For any parent, it is always scary to trust anyone with your child, mostly the ones with special needs. How can you be certain that your child is receiving the best possible care, with kindness and love? How can you find out that the provider has the ability to remain calm in situations when your child experiences a meltdown? Has what they do ever worked on other children before? Here are some points to consider to help you find answers to these questions when looking for an ABA provider.
The Type and ABA Sessions They Provide
There exist different ABA styles that differ greatly. Some involve therapy sessions that are comprehensive and repetitive (Discrete Trial Training) while others are mostly play-based (Pivotal Response Treatment). Different styles are designed to suit each learner. Moreover, fun learning is suitable for every learner and enhances generalization. You want to ensure your child is taught using this approach and it does not only reflect in the therapy sessions.
The Type and Amount of Training Offered
Having a Board Certified Behavior Analyst or BCBA on your child’s team is quite important. This professional has valuable insight that is critical whether he/she offers a direct managerial role or hands-on support. Good companies will provide a BCBA expert who comes directly to supervise the team and child’s progress in your home. Other BCBAs do not use in-person engagement but only analyze data to determine the overall progress.
What will be Your Involvement in Treatment?
Professional ABA providers must always ask for your input as a parent during the ABA Therapy sessions. For instance, you can be asked to decide on the type of self-care skill is vital, to begin with. A provider can prefer something like teeth brushing while you may suggest beginning with dressing first. It is crucial that your preferences be considered in all aspects of treatment. Your entire family members should be involved in the sessions as a general rule of thumb.
When Services are No Longer Be Required
Your ABA provider should be able to inform you when the services are no longer required and the child considered graduated. It will be a joyful moment to see your child moving ahead from receiving these services. However, it is advisable that you think of long-term goals. A four-year-old has far different needs compared to those of a 14-year-old. Just because the child has properly mastered their set goals does not automatically put them in the graduation category. It is thus wise to use the services offered to their full advantage. Any good aba services miami fl will help you understand what you need to know before terminating the services.
The team providing sessions to your child should set goals based on the results of the overall assessment and your actual input. There are some goals you may find worthless, but your ABA providers should justify their value. Some skills may seem non-critical now but provide stepping stones to gaining advanced level skills. For instance, when your child can manage to match flashcards isn’t quite necessary at the current moment, however, it can help the child have better skills in sorting items in future. Such a skill will be vital later on in tasks such as putting dishes away, doing laundry, organizing books and so forth.
