ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis)

What is ABA Therapy?

ABA is an evidence-based treatment for children who have received a diagnosis of Autism that focuses on modifying environmental conditions to increase socially acceptable behaviors, such as communication, play, and social skills. Studies have shown early intervention is highly effective in improving IQ, language ability and social interaction. Paramount Rehabilitation Services Pediatric & Autism Center serves children ages 18 months to 21 years.

How Can ABA Help Your Child?

ABA therapy uses principles of behavior and teaches new skills through discrete trial training, natural environmental training, and derived relational responding. ABA focuses on increasing socially acceptable behaviors such as communication, social skills, and school readiness skills.

ABA can help increase:

- Communicating needs and wants
- Waiting, sharing, and turn taking with peers
- Conversational skills
- Eating a varied diet
- Toilet use and toilet training
- Playing with toys
- Pretend and imaginative play
- Participating in group activities with peers

About Paramount Pediatric Services & Autism Center

Our newest location in Bay City was designed with children in mind. The center includes small treatment rooms for 1-1 treatment, a sensory gym with tons of room for kids to move and play, an outdoor play space, and a playroom with toys to work on pretend play skills.

Where Do We Start?

STEP 1: Early Signs Of Autism

STEP 2: Evaluation

In order for insurance to cover ABA services, medical necessity must be shown through the completion of a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation. These evaluations must be completed at an Approved Autism Evaluation Centers (AAEC) or through a local Community Mental Health Agency. (See below)

Local Evaluation Centers:

Bay-Arenac Behavioral Health
201 Mulholland
Bay City, MI 47808
(989) 895-2300

Beaumont Center for Exceptional Families
18501 Rotunda
Dearborn, MI 48124
(313) 996-1960

Central Autism Assessment and Treatment Center
1101 Health Professional Bldg.
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
(989) 774-3904

Covenant Center for Autism
2919 E. Wilder Rd.
Bay City, MI 48706
(989) 671-5738

Easterseals Michigan
2399 E. Walton Blvd.
Auburn Hills, MI 48326
(248) 475-6400

Saginaw County Community Mental Health
500 Hancock Street
Saginaw, MI 48602
(989) 797-3400

STEP 3: Develop Plan of Care

STEP 4: ABA Treatment

What Does ABA Treatment Look Like?

Your child’s BCBA will write a treatment plan then supervise and measure your child’s progress through their coordinated team, which may include a Behavior Technician, Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and/or Physical Therapist. All members of your child’s team will work together to create a plan of care to best meet the individual needs of your child.

Paramount’s ABA treatment includes:

Individualized skill acquisition plan
Individualized behavioral intervention plan
1-1 treatment with a Behavior Technician 20-40 hours per week
Weekly supervision by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA)
Discrete Trial Training, Naturalistic Environment Training, and Derived Relational Responding
Generalization and maintenance of learned skills
Parent training and support
Transition planning

Parents, family members and caregivers receive training so they can support learning and skill practice in environments outside Paramount Pediatric & Autism Center.

Paramount’s ABA treatment plans focus on:

Language and Communication
o Creating opportunities to teach manding (requesting)
o Labeling objects and activities (tacts)

Listener Responding
o Responding to name
o Following simple and complex directions
o Receptive identification of objects and activities
Imitation
o Repeating speech sounds and other vocal language
o Gross motor and fine motor imitation
o Modeling to teach play and social skills
Play Skills
o Appropriate toy play
o Increase variation of toy play
o Increase duration of toy play
o Pretend and imagination play
Social Skills
o Parallel play (playing next to a peer)
o Peer play (interacting with a peer while playing)
o Conversational skills
o Group skills
Self help skills
o Toilet training
o Tooth brushing
o Dressing skills
o Limited diet (picky eating)

Did You Know?

1 in 59 children are diagnosed with autism. 1 in 37 are boy, 1 in 151 are girls.
Boys are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism.
31% of children with autism also have an intellectual disability.
Autism can be diagnosed as early as the age of 2.
Almost half of children with autism wander or bolt from safety – with drowning being the leading cause of death for a child with autism.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the most researched intervention for children with autism – focusing on improving communication and social skills. Early intervention is key!
44% of children with autism have an average or above average IQ.
One-third of people with autism also have epilepsy.
28% of children with autism engage in self injurious behaviors (self-harm).
More than half of children with autism also have chronic sleep issues.
Parents who have a child with autism are 2%-18% likely to have a second child with autism.
The average cost of caring for a child with autism is about $60,000 per year. (This is a combination of costs of services and loss of income due to parental demands).
Over the next decade 500,000 teens with autism will enter out of adulthood and age out of autism services.
The cost of caring for adults with autism reached $268 billion in 2015. This is expected to rise to $461 billion by 2025.

Facts taken from autismspeaks.org

Resources

What is Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?

According to the DSM-5, Autism is defined as:

Deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests or activities
Symptoms must be present during early development
Symptoms cause clinical impairment in areas of current functioning
Symptoms are not explained by an intellectual disability or other development delay

What does this mean?

A child with Autism develops symptoms at a young age, sometimes detectable as early as 18 months. Children with Autism have limited social reciprocity, that is they do not share interests with other adults or peers. They often do not engage in joint-attention activities, and fail to initiate or even respond to social interactions. In a young child this might look like limited eye contact, not responding to when their name is called, not pointing to items, and limited vocal language. In older children, this might look like an impaired ability to have back and forth conversations, difficulty identifying emotions of self and others, struggling to understand body language and sarcasm.

A child with Autism will also engage in repetitive or restricted behaviors or interests. This can look like lining up toys in a certain pattern and getting upset when that pattern is broken. Children with Autism often prefer certain routines, such as eating on the same plate every day or doing the same bedtime routine each night. Some children will engage in stereotyped or repetitive movements, such as hand flapping, repeating words or sounds, or spinning objects. Some children can hyper-focus on one topic, such as dinosaurs, with a high intensity that it dominates most of their daily activities.

Because of these social deficits, children with Autism do not always learn from their peers as a typical child would. They do not always engage in pretend play, because of a preference for routines and repeated behaviors. ABA is the only evidence-based treatment for children with Autism that focuses on increasing appropriate social and communication skills.