It's great you're looking into ABA and ESDM therapies! Research shows both can lead to significant developmental improvements in children with autism, though they have different strengths.

ESDM has shown greater improvement in social reciprocity, language, social interaction, and motor skills. ABA has demonstrated greater improvement in gross motor skills.

A study showed that children who received two years of ESDM therapy as toddlers maintained improvements even two years after treatment ended, with fewer repetitive behaviors and better autism severity scores.

For cognitive development, children in ESDM experienced an average IQ increase of 17.6 points, while ABA-based interventions showed mean IQ improvements of 9.16 points after one year and 14.13 points after two years.