Resources
Resources for Children With Autism
One of our greatest resources is actually our ABA providers- Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Behavior Technicians alike. Prior to working with any families, our providers must go through the various clearance/background check process. More importantly, our providers go through our internal and/or outsourced ABA trainings and many of them attend different workshops throughout the year. In these workshops, they get to learn different techniques and/or topics that could help the families when not in session. Read helpful Resources for Children With Autism.
Got Questions
You may find answers that address some of your concerns/questions below.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) is a treatment for children with autism spectrum disorders. ABA begins with intensive skill training based on a reward system (sometimes called “discrete trials”). More advanced ABA includes practice of skills in a natural setting. ABA for very young children is play-based and more developmental in style. You can find more information here.
Autism ProCare will be using the Errorless Method of Teaching when conducting discrete trial instruction and positive reinforcement strategies to increase the likelihood of behaviors occurring again. Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating/reinforcing stimulus to the person after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative consequence.
ABA therapist will be collecting trial by trial data for each program placed into the child’s individualized curriculum. Each percentage will then be graphed by referencing correct trials over total number or trials collected per program. If the child demonstrates mastery of a current step (80% to 100% accuracy across three days and recommended 2 ABA therapists) the current step will be increased in complexity. Acquired/Mastered skills will be placed into a randomization process to support discrimination and then a fixed and thinned maintenance schedule until absorbed into other programs to avoid regression.
Early signs of Autism Here are some examples of social, communication, and behavioral differences in children with autism. (Excerpt from healthychildren.org)
Social Differences
- Doesn’t keep eye contact or makes very little eye contact
- Doesn’t respond to a parent’s smile or other facial expressions
- Doesn’t look at objects or events a parent is looking at or pointing to
- Doesn’t point to objects or events to get a parent to look at them
- doesn’t bring objects of personal interest to show to a parent
- doesn’t often have appropriate facial expressions
- Unable to perceive what others might be thinking or feeling by looking at their facial expressions
- Doesn’t show concern (empathy) for others
- Unable to make friends or is uninterested in making friends
Communication Differences
- Doesn’t point at things to show needs or share things with others
- doesn’t say single words by 16 months of age
- Repeats exactly what others say without understanding the meaning
- Doesn’t respond to name being called but does respond to other sounds
- Refers to self as “you” and others as “I”, and may mix up pronouns
- Often doesn’t seem to want to communicate
- Doesn’t start or can’t continue a conversation
- doesn’t use toys or other objects to represent people or real life in pretend play
- May have a good rote memory, especially for numbers, letters, songs, TV jingles, or a specific topic
- May lose language or other social milestones, usually between the ages of 15 and 24 months
Behavioral Differences
- Rocks, spins, sways, twirls fingers, walks on toes for a long time, or flaps hands
- Likes routines, order, and rituals; has difficulty with change or transition from one activity to another
- Obsessed with a few or unusual activities, doing them repeatedly during the day
- Plays with parts of toys instead of the whole toy
- Doesn’t seem to feel pain
- may be very sensitive or not sensitive at all to smells, sounds, lights, textures, and touch
- Unusual use of vision or gaze- looks at objects from unusual angles
At Autism ProCare, we may use one of the following assessment tools to develop a program that fits into individual needs.
Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills- Revised (ABLLS-R):
Developed by Dr. Partington, the ABLLS-R system is an assessment tool, curriculum guide, and skills-tracking system used to help guide the instruction of language and critical learner skills for children with autism or other developmental disabilities. This practical and parent-friendly tool can be used to facilitate the identification of skills needed by your child to effectively communicate and learn from everyday experiences.
The ABLLS-R provides a comprehensive review of 544 skills from 25 skill areas including language, social interaction, self-help, academic and motor skills that most typically developing children acquire prior to entering kindergarten. The task items within each skill area are arranged from simpler to more complex tasks. Expressive language skills are assessed based upon the behavioral analysis of language as presented by Dr. B.F. Skinner in his book, Verbal Behavior (1957).
The assessment results allow parents and professionals to pinpoint obstacles that have been preventing a child from acquiring new skills and to develop a comprehensive, highly personalized, language-based curriculum.
Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS)
The AFLS is an assessment, skills tracking system and curriculum guide for the development of essential skills for achieving independence. It can be used to demonstrate a learner’s functional skill repertoire and provide tracking information for the progressive development of these skills throughout the lifespan. Protocols include basic living skills, home skills, community participation, school skills, vocational skills and independent living skills.
Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP)
The VB-MAPP is a language and learning assessment for young children with autism or related disabilities and language delays. It is based on applied behavior analysis and the analysis of verbal behavior. It assesses skills on several benchmarks in the areas of communication, language and social skills and provides an approximation of developmental age of each skill. This is then used to develop individualized goals and objectives for your child. This assessment also includes a Barriers Assessment that identifies behavioral challenges and a Transitional Assessment that helps the team determine least restrictive environments for learning to take place
The Vineland-3 Adaptive Behavioral Scale
This is used to assess skill levels across a variety of domains including communication, social skills, and daily living skills. These measures will allow the assessing BCBA to better plan the remainder for the assessment and to assist in developing the basic behavioral guidelines, as well as to establish baseline levels of functioning
We are dedicated to help every child receive the services he or she needs. We will help you with the enrollment and verification process with your insurance company and explain to you exactly what you are covered for.
Once the coverage is determined, you should be aware that there may be very little co-payments depending on your insurance company and coverage mandate. Because every insurance plan is different, it’s hard to narrow it down and put every different scenarios of payments but here are some key things to remember:
– You might have to pay the whole bill until you reach your deductibles.
– You might have to pay co-insurance until you reach out-of-pocket maximum.
– You might have to pay a co-payment.
Also, some insurance companies (self-funded insurance plans) may not cover ABA therapy. Medicaid may not directly cover for ABA services but if your child has additional insurance, they may be entitled to coverage. Please contact us for more information.
If you do not have ABA coverage through your insurance, we may be able to offer you a private pay option. We understand the financial burden autism therapies can cause so we strive to offer competitive and affordable options for the children and families in need of ABA services.
