FAQ
During our first couple of visits, our team will do a full background, psychosocial, and developmental evaluation of your child to ensure we understand his/her strengths and areas for improvement. We will work on a variety of skills–communication, socialization, daily living, independence, behavior and replacement skills, community safety and awareness–and anything else that arises that is in our behavioral scope. Each program is individualized to that client’s needs. We also value caregivers input to make sure our plan is socially significant and targets increasing quality of life.
Your family will be paired with a BCBA who will work closely with you on treatment delivery and ABA education. Your child may be paired with a qualified and skilled behavior technician if regularly scheduled weekly sessions are needed. At Ascend, we only hire experienced and dedicated individuals who believe in our assent-based style of ABA therapy.
You as the parent/guardian you will guide us! During our first couple of visits, our team will conduct an FBA (functional behavioral assessment) which will consist of the BCBA interviewing parents/stakeholders on current concerns, as well as observations of the client, and standardized assessments for additional information. Commonly targeted skills are–communication, socialization, daily living, independence, behavior and replacement skills, community safety and awareness–and anything else that arises that is in our behavioral scope. Each program is individualized to that client’s needs.
In short, yes! We encourage generalization of skills across environments and will work with your family to access community and/or social scenarios to practice skills with your child. In the future, we will be offering social groups at our office where your child can attend weekly age-appropriate groups aimed to increase relationship building and social building skills.
The best thing you can do to help your child is to be involved in the ABA process from the start, attend parent education classes/groups, meet frequently with your team, and work on skills outside of session. We are honored to help your family as much as possible, but the truth is YOU know your child best and will always be with your child. We find ABA is the most successful when our families are fully involved and are actively working on skills and targets outside of ABA sessions!
This all depends on the needs of your child and your family. Our goal is always to ‘work ourselves out of the job’ as that would mean your family is thriving and you have adapted all the ABA knowledge and skills into your repertoire. A fade and discharge plan will be discussed with you from the start and re-evaluated every 6 months during your reauthorization period.
