Family guidance is an important component of autism treatment because it helps parents understand and respond to their child’s behavior, communicate effectively, and provide appropriate support. Studies have shown that family guidance can lead to significant improvements in the child’s behavior and development. Additionally, family guidance can also improve the child’s overall outcomes, such as increased social skills, communication abilities, and overall functioning. Unfortunately, BCBAs don’t often learn how to implement effective family guidance during their programs. Parents also struggle to find the time to participate in family guidance programs. That is why BlueSprig believes it is important for BCBAs and parents of children with autism to have access to family guidance programs as part of their child’s overall treatment plan.
How BlueSprig Implements Family Guidance
To overcome these challenges and help our clients fully benefit from their ABA programs, BlueSprig implemented the Attend Behavior program. Attend Behavior is based on the Research Units in Behavioral Intervention (RUBI) Parent Training Program, which has been rigorously studied in multiple large-scale randomized clinical trials and documented in some of the world’s most prestigious journals. Attend gives our parents and clinicians access to a quick assessment designed to identify parent and child skills to target, help them create a personalized family guidance plan, and provide an app to deliver content that is easy to understand and creates meaningful change for the family.
The program consists of 10 instructional courses designed to help the user proactively avoid challenging behavior and how to respond to the most common behavioral issues when they occur. Since everyone has a different learning style, the program allows users to select and use features that are most valuable to them. Since the implementation of the Attend Behavior program, BlueSprig has increased the delivery of family guidance by 25%. And since Attend was designed to be used with or without a professional, many of our families use the app outside of their family guidance sessions with their BCBA.
How Families Can Support Their Child
For families who utilize the Attend program, a child’s targets will become easier to accomplish by understanding how their world functions. Learning more about a child’s diagnosis and consulting with our clinicians to discuss any assessments completed with the child will give information and insight into the child’s current skills and behavior concerns. Families can also better understand how their child views the world, how their child responds to sensory input, and how to support their child’s uniqueness while encouraging them to continue learning and growing.
Learn More
BlueSprig is here to support you with family guidance and resources. Our supportive staff is available to provide services any time of day, even on the weekend, to accommodate the schedules of our families. We also offer a variety of settings to receive individualized treatments based on the specific needs of each child in-home, center, community, school, and virtually. To learn more, visit our website.