Is ABA Therapy Right For My Child?

According to the National Autism Association, about 1 in every 54 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. During the past 20 years, early diagnosis and targeted therapy strategies have helped children with autism to develop the skills required to communicate, play, and live fuller lives. Many parents aren’t aware that early interventions such as ABA therapy can have life-changing benefits for children with autism.

What is ABA therapy? Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy or ABA is a kind of intensive therapy approach based on scientific principles focused on understanding behavior, communication, and learning. The goal of ABA therapy is to discover how behavior can change, reduce behaviors that affect learning skills, and promote behaviors that benefit functional learning and safety.

Discover what is ABA therapy, how this intensive learning approach can help your child, and how to get started today.

What Is ABA Therapy?

ABA therapy is a treatment that is necessary to help children with autism successfully navigate daily learning skills, decrease challenging behavior, and develop social skills. It’s possible for children to receive ABA therapy at a center, in school, at home, or in your community.

During ABA therapy, a child works with a registered behavior technician who is supervised by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst trained to help break down new skills into small, actionable steps to manage and develop behavior and speech pathology and build social skills. ABA therapy does this through play, communication building, and peer-to-peer engagement in both naturalistic environment training and discrete trial training.

ABA Therapy and Parent Support

Children with autism have difficulty with changes in routine. While ABA therapy sessions can assist children with learning, behavioral, and developmental skills, it’s important to continue to work with your child at home. Consistency and structure are key to helping your child feel supported and to continue to build their skills. Your child’s Board Certified Behavior Analyst will ask you to participate in Caregiver Training to facilitate this process.

Why Early Intervention Is Important

Many parents may not recognize early signs of autism in their child or don’t take their child to a doctor for an autism evaluation. Early signs of autism may be identified as early as when a child is 1 year old and may include unusual voice tone, lack of connection or enthusiasm, abnormal hand or body movements, difficulty communicating, and sensory processing issues.

Early diagnosis and intervention are important and necessary for a child’s future.

How To Pay For ABA Therapy

Many parents don’t realize that ABA therapy, in addition to other kinds of autism-centered services, is usually covered by insurance. There are state health insurance plans such as Medicaid that fund ABA therapy for young children up to age 21. Requirements to access insurance coverage for these therapies can vary depending on the state, so it’s best to check guidelines for your specific state and contact your insurance company directly. Most ABA facilities will do this for you. Many parents apply for and access the Katie Beckett Deeming Waiver, which is a Medicaid secondary insurance program that is not based on income, but on the needs of the child.

ABA Therapy Misconceptions

There are many services, including ABA therapy, that are available for children with autism, but many families don’t know that they can access these services for early or later child development intervention. Your pediatrician’s office may not have full information, so families need to do their own research and locate the services and resources near them.

ABA Therapy In Georgia

The Therapy and Learning Center of Georgia works to improve children and their families’ lives by offering multidisciplinary services that are specialized for developmental, social, communication, language processing, and swallowing disorders.

Our autism centers in north Atlanta provide personalized autism spectrum therapies that include ABA therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, social skills classes, summer camps, and multi-sensory academic learning strategies.