Our behavior analysts have a demonstrated history of providing behavioral services to young children between the ages of 0 to 5 with language and/or developmental delays.  The primary goals within this model of service include preparing children for school by teaching skills that will maximize their ability to learn within a classroom setting and supporting caregivers in teaching their child using play-based strategies.

To guide services, we utilize standard assessments including the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) and PEAK Comprehensive Assessment (PCA).  The VB-MAPP incorporates both developmental milestones and behavior-analytic research and is designed for young children with developmental disabilities and language delays.  The PCA is an assessment and intervention tool designed to assess and teach expressive and receptive language skills ranging from simple, single-syllable sounds to more complex language skills such as understanding abstract concepts and deduction skills.  Our practitioners are well aware that all individuals, especially small children, respond best in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment and work hard to ensure all children, regardless of their abilities, enjoy working with their team and have the opportunity to incorporate their preferences and assent for services.

While ABA services are never a one-size-fits-all matter, this is especially true for this age group.  Services for school-aged children, ages 6 to 17, are highly individualized to best serve our unique, diverse learners of varying ages, abilities, and interests.  Services tend to focus on one or two domains in the individual’s life, with some common areas being independent living skills, communication, toileting, eating, leisure activities, tolerating delays and denials, desensitization to health-related routines and procedures such as dentist and doctor visits, and safety skills such as remaining with a caregiver and navigating in the community.  Sessions can be conducted in a variety of locations including in-home and community-based settings.

Our Behavior Analysts providing school-aged services are sensitive to the diverse cultures of the children we are lucky to work with and adapt services to best fit within each family’s preferences by utilizing values-centered strategies.  Additionally, we utilize person-centered and trauma-informed care practices to ensure our protocols minimize or remove potential triggers.  Our school-aged children learn best in an enjoyable, social, and safe environment, and our practitioners work hard to foster such a space for each and every child by incorporating their interests into session materials and activities, assessing for consent and assent throughout sessions, providing frequent opportunities for the children to make choices about each session, and modeling prosocial behaviors through friendly, playful interactions geared to the child’s preferences.

Behavior-analytic services for adults, ages 18 and up, are flexible depending on the learner’s unique preferences, age, skillset, and living situation.  ABA@FS has a long history of serving adults across a variety of contexts, such as adults living fully independently, individuals residing in the family home with parent support, and people living in group homes with care staff.

Client consent and assent are important for all individuals receiving ABA services, and the topic is especially crucial while working with adults.  Our Behavior Analysts who provide services to adults ensure that our learners receiving services feel relaxed, happy, and included by watching for behavioral indicators of happiness, pausing and adjusting plans if a learner expresses concern or demonstrates signs of unhappiness or assent withdraw, offering a variety of choices about behavior intervention and skill acquisition plans, and creating an open, safe space for learners to share any questions, concerns, or suggestions they have for sessions.  To support our adult services, we utilize aspects of the Essential for Living (EFL), which is a communication, behavior, and functional skills assessment, curriculum, and skill-tracking instrument for adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities.

Social Connections, our social skills service, presents the opportunity for individuals to gather in small groups with peers of similar ages and/or social skills to practice a variety of skills including, but not limited to, starting, continuing, and ending conversations, joining play, winning and losing appropriately, recognizing feelings, making, keeping, and ending friendships, responding to rumors, teasing, and bullying, safely crossing the street, ordering food, navigating safely if lost, and identifying signs of interest and disinterest while playing or talking with others.  Our practitioners recognize that learning social skills is a choice and closely collaborate with our social skills clients to discuss the skills that are important to them, avoid skills that are not relevant, and identify alternative methods of a social skill that are more comfortable and preferable to them.  For instance, eye contact can make many of the people we work with uncomfortable.  Therefore, we never force anyone to make eye contact and instead discuss alternatives to eye contact that can demonstrate attending, such as general body orientation or affirmatory comments such as “mmhm” or “I’m listening” in lieu of eye contact.  Our social skills groups meet both on campus and off campus, engaging in various social events such as taking turns playing appropriate videogames, creating arts and crafts, watching movies in the theater, going out to eat, playing games at arcades, and window shopping at the mall.

To assist in identifying important social skills to assess and teach, we utilize a variety of research-supposed tools including the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) and the Profile of Social Difficulty (POSD), both of which provide social skills programs across varying ages and support the development and maintenance of close friendships and/or romantic relationships.

Individuals who are best suited for this service type are motivated to learn social skills and refrain from challenging behaviors that are dangerous, disruptive to a group, or otherwise warrant 1:1 support.

We partner with the Central Valley Regional Center (CVRC) to provide an introductory course for caregivers to learn basic behavior change strategies and how to manage challenging behavior.  This foundational course is particularly useful as a first step before receiving ABA services.

In addition to the caregiver training described above, caregiver training and consultation for ongoing clients is often a final step prior to exiting services.  After a behavior intervention plan has been developed and is deemed effective and acceptable to the learner and family, the focus shifts to gradually teaching caregivers and their child to utilize the strategies on their own.  As caregivers and their child continue to make progress during the transition, services are gradually reduced to support the child's independence without behavior-analytic services.  After all direct services to the child have been removed, caregiver consultation takes place where the clinical team and caregivers attend weekly or monthly meetings to share updates about goals, progress, any setbacks, and recommendations for caregivers to continue supporting their child.

Our Behavior Analysts have a diverse array of staff training experiences across school-based and group home settings with in-house support for English and Spanish audiences.  We are experienced in providing both live trainings and generating materials for staff to be trained even after behavior-analytic services have been discontinued via pre- and post-test questionnaires to verify understanding, brief video presentations, written strategies in easy-to-understand language, and visual decision trees.  We collaborate with leadership to identify areas of growth for staff and ensure all procedures being taught are acceptable and applicable to each unique setting.

We understand that learning does not happen by hearing something once.  Therefore, we utilize behavioral skills training which involves instructions, models, the opportunity for staff to practice skills via rehearsal, and specific positive and constructive feedback across both rehearsal and natural contexts.  We gather data for staff member performance to provide individualized support to those performing at varying levels and to ensure our training procedures are effective for everyone we work with, regardless of their previous experiences and current skillset.