Applied Behavior Analysis

ABA therapy is individualized based on the findings from an initial assessment (Such as the ABLLS-R, the PEAK Assessment, VB-MAPP, Essentials for Living, and Functional Assessments).  After assessment, a treatment plan is implemented and continually monitored and modified based on the individual’s progress.  ABA interventions for individuals with autism often focus on the following areas:

• Reducing Dangerous and maladaptive behaviors:  Reducing dangerous and/or disruptive behavior such as aggression, self-injury, property destruction, and elopement.
• Social Skills:  Teaching children and adolescents how to establish and maintain peer relationships, reciprocate conversations, and recognize and respond to nonverbal cues from peers in social situations.
• Verbal Behavior:  Creating an effective communication process to allow the expressing of wants, needs, and feelings using an expressive language, an augmented alternative communication device or American Sign Language (ASL).
  • Relational Frames- With the assessment and curriculum from the PEAK curriculum as a guide, every individual can more effectively move past where other assessments such as the VB-MAPP stop at.
• Adaptive Living Skills:  Teaching skills needed for an individual to function safely, independently, and appropriately on a daily basis.  Living skills include: toileting, grooming, dressing, meal time behavior, housekeeping chores, gross and fine motor skills, prerequisite skills for employment, how to seek employment, and skills needed for independent living in adulthood.