Our approach
Compassionate, assent-based ABA — and a plain answer to the hard questions.
This is the page to read if you've heard hard things about ABA. We'd rather tell you exactly what we do than ask you to take it on faith.
What ABA actually is
ABA is the practice of figuring out why a behavior is happening, and then changing the environment and the teaching so your child can get that same need met in a way that works better for them.
A child who screams at the sink at bath time is telling you something. A child who bolts in a parking lot is telling you something. Our job is to understand the message, teach a way to send it that's safer and easier, and make sure the people around your child respond to it consistently.
That's it. Not obedience training. Not making a child quiet. Skills, communication, safety, and independence — measured honestly so you can see whether it's working.
What modern, ethical ABA is not
The criticism of ABA is real, and much of it comes from autistic adults describing things that genuinely happened to them. Pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Here is what we do not do:
- No aversives. Ever. Nothing painful, frightening, or shaming is part of any program here.
- No forced compliance. We don't hold a child in a chair, and we don't wait out a child in distress to "win."
- No goals aimed at making an autistic child appear non-autistic. Eye contact for its own sake is not a goal. Neither is "quiet hands."
- No suppressing stimming that isn't harmful. Stimming regulates. We only address it when it causes injury or blocks something your child wants to do.
- Hand-over-hand prompting only with assent, and only when a less intrusive prompt won't work.
- No goals we can't explain to you in plain English, and none you haven't agreed to.
If you've heard hard things about ABA, you're asking a fair question. Ask it of every provider you talk to — including us. Ask what happens when a child says no. Ask whether stimming is a target. Ask who writes the goals and who supervises the technician. A provider who gets defensive about those questions has answered them.
Assent and dignity in practice
Assent means your child's ongoing "yes." It's not a form you sign — it's something we read moment to moment, in a body that leans in or turns away.
In a real session, honoring a "no" looks like this: your child pushes the materials away, so the technician backs off, changes what's on offer, or takes a break. Then she goes back to building rapport until playing with her is the best thing available again. The demand comes back later, smaller, easier.
Your child can withdraw at any time, and so can you. Pairing and rapport come before demands — always, and on the first day especially.
What a session actually looks like
- Arrival and pairingThe technician comes in, gets on the floor, and plays. No demands. The first job is being someone your child is happy to see.
- Natural-environment teachingTeaching folds into the play your child chose — asking for another turn, labeling the truck, waiting three seconds before the tower falls.
- A structured skill blockA short, focused stretch on one or two specific targets, kept brief and reinforced heavily, then back to play.
- A real routineSnack, cleanup, washing hands, shoes on. The unglamorous parts of the day are where independence is actually built.
- Data throughoutEvery trial, every request, every incident gets recorded as it happens — not reconstructed later.
- Wrap-up handoffBefore leaving, the technician tells you what went well, what was hard, and one thing you can try before the next session.
Assessment and measurement
- Curriculum-based assessments of language and learning, which map what your child can already do and what comes next.
- Adaptive-behavior measures covering daily living skills like dressing, eating, and safety.
- A functional behavior assessment where behavior is a concern, so we're treating the reason and not the surface.
- Continuous data collection during sessions, a monthly progress review with you, and formal reassessment on the authorization cycle.
Supervision and quality
- The clinical director supervises every case. Not a regional supervisor you'll never meet — the person who wrote your child's plan.
- Every technician completes the required 40-hour RBT training and passes a competency assessment before working with a child.
- Ongoing training and a regular clinical-review cadence for every active case.
- A small caseload is what makes real supervision possible. That's why we intend to stay small.
Coordinating with your child's other providers
Most of the children we work with see other clinicians: speech-language pathology (SLP), occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy, feeding therapy, developmental pediatrics, and a school team.
Goals across those providers shouldn't contradict each other. If the SLP is building an AAC device and we're prompting spoken words for the same request, your child is getting two answers to one question.
With your written consent, we share data and coordinate goals directly with your child's other providers. You should never be the one carrying messages between clinicians — you have enough to do.
And if your child needs a service we don't provide, we'll say so and help you find it.
Let's start with a conversation.
Fifteen minutes, no obligation. Tell us what's going on, and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit — and what to do next if we aren't.