ABA Therapy
Developing skills
Our holistic Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy uses research-based, ethically vetted strategies to equip children with the skills they need positively self-advocate for their needs, identify and process emotions, navigate social interactions, and master daily living skills. Each child's programs are personally tailored to their unique potential and each family's priorities.
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Daily Living:
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self-help, toileting, brushing teeth, cleaning dishes, sorting laundry
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Social:
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interacting with peers or others in diverse settings
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Communication:
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receptive and expressive, both vocal and augmented communication devices
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Play:
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constructive, exploratory, physical, pretend, cooperative, and peer-to-peer
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Self-Management:
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recognizing, regulating, and expressing emotion
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Executive Function:
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making decisions and self-structuring time
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Skills and abilities gained with ABA therapy support independence and improve social experiences across the rest of your child's lifespan.
Natural Environments
ABA uses discrete trials in controlled environments to practice skills. Our center provides a wide range of spaces to make learning environments as natural as possible. Our clients focus on different skills in their personalized rooms, sensory and arts area, living room, kitchen, dining area, laundry room, bathrooms, gross motor room, and community space.
Client Dignity
Our Behavior Technicians build consistent, trusting relationships which give their clients the confidence to try new things. Instruction about behaviors is given directly and through modeling. We ensure that goals and selected rewards are meaningful to each client. We include your child’s interests and favorite activities in their learning.
We help your child recognize when they are becoming overstimulated and teach them how to ask for a break. We also teach them what strategies they can use during that break to re-regulate. This build your child's autonomy and prepares them for success through the rest of their life.
Our ABA does not use punishments - instead calm, empathetic interactions are used to process emotions. By equipping each child with skills and tools to self-advocate and communicate in meaningful ways, we help reduce their need to engage in problematic behaviors.
Family Focused, Client Centered
Our focus on family is the core of who we are. We collaborate with families when crafting your child's Individualized Treatment Plan. No one knows a child better than their family. We believe it is vital to involve you, the family, when setting goals for your child. We align our work to family priorities to ensure that your child's progress is meaningful. We appreciate diversity of family structure and culture. We value the unique strengths each family brings to the table. We work to include everyone who is meaningful in the life of each client.
Caregiver Support
Our focus on family involvement reaches beyond goal setting. Starting something new can feel overwhelming. We are here for you because we've been in your position. Your child's Behavior Analyst will meet with you twice a month at times that are convenient to you to discuss your child's progress, adjust goals, and teach strategies that can be used at home to increase consistent learning experiences and improve interactions. We aren't just here to help your child develop skills - we're here to help you gain skills and feel confident in your ability to support your child's growth.
In our caregiver consultation meetings, we will equip you with training to:
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Correctly identify the function of a behavior.
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Accurately determine the reinforcing factor that is maintaining an undesired behavior or has the potential to maintain a desired behavior.
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Ethically and effectively address each reinforcing factor in order to change behavior.
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Create and utilize opportunities to practice skills in the home and community environments (generalizing what is practiced in the clinic).
We work with you to support your whole family. Caregiver consultation time can also be used to practice sibling play or other family interactions. We know how important it is to help the whole family understand how your child experiences autism, and we know how much that understanding can amplify your child's growth.
As parents ourselves, we know what it's like to have a child in ABA therapy. We know that you are putting your trust in us to provide your child with quality care. We always welcome you to stop in to observe and celebrate your child's progress.
In clinic or at home
In our clinic, your child will receive full-time or part-time ABA therapy from one of our Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) in a personalized room. They will also enjoy regular opportunities for social interaction in our gross motor room, dining area, living room, or when visiting a friend's room. Clients will enjoy a variety of activities throughout the day to develop a wide range of social, gross motor, and fine motor skills.
In-home therapy may be provided by our behavior therapists throughout most of Indiana when appropriate. When your child receives therapy at home, they will be receiving the same level of care that they would receive at our clinic while using resources in an environment your child is familiar with.
What's the Partners Difference?
Client Dignity
Autism and other forms of neurodiversity bring valuable perspectives, abilities, and ways of thinking and being to our community. Our ABA therapy treats each client with dignity and respect for the unique individual they are. Our aim is never to mold clients into a single way of being. Instead, we build skills which clients will use their whole lives to self-advocate and reach their unique potential.
As a part of the autism and disability communities, we know from experience and from listening to others how important it is that ABA therapy be done in ways that uplift dignity and protect agency.
Our Behavior Analysts and Behavior Technicians put the client first by learning their sensory needs, their interests, their strengths, and their preferences. They are receptive to their clients' needs and emotions and are attuned to fluctuations in these needs and emotions. They respect the agency of their clients and help them express their needs productively. They incorporate their clients interests into activities and programs and help clients learn through play.
This all builds a trusting, joyful bond between the client their therapist. Your child will be motivated to learn not manipulated to comply. They will gain tools for social success while embracing and celebrating their unique value.
Individualized Care
All children have different strengths and needs. All families have different priorities. Our Behavior Analysts fully involve the family when setting goals to ensure that goals are meaningful to the family and build greater independence for the child. Our Behavior Analysts take time to learn about the child's preferences so that the positive reinforcements used in therapy are tied to the child's interests and preferences.
Transitional Classroom
We also understand that each stage of life brings new challenges, especially as children enter the new environment of school. That's why we created our ABA Transitional Classroom, a uniquely designed space that helps bridge the gap between ABA practices and typical classroom procedures. Read more here!
Behavior Technician Training
We provide extensive training to Behavior Technicians (BTs) who are new to the ABA field. This training begins with 40 hours of modules completed on-site, ABA orientation in which we discuss specifics of our ABA culture. Each new BT is then paired with one of our Behavior Analysts to review their training and learn about their specific client. Before working solo with a new client, a BT must demonstrate hands-on proficiency in the skills needed for that specific client. Ongoing observations, Safety-Care training, CPR renewal, and bi-monthly whole team trainings keep skills fresh.
We make sure our BTs earn their RBT certification and pay for their RBT training, test fee, and annual renewal fee. We pride ourselves on the quality of our therapy and invest in the professional development of our staff.
Steps to ABA
1. Receive a Diagnosis
If you are still seeking an autism diagnosis, we can help you find a provider in your area who can accurately diagnose your child.
2. Take a Tour
It's important to choose a facility that provides your child with a sense of peace, but also allows for stimulation and growth. We are confident that both you and your child you will feel at home in our clinic. With our individualized therapy rooms and relaxed atmosphere we strive to make you feel at home the moment you arrive in our facility.
3. Schedule an Assessment
Before your child joins our family, we will schedule an assessment by one of our Board Certified Behavior Analysts. An assessment is necessary for the Behavior Analyst to lay a good foundation for your child's individualized treatment plan. The Behavior Analyst will spend time with your child and with you to understand your concerns, especially the specific behaviors that you are encountering. After the assessment, the Behavior Analyst will build upon your child's strengths to develop individualized programs with specific behavior modification goals.
4. Obtain Insurance Authorization (Optional*)
We have our own in-house billing department that will personally handle all the billing and processing involving your insurance provider (including medicaid). You can rest assured that we will keep you informed every step of the way and do our best to handle your needs as efficiently as possible. Many centers use a third party billing service to processes your claims, which can lead to longer wait times for therapy authorizations and claim processing. Since we handle billing in-house, we shorten your wait time.
*Our ABA Therapy can also be provided through private pay which does not require insurance.
5. ABA Begins
A Behavior Technician (BT) will pair with your child to learn about their interests and personality. As they pair, they will build a positive, trust-based relationship. They will then guide your child in practicing a specific behavior such as smoothly transitioning from one task to another, sorting items by category, following a routine when brushing teeth, or practicing social interactions. If the client completes the behavior, a predetermined reward is given. The reward may be social (like a high five), a preferred activity (like a certain length of play time), or tangible (like a food treat). The reward should fit the client's preferences so that it is meaningful and pleasant. If the client does not complete the behavior, the trial is repeated. Skills are practiced in various real world settings to generalize the skill. As the client progresses, new behaviors may be targeted. Data about progress is reviewed throughout the process to determine if methods and rewards are effective or if new ones should be used. Services are scaled back as the therapy concludes in order to provide a gradual transition to independence.
Safety-Care Certified
Safety-Care
Partners in Autism considers safety the highest priority. We choose to train all of our Behavior Technicians in the most up to date behavioral management practices. We believe this can be done by keeping the focus on prevention while preserving the dignity of our clients. Partners in Autism is proud to have certified Safety-Care trainers on staff!
What is Safety-Care?
Safety-Care™ provides the skills and competencies necessary to effectively prevent, minimize, and manage behavioral challenges with dignity, safety, and the possibility of change. Using the newest and most effective technologies from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS), this Safety-Care program provides staff with strategies for not only preventing and managing behavioral challenges, but also to effectively teach replacement behaviors. Appropriate for individuals experiencing developmental, neurologic, psychiatric and other impairments, Safety-Care results in fewer restraints and a more positive, reinforcement-based approach which leads to behavior modification over time. Safety-Care provides the tools needed to be safe when working with behaviorally-challenging individuals.
Core Principles of Safety-Care
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Respectful, humane, non-coercive interventions.
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Emphasis is on prevention over management.
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Evidence-based procedures are the basis of intervention. While the course material avoids jargon and is designed to be taught and used in a variety of contexts, the protocols in Safety-Care are based on procedures that have been validated in many studies as broadly effective. These include basic applications of functional assessment, differential reinforcement, antecedent management, functional communication training, and behavioral momentum.
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Positive reinforcement is embedded throughout the course.
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Effective staff training requires an evidence-based approach incorporating errorless teaching strategies whenever possible.
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A least restrictive approach requires a range of options. Staff learn a series of interventions that can be flexibly adapted to the specific circumstances in which they find themselves. Whenever an agitated individual demonstrates a decrease in agitation, staff learn to shape and reinforce that decrease by moving to a less restrictive intervention.
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Physical procedures are designed to be simple, effective, safe, and have minimal abuse potential.
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Restraint must be used only when there are no other safe options, and the use of restraint must end as quickly as possible.
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Consistency in standards that reduce risk.