ABA Therapy
STEPS specializes in early childhood. We provide ABA services to children diagnosed with autism between the ages of 2-10 years old.
Intake and assessment
This process involves getting to know you and your child. We start with an informal meeting where we share our philosophy and mission to make sure we are a good match for your needs. Once a partnership is established, a BCBA will meet with parents and/or caregivers to discuss family goals, dynamics, and routines. Following this meeting, we will spend one to two sessions with your child to assess his or her skills and areas of support in both the clinic and home settings. An optional community (school, day care, etc.) observation is offered as an additional and useful way to gather information.
Initial and ongoing program development
Based on the information gathered from the intake and assessment process, a BCBA will work with your family to develop individualized program goals for your child. These program goals will evolve over time to meet the unique and changing needs of your child.
Direct Services
Direct 1:1 ABA services are provided by both BT’s and BCBAs. Direct services take place in homes, in-clinic, school or community settings. Typically, the majority of direct hours are provided to clients by a BT, unless a “BCBA only model” is recommended for your family. The BCBA may also provide periodic direct 1:1 services to your child in the format of a probe session to check for progress, potential new programming and generalization of skills.
Therapist training and ongoing supervision
BCBAs provide ongoing training to behavior technicians (BTs) on principles of applied behavior analysis, including discrete trial training, naturalistic teaching, data collection and monitoring and positive behavioral support strategies. In addition to supervising a minimum of one hour per every 10 hours provided by a BT to a client, the lead consultants also meet directly with the BTs, without the client present for continued support in individualized programming to ensure ongoing quality services.
Team Meetings
BCBAs provide monthly team meetings to review data, make program adjustments as needed, and address other team questions/concerns.
School and Provider Collaboration
BCBAs will observe your child at the daycare or school setting and collaborate with IEP team members to create and maintain an effective learning environment. If determined to be appropriate by the school and STEPS teams, our behavior technicians do provide weekly direct support in the classroom setting. In addition to school collaboration, your BCBA will maintain consistent communication with other service providers including Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Physical Therapists to ensure collaboration and consistency across goals.
Community-Based Support
We believe that therapy does not always have to occur in the home or clinic. STEPS is dedicated to providing services where your child most needs support to ensure generalization of skills. This might take place during extra-curricular activities, a local park, the zoo, grocery store . . . truly anywhere where we can effectively implement and support your child’s ABA goals!