What to expect when starting ABA therapy with ETC
+ THE FIRST STEPS
Excellerated Teaching Center provides comprehensive ABA, which means we’ll meet your child wherever they’re at and help them grow from there. Our initial intake process may seem daunting at first, but we’ll walk you through all of the steps and ensure your child gets the most individualized and appropriate services possible!
The first step to getting services for your child is to fill out our Contact Us form to get some basic information and start the intake process. We’ll get in touch with you when we receive the form and will begin a Verification of Benefits process, in which we confirm that your insurance covers ABA and can determine how much the out of pocket costs may be.
Once we confirm that your insurance company covers ABA, we will provide more in-depth forms for you to complete in order to gather the details we’ll need about your child. At this time, we’ll work with you to schedule an initial assessment appointment.
+ INITIAL ASSESSMENT AND AUTHORIZATION
During the initial assessment appointment, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), will directly observe your child and complete an assessment to determine his/her current strengths, skill levels, and deficits. The BCBA will also meet with you to gather more information about your daily life with your child, and your goals for therapy.
After the initial assessment, we’ll combine our findings into a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and form our recommendations for hours and goals.
We’ll submit this FBA to your insurance company and wait for them to determine the number of hours they will approve and gain official authorization to begin services. While waiting for authorization (which could take up to 2 weeks), we’ll work with you to determine a session schedule.
+ SCHEDULING SERVICES
We offer ABA services in the settings your child needs the most help in. If they engage in a lot of challenging behaviors at school, we’ll work with the school on providing sessions there. If your child faces challenges at home, we can work with them in the home setting. We have a clinic located in St. Petersburg where sessions can be held to build social skills, play skills, and communication skills with the child’s same age peers. Many clients benefit from receiving services in multiple settings so that they learn to use important skills in all the settings in their life! While waiting for insurance authorization, we’ll work with you to determine a session schedule.
+ DEVELOPING PROGRAMMING
Once we have an idea of when services will start, where they’ll take place, and what skills we will work on with your child, your child's case lead, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) will develop individualized programs to target those skills within your child's day to day routines. Then, they'll train your child's Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) on how to implement those programs, goals and interventions. The case lead will also work with you to develop caregiver goals so that you remain actively involved in the process of teaching your child new skills.
+ BEGINNING OF THERAPY
At the beginning of therapy, our therapists and your child will engage in the “pairing process”, which is essentially taking a few sessions to get to know each other and learn about activities your child enjoys.
+ ABA THERAPY
ABA therapy can look different for each child depending on their goals, likes and dislikes, age, location of services, skills they’re working on building and behaviors we’re targeting. To learn more about Applied Behavior Analysis and see some frequently asked questions, check out our Applied Behavior Analysis page.
For our early intervention clients (approx. ages 2-5), the entirety of therapy may be spent playing with toys and/or with their peers. While it may appear as though we are just playing, there are so many skills that are built through intentional play. A child and therapist may be laying on the floor, playing with farm animals (or dinosaurs, play kitchen, trampoline, trains, cars, etc.) and working on communication skills, saying the names of items, requesting for wants and needs, answering yes/no questions, imitating movements and sounds, and following directions. At this age, we also often start working on daily living skills, such as getting dressed and potty training, as well as learning readiness skills to prepare for integration into an academic setting.
For our elementary and middle school clients (approx. ages 6-14), ABA therapy will look a little different. While therapy will still include play, it may also include some programs that are done at a table. It often also includes activities with same-age peers to work on social and communication skills. We utilize individualized PEAK and Precision Teaching programs that are adjusted based on the child’s needs and goals. At this age, our clients are also often involved in programming that targets daily living, such as completing chores, and safety skills, especially in community settings. All of our programming is evidenced based and proven to be effective at teaching specific skills and teaching the child how to learn.
For our high school and adult learners (approx. ages 14+) therapy will generally include working on communication skills and daily living skills (hygiene, food preparation, dressing, cleanliness, household chores, etc.) that will allow our learners to be successful and as independent as possible when they reach adulthood. For other learners, therapy may be focused on building social skills with peers such as playing games, eating/conversing at mealtimes, effectively communicating their wants/needs/desires with others and navigating the various aspects of life as a teenager and adult.
+ REASSESSMENT
Reassessments that evaluate your child’s skills and progress will be completed every six months and submitted to the insurance company. We will also update you with new goals, behavior interventions or changes that are put into place when the insurance company gives us another authorization for services.
+ DISCHARGE
Therapy will continue until it is determined to be no longer medically necessary for your child to receive ABA services. We will provide you with individualized information and next steps to take when that time comes!
