When You Start an ABA program, What Should You Reasonably Expect from Your Service Provider?
The following are things that you should expect as a parent when you begin treatment for your child with Autism.
You and your child have a right to a therapeutic environment. This means that the teaching environment set up to help your child is one in which socially significant learning occurs. As a client, your child also has the right to services from an agency in which their number one goal is the personal welfare of your child (e.g., safety, treatment efficacy, advocacy). This means that all energy put into the program is to help your child become more independent and lead a better life.
It is also your child’s right to have a treatment program supervised by a competent behavior analyst. Unfortunately, as the rates of autism have increased, so have the number of treatment programs allegedly providing assistance to children with autism. Furthermore, in many locations, the demand presently outweighs the supply for trained, experienced behavior analysts. It is imperative that the credentials and qualifications of your service provider be credible.
Your child has a right to be provided with a program that teaches functional skills. Functional skills are skills that a child can use in their everyday life and that furthers their independence (tying shoes, initiating conversation, engaging in cooperative play, etc.). There is little benefit in taking the time and dedication to teach a child something that cannot be incorporated or used in their everyday life.
Assessment and ongoing evaluation are crucial components of any ABA program, and should be expected. This includes setting up a program based on the individual needs of a child and continuing a program based on the ongoing needs of a child. These needs will continually change, therefore ongoing assessments and modifications are imperative, necessary, and a right.
Parent and caregiver trainings should be included in the ABA program. These typically include meetings between parents or caregivers and their service provider in which valuable ABA strategies are discussed, demonstrated, and implemented. The focus of these meetings is to educate parents about various but individualized ABA based techniques they can implement with their child to address challenging behaviors, reinforce desirable behaviors, and promote generalization of progress.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a child with autism has the right to the most effective treatment procedures available. In this case – scientifically validated treatment programs which today have only been shown to be based on ABA principles and techniques.
