ABA Therapy

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy allows us to understand learning and behaviors.

Behavior analysis helps us to understand:

• How behavior works

• How behavior is affected by the environment

• How learning takes place

ABA therapy applies our understanding of how behavior works to real situations. The goal is to increase behaviors that are helpful and decrease behaviors that are harmful or affect learning.

ABA therapy programs can help:

• Increase language and communication skills

• Improve attention, focus, social skills, memory, and academics

• Decrease problem behaviors

The methods of behavior analysis have been used and studied for decades. They have helped many kinds of learners gain different skills – from healthier lifestyles to learning a new language. Therapists have used ABA to help children with autism and related developmental disorders since the 1960s.

How does ABA therapy work?

Applied Behavior Analysis involves many techniques for understanding and changing behavior. Every child’s program is unique, there are some commonalities among all programs:

• Qualified, trained, and experienced behavior analyst (BCBA) designs and directly oversees a child’s intervention

• The therapy program designed by our clinical team comes from a detailed assessment of a child’s skills and preferences as well as some family goals

• Treatment instruction and goals are developmentally appropriate and focus on a broad range of skills, such as: sociability, communication, play, self-care, leisure, academic skills and motor development

• Therapy goals emphasize skills that enable learners to become independent and successful now and for life

• Instruction plans break down skills into skill sets and are taught from the most basic to the more complex

• There is constant ongoing objective measurement of the child’s progress

• The clinical team frequently reviews the child’s progress and data to make empirically based program adjustments

• Regular meetings with family and staff take place to allow for planning, review of child’s progress and to make any needed adjustments

• The instructor will use a variety of different behavior analytic techniques, some will be directed by the instructor and some will be initiated by the child.