Getting Started
3 Easy Steps
STEP 1
CONTACT US
STEP 2
Assessment Process
Orientation: Our Clinical Director hosts an Orientation where we get to know more about your child and your family. In this Orientation, you will learn more about the services we offer and clarify expectations- what you can expect from us and what we expect from you as parent-partners in ABA treatment. At this meeting we will answer any questions you may have for us!
Assessment: Our multi-step assessment process helps us understand what the areas of concern for your child require our focused attention during ABA treatment. It is our job to ameliorate the symptoms of autism as much as possible during treatment so throughout this 4-6 week assessment process, we conduct interviews with you and conduct direct testing with your child to determine the areas of need and then carefully prioritize them as targets for therapy.
Parent Review: At Parent Review, our Clinical Director will review the assessment report and recommendations/prescription (intensity) for ABA treatment. Upon acceptance of these services, we will then request for approval through the health insurance funder and begin to schedule a tentative start date for your child.
STEP 3
Start ABA Treatment at ABC Group
- 8:30-4:30 Monday-Friday *(full time for non-verbal children or children with severe deficits in communication who also demonstrate some problem behavior).
- 8:30-1:30 Monday-Friday *( part time for children who may need less intensity like 25 hours per week)
Ho`omau
HAWAIIAN VALUES
preserve, perpetuate, continue
Wait List Policy
We often have wait lists for services- particularly afternoon services. Please read our formal wait list policy below. If you would like to be put on our wait list, we will call you when an opening is anticipated.
To ensure that we have the most up-to-date information on our clients, we will be placing families on three separate wait lists: 1) parent orientation, 2) assessment, and 3) service. When we can begin ABA therapy for a few children, we will take them off the service wait, and the next group of children from the assessment wait will begin the assessment process and then be placed on the service wait list. The assessment and service wait will have approximately 5 children on each list at a time. The remaining families will be on the wait list for parent orientation until that step is complete.
Intake Assessment
At the intake assessment appointment, an interview will be conducted with the caregivers to obtain detailed information about the referral concerns and your child’s developmental history, medical history, and family history. Please let us know if your family would benefit from translation services. Our Clinical Director will also observe your child during the intake appointment as well as utilize various assessment tools geared for the child to directly assess your child’s skill levels across various domains. The information obtained from the direct observations will aid in diagnosis and treatment decisions.
The results will be analyzed and a treatment plan will be written by the Clinical Director. She will meet with you and your family to discuss this plan, and clinical impressions regarding initial treatment recommendations/options based on the information obtained from the assessment process. The number of hours of ABA therapy sessions your child will be scheduled for is based on a variety of factors including recommendations of medically necessary ABA treatment, the skill deficits of the child, and behavioral barriers to learning.
ABA Treatment at ABC
Treatment Plan
Parent Involvement
Parent involvement in ABA treatment is highly correlated with successful outcomes. The BCBA/BCaBA will conduct the parent training component in which caregivers will be taught the basics of ABA including teaching new skills, preventing/managing problem behavior, and how to generalize and maintain skills acquired during ABA sessions. We will provide you with FREE access to Relias Learning to access an online video library of modules which we will assign to you to complete, in addition to scheduling face-to-face parent coaching sessions with you and your family. Progress updates will occur during parent training sessions.
Malama
HAWAIIAN VALUES
caring, nurturing others, to protect
ABA Therapy Sessions
Therapy typically occurs in the clinic but will also take place in home, school or community locations as recommended and scheduled. Some sessions will also address problem behaviors and skills assessments. Acquisition skills are identified through a variety of skills assessments including the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB‐MAPP), an array of developmental curriculum and assessment tools. For school‐aged children, other curriculum are used to assess reading, math and writing fluency. Problem behaviors can also be addressed during skill acquisition sessions on an as needed basis. A typical therapy session in the clinic consists of alternating between table teaching and Natural Environment Teaching (NET); however therapy sessions can vary from child to child based on their individual needs. Table teaching sessions and NET sessions are described in more detail below:
- Table teaching or ITT most often include: language/communication (i.e., receptively identifying items or pictures, labeling items, answering questions, etc.), matching items, sorting items, academic tasks (i.e., writing, math, reading), motor imitation, and attending skills.
- Natural Environment Teaching usually consist of incidental teaching and therapist contrived learning opportunities to work on many skills areas including social skills, language/communication skills, play skills, and independent living skills. Incidental teaching is a child‐initiated teaching interaction.
Many of the skills that are initially taught during a table session will also be targeted during NET sessions once they have been mastered, in order to ensure that mastered skills can be performed in a variety of environments and with a variety of people.
For our youngest learners ages 12 months to 36 months of age, we use Natural Environment Teaching (NET) or Incidental Teaching for all learning opportunities. This approach uses naturally occurring situations based on the child’s motivation which become the teachable moments. We also contrive motivation to make it possible for additional teachable moments to occur every hour. Much of these sessions look like we are just playing and having fun, however underneath it all we are using ABA to teach new skills such as requesting/manding and the science of ABA to decrease problem behavior such as crying, or tantrums. Problem behavior will decrease as functional communication/language improves. When we teach functional language, this can be in the form of sign language, vocal language or use of a Speech Generating Device (SGD) such as an iPad to do the talking.
