce non-desired behaviors. The "Lovaas Method" went on the become "Early Intensive Behavior Intervention" or "EIBI." In addition to being one of the founders of ABA, Lovaas taught now prominent behaviorists such as Robert Koegel, Laura Schreibman, Ted Carr, Ron Leaf, Tristram Smith, Doreen Granpeesheh, Jacquie Wynn, Annette Groen, John McEachin and over 20,000 students at UCLA who took his course during his 50 years of teaching. He co-founded what is today the Autism Society of America (ASA), published hundreds of research articles and books, received state and national awards, and forced school districts to adopt evidenced based teaching programs. His work influenced how autism was treated, and affected the lives of parents and children diagnosed with autism worldwide.

The whole approach is disputed, though, by advocates of neurodiversity,[12] such as Michelle Dawson or Ari Ne'eman, who claim it forces people to repress their true personalities on behalf of a narrow conception of normality. Edward K. Morris of the University of Kansas has argued that this position grossly misrepresents the actual goals of applied behavior analysis interventions and the standard practices of behavior analysts.[13]

Work with George Rekers on gender-variant children

In addition to his extensive work with autistic children, in the 1970s Lovaas co-authored four papers with George Rekers on children with atypical gender behaviors.[14][15][16][17] The subject of the first of these studies, a 'feminine' young boy who was homosexual of 4 and half years old at the inception of treatment, committed suicide as an adult; his family attribute the suicide to this treatment.[14][18][19][20]

Following his suicide in 2010, the man's sister told the news that she read his journal which described how he feared disclosing his sexual orientation because when receiving the behavior modification treatment as a young boy, his father would give him spankings if he was given a different color "poker chip" as punishment for feminine-like behavior when playing with dolls.

Awards

Lovaas received many awards for his work in the field of psychology. In 2001, he was awarded the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Distinguished Career Award.[21] He received the Edgar Doll Award from the 33rd Division of the American Psychological Association, the Lifetime Research Achievement Award from the 55th Division of the American Psychological Association, and the Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media by the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He was also awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and the California Senate Award, which is an honorary doctorate. He was named a Fellow by Division 7 of the American Psychological Association and was given the Champion of Mental Health Award by Psychology Today.[22]

Bibliography

  • Teaching Developmentally Disabled Children: The Me Book, 1981
  • Teaching Individuals With Developmental Delays: Basic Intervention Techniques, 2003

References

  1. ↑ Autism Support Network.
  2. ↑ Campbell, Victoria. Pioneer in autism treatment dies,
  3. ↑ "Lovaas Revisited: Should we ever have left?", by Steve Buchman, bbbautism.com, Retrieved on 28 January 2009.
  4. ↑ Satcher, David (1999). "Mental Health: A report of the Surgeon General". Department of Health and Human Services. pp. 163–164. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  5. 1 2 Larsson, Eric V; Wright, Scott (2011). "O. Ivar Lovaas (1927–2010)". The Behavior Analyst. 34 (1): 111–114. PMC 3089401.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Eikeseth, Özerk, Özerk, Vea. “Ole Ivar Lovaas – His Life, Merits, and Legacy.” International Journal of Elementary Education, Dec. 2016, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1126605.pdf
  7. ↑ Fox, Margalit. "O. Ivar Lovaas, Pioneer in Developing Therapies for Autism, Dies at 83". Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  8. ↑ "Ole Ivar Lovaas dies at 83; UCLA psychology professor pioneered autism treatment". Los Angeles Times. 6 August 2010.
  9. ↑ Sallows GO, Graupner TD (2005). "Intensive behavioral treatment for children with autism: four-year outcome and predictors". Am J Ment Retard. 110 (6): 417–38. doi:10.1352/0895-8017(2005)110[417:IBTFCW]2.0.CO;2. PMID 16212446.
  10. ↑ Ospina, MB; Krebs Seida, J; Clark, B; Karkhaneh, M; Hartling, L; et al. (2008). "Behavioural and Developmental Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Clinical Systematic Review". PLoS ONE. 3 (11): e3755. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003755. PMC 2582449. PMID 19015734.
  11. ↑ Johnston, J.M.; Foxx, Richard M.; Jacobson, John W.; Green, Gina; Mulick, James A. (2006). "Positive Behavior Support and Applied Behavior Analysis". The Behavior Analyst. 29 (1): 51–74. PMC 2223172. PMID 22478452.
  12. ↑ Soloman, Andrew. "The Autism Rights Movement". New York Magazine. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Morris, Edward K. (2009). "A Case Study in the Misrepresentation of Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism: The Gernsbacher Lectures". The Behavior Analyst. 32 (1): 205–240. PMC 2686987. PMID 22478522.
  14. 1 2 Rekers, George A.; Lovaas, O. Ivar (1974). "Behavioral Treatment of Deviant Sex-Role Behaviors in a Male Child". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 7 (2): 173–190. doi:10.1901/jaba.1974.7-173. PMC 1311956. PMID 4436165.
  15. ↑ Rekers, George A.; Lovaas, O. Ivar; Low, Benson (June 1974). "The behavioral treatment of a "transsexual" preadolescent boy". Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 2 (2): 99–116. doi:10.1007/BF00919093. PMID 4430820. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  16. ↑ Rekers, George A.; Bentler, Peter M.; Rosen, Alexander C.; Lovaas, O. Ivar (Spring 1977). "Child gender disturbances: A clinical rationale for intervention". Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice. 14 (1): 2–11. doi:10.1037/h0087487. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  17. ↑ Rekers, George A.; Rosen, Alexander C.; Lovaas, O. Ivar; Bentler, Peter M. (February 1978). "Sex-role stereotypy and professional intervention for childhood gender disturbance". Professional Psychology. 9 (1): 127–136. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.9.1.127. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  18. ↑ Bronstein, Scott; Joseph, Jessi (7 June 2011). "Therapy to change 'feminine' boy created a troubled man, family says". CNN. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  19. ↑ Szalavitz, Maia (8 June 2011). "The 'Sissy Boy' Experiment: Why Gender-Related Cases Call for Scientists' Humility". Time. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  20. ↑ Warren Throckmorton (9 June 2011). "Experts and Homosexuality: Don't Try This at Home". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  21. ↑ SCCAP Award Winners: Division 53, (Retrieved 29 May 2018)
  22. ↑ IshYoBoy.com. "Dr. Ole Ivar Lovaas | Pioneer of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)". The Lovaas Center. Retrieved 2018-06-18.

Further reading

  • "Screams, Slaps & Love: A surprising, shocking treatment helps far-gone mental cripples". Life magazine, 1965.
  • Lovaas OI (1987). "Behavioral treatment and normal educational and intellectual functioning in young autistic children". J Consult Clin Psychol. 55 (1): 3–9. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.55.1.3. PMID 3571656.
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