I think it depends on what end of the spectrum your child is on. I found ABA did not help my son at all he is mid functioning. Floortime was best

I'm nervous as my oldest is coming up on the waitlist for IBI (intensive ABA, 30hours/week, school-like setting and routines). He was enrolled in a similar setting in a contained class, and it was a terrible fit. It depends on your child's background and learning style. in my case it was too intensive in all the wrong ways, and he did regress.

I definitely recommend you look into Floortime and see if you can find somewhere which offers it. I work for an agency which specializes in Floortime and I have seen amazing results.

My son has been doing ABA for nearly 1 year and I'm really happy with it. His speech and OT therapists have noted that they believe a primary reason they've seen so much improvement so quickly is because he's had high quality ABA. Don't believe all ABA is the same - I've heard some very negative stories, but I think the therapy my son receives is wonderful. All of his ABA therapists talk to each other and work as a team and we meet with a doctor from Autism Speaks along with his therapists every quarter. You will want to visit the ABA provider and sit in on sessions with current clients (see several if you have availability I your area), so you can compare and see what "feels right" to you before you start your child with a particular therapist/group. The first couple weeks is such a learning process for the therapists and for your child, so you want to make sure you pick the right place from the start so you don't have to start over - so do your research. One of the mothers who has a son with the same ABA company as my son periodically video tapes her son during his sessions. I think this is a great idea so you can more easily see progression over time (my memory during all the stress of ASD isn't something I trust too much!).

my son gets ABA therapy and he's 2. It's definitely not too intense. they take their time with the child and use things the child likes as a motivator to complete the task. my son has a hard time focusing on any task. he always wants to do what he wants and it looks behaviorial but when they take a closer look, he literally isn't interested in participating, sooo...with that knowledge they use ABA to intice him to participate and "play" and learn at the same time. I think it's a great therapy system and I know it works. My son is PDD-NOS, non verbal (dx'd last July) and started an ABA center based program where he attends 2.5 hours M-F and 1 hour/day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at home. He is now up to i don't know how many word approximations and is TRYING to speak where before he didn't even make an attempt. I think it works.