ABA Therapy

ABA stands for “applied behavior analysis” and it is a proven, evidence-based, effective therapy for children diagnosed with autism-spectrum disorder or other developmental delays. Combining specific techniques and procedures based in research, ABA can help your child increase their skills across all areas and reduce maladaptive or difficult behaviors by focusing on the individual needs of each child.

If your child can benefit from Pediatric Therapy Clinic’s ABA therapy program, he or she will be matched with a team including a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA) and 2-4 registered behavior technicians (RBTs) who work with your child to maximize their abilities. ABA is very effective because it is an intense therapy. This means your child has ABA therapy up to 8 hours a day either at home, in the clinic, at school, in the community or a combination of locations. If allowed by your child’s school, the RBT can also accompany your child into the classroom to assist him or her academically, socially and behaviorally.

ABA therapy can help your child:

• Improve communication abilities.
• Interact more positively with other children, friends and family.
• Gain personal care skills, such as dressing or bathing.
• Develop better fine motor skills.
• Overcome feeding problems.
• Decrease maladaptive behaviors such as aggressive behavior towards self, others or objects, tantrums/meltdowns, spitting, or biting.  

ABA encompasses specific techniques that help your child meet his or her exact skill development goals as well as his or her behavioral goals. Depending on your child’s needs, the RBT will teach your child in a systematic way to ensure he/she is successful by breaking skills down into easier, smaller components and building on that foundation until he/she achieves success. This is accomplished by using reinforcement to create the motivation to learn new skills or to decrease behavior. Reinforcement can take many forms depending upon what is reinforcing for your child. Some children work for verbal praise, others enjoy time in our gym or swing room, while others work to play a game with a peer or look at book. What the child is working for is specific to what motivates them to want to learn. 

The ABA program at Pediatric Therapy Clinic integrates multiple types of therapies based on your child’s specific needs. Our ABA program works cooperatively with our speech, occupational and physical therapists, following their lead and expertise when working with communication, feeding, fine and gross motor skills, visual processing skills and many others. All children who attend our ABA program receive speech and occupational therapy to ensure all of their needs are being met. 

One of the most important aspects of ABA therapy, however, is ensuring that your child and his or her team pair well with each other, which means that your child enjoys and wants to work with all the members of his or her team. At Pediatric Therapy Clinic, we make every effort to build rapport and trust with all the children and families that we work with.

Our clinics have been designed to offer a variety of therapies, including ABA. It’s a place that fosters both learning and social interaction opportunities for children of all ages and abilities. Our clinic is only one of the places in which ABA therapy occurs. Your child and his or her team will also work together at home, at school, and in the community to help them generalize the skills they have learned and achieve greater long-term success.