What to Expect in ABA Therapy

What is the first step?

After receiving a diagnosis from a developmental pediatrician, psychiatrist, or neurologist, we begin with a clinical assessment for your child to help determine the individualized treatment plan needed. With this, we can generate the most appropriate behavior intervention plan, client and caregiver goals, and level of needed services.

The assessment process for BlueSprig clinicians includes:

• Client and/or parent interview
• Direct assessment and observation of skills:
  • from multiple developmental domains (e.g., communication, social and emotional development and adaptive skills)
  • in multiple settings (e.g., home, center, community)
• Review of assessment results from other professionals

What will my services look like?

Individualized services will vary depending on the specific goals for each child and how the child learns best. You can expect services to be interactive, hands-on, structured, and naturalistic. We foster a positive environment that includes a lot of celebrations; celebrating the improvements and the successes of the child with high-fives, claps and even some dancing.

During the services, Registered Behavior Technicians are focused on working with each child towards their specific goals: functioning skills, self-help skills, social interaction, communication.

Our goal is to make it convenient for our families to receive the best therapy possible by providing ABA services for clients of different ages and goals, in various settings. This can include home-based, center-based, community-based, school-based or virtual services. Wherever your child receives services, it will be delivered by our passionate and compassionate team that is dedicated to your child’s specific needs.

What skills will you work on?

Individualized treatment plans are created after the clinical assessment to develop goals specific to your child. Your clinical team will target developmentally appropriate skills identified during the assessment process. Some of these may include:

• Increased and/or increased communication
• Skills necessary to make friends
• Decreased frustration when communication is a challenge
• Age-appropriate health and safety skills
• Individualized approach to toilet training
• Sleep and feeding skills
• Functional living skills
• Additionally, we know how important family routines and traditions are to each family. We will work alongside you to make pathways to successful play dates, pediatrician visits, and community outings with the goal of improving your entire family’s quality of life.

Who will work with my child?

Your child will receive individualized treatment with the same Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT) each day. Your RBTs will implement the program and collect data that are used to measure progress and modify the program as appropriate. All programs are designed and overseen by one of our experienced Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA).

Will my child get to interact with other children?

BlueSprig clinical teams make all programming recommendations based on the needs of the child and family and these needs are based on assessment and intervention data. If your child needs to generalize new skills, gain or practice social skills through social opportunities, and/or transition to a less restrictive environment, a group setting may be the most appropriate environment for a child. Group programming can be in addition to 1:1 programming or the only recommended services.

As a parent/caregiver, what can I do to help my child?

We understand that as a caregiver of a child with ASD, you need a partner that you can count on. We provide collaborative ABA therapy that focuses on support and guidance for all members of your family.

BlueSprig conducts a thorough assessment of the parent or caregivers’ skills and works collaboratively with the caregivers to develop goals in specific areas of need. From these goals, the clinician develops individualized caregiver support services to empower families with necessary skills. The Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) working with your family will meet regularly (weekly, biweekly, or monthly) to work on individualized goals designed to aid parents in addressing behavior deficits and skill acquisition during their daily life.

When working with caregivers, we work towards an Observation, Participation, Facilitation model to teach families strategies they can use every day. You will first observe during sessions and as you get more comfortable with the daily activities in sessions, you will take on more of an active participant role by stepping in and having hands-on interaction during sessions. With time, you will begin to eventually facilitate and feel empowered to continuously help in the skill acquisition tasks. We are here to empower and support you and your family throughout the entire journey.

How long will my child need ABA Therapy?

At BlueSprig, our goal is to plan for (and work towards) your child’s graduation from the ABA program with every session. While there is not a standard amount of time that each child will need to receive ABA Therapy services, your clinical team will work with you and your family to create a treatment plan and work through the plan in the quickest time possible.

Occasionally, our clients may not progress on some of their goals as quickly as we would like. To ensure this does not delay graduation from the program, our team of highly trained clinicians receive ongoing support from senior level clinicians to ensure we are able to quickly problem solve concerns, modify the treatment plan if needed, and continue to work toward skill mastery and graduation. This style of programming aligns with our Ethical Code of Conduct as we are responsible for providing effective, efficient treatment to all clients.