Elijah Wingo, 3, played with his grandmother while some 15 adults attended the first day of a workshop regarding his new educational curriculum.

Vince and Michelle Wingo formally withdrew their son, who is autistic, from the Cape Girardeau School District's early childhood special education program Friday. Instead, they will pay consultant Debbie Rausch to oversee a team of therapists using applied behavior analysis therapy.

The therapy relies on high-intensity, precise teaching techniques to teach children diagnosed as autistic. Parents, teachers and therapists are trained to use positive reinforcement and behavior management to work with students for up to 40 hours a week.

The technique is most effective when begun before children reach school age and typically lasts two years. It can cost up to $30,000 a year.

"Autism is not the stereotyped 'Rainman'. It's a spectrum disorder," said Rausch. "You could see five different kids with five different disorders. That's why doing personalized workshops for individual students is so important."

Rausch, who works at the Childhood Learning Center in San Diego, Calif., supervises applied behavioral therapy for eight other children across the United States. She will continue the applied behavior therapy workshop through Sunday as part of training for Elijah's parents and four personal therapists.

"I see so many of my clients who if they had this, they might have been out and on their own," said Stacy Jones, a developmental assistant who works with developmentalyl disabled adults at the Sikeston Regional Center. "With ABA they might have been able to get jobs and live in (their own apartments) and be out on their own."

Although they are not involved in the therapy, school officials, including Elijah's classroom teacher and therapists, attended the first day of the workshop. Betty Chong, Cape Girardeau schools assistant superintendent of special services, also was present. She declined to comment about the workshop.

Rausch said research is proving applied behavior therapy to have a high success rate for autistic children. Clinical studies have documented that 48 to 52 percent of autistic children ages 2 to 5 who receive the therapy will have full recovery, which means they can enter a regular classroom without outside support.

Some 2 percent of autistic children will spontaneously recover with no therapy, while another 10 percent will receive no benefit from applied behavior therapy.

"There is no point where the ABA technology would be unsuccessful because regardless of what's being taught, the child is learning," Rausch said. "As few as 20 hours will lead to pretty amazing results, but recovery will require 40 hours per week."

Rausch will evaluate Elijah throughout the weekend and develop a specialized curriculum for him to begin Monday. She will return every four to eight weeks to monitor Elijah's progress, review taped sessions with therapists and update training and curriculum.