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ABA Autism Provider

Choosing an ABA Treatment Provider

 

How do I know which treatment provider to choose for my child?

 

The effectiveness of ABA done right is well documented. Unfortunately, because the treatment of Autism is not a regulated industry (this is not just for ABA, no Autism treatment is regulated, i.e. Speech Therapy or Floor Time for example), treatment providers are not accountable for achieving a measurable level of success; so there are inexperienced providers out there offering ABA treatment that doesn't achieve significant gains for the children that they work with. In many cities, reputable providers are out there, it just takes a little bit of homework to locate them.

 

When you're searching for an ABA treatment provider, here are some of the aspects of their program to look at, and questions to pose to them about it. These questions assume that your child is of a young age, but most of them are still relevant to parents searching for ABA treatment for older children too.

  • How many of the children that have completed their program, that began it near the age of their 3rd birthday or earlier (the optimal intake ages), ultimately attended primary school in a regular education classroom? Ideally this would be without an aid. If their response is none, or very low this is not a positive indicator of their program.

 

  • How many hours of ABA do they typically recommend per week and why? Research has shown that 36 - 40 hours per week achieves the best outcome. Research also shows that 10 - 15 hours per week may have extremely limited positive impact and that 25 hours obtains modest gains. Studies where the children had received treatment for 40 hours per week are where the most substantial gains have been seen.

 

  • How do they measure and track the progress of the children that they're working with? An example of this may be that they ask the parents to have their child's IQ measured at least once per year.

 

  • Ask for contact details for the parents of six children who've completed the program. Three whose children achieved only marginal gains through enrolling in their program and three whose children saw substantial gains. Spend time speaking with each of these parents about what their child looked like before the treatment and then after treatment. What sort of personality traits came about as a result of the ABA? For example, did their socialization improve, how well do they interact with peers, did language improve, ability to play, lQ level, how are they doing academically? What might they change about the program if anything? Would they recommend it?

 

  • How many years have they been providing ABA services as a company? How many children have enrolled in their program to date?

 

  • How well does the senior staff assigned to your child's program understand typical child development? It's essential that they thoroughly understand typical child development, in order to properly identify and target deficits in a child with an ASD.

 

  • What are the qualifications of the staff who would be assigned to your child's program? Optimally, there should be one doctorate level staff member involved in the child's program, but this is not always obtainable and the senior consultant running the program should have a minimal of five years post grad experience working with children on the spectrum.

 

  • Do they offer the same standard program (a.k.a. cookie cutter) to all children, or is the program unique for each child, tailored to target his/her deficits? There's a saying that if you've met one child with Autism, you've met one child with Autism; meaning that every child looks unique and has different strengths and deficits. The child's programming should be unique also in order to maximize gains.

 

  • What role do Play and the development of the child's imagination have in the program? Play is a crucial necessary component of a successful ABA program.

 

  • The consultant that's running the in home program, how frequently are they reviewing the child's data from the sessions in order to benchmark progress? Frequent assessment of the data is very important, in order to maximize positive gains from the program; i.e. phase out programs that have been mastered by the child already, see if the child is struggling with any of them and introduce new programs once the prerequisites for them have been completed.

 

  • How closely is the line staff being monitored to catch errors in their implementation of teaching programs?

 

  • How often does the Team, including the senior consultant meet together as a group to discuss the program? This should be at least once weekly and it's imperative that the senior consultant is present.

 

  • How do they measure their own success as a treatment provider? Do they keep records of the children that have completed their program and record those children's lQ levels upon completion of the program?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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