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Frequently Asked Questions

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Rinn ABA Services

Will ABA parents be trained? How often must I be available?

Parents will be trained on ABA concepts and tactics. 2 - 4 hours per months of meetings and/or trainings with your supervising BCBA is a typical parent-specific training schedule. You need to be present in the home when sessions occur, but not necessarily in the same room.

Parents often prepare meals, tend to other children, and complete house chores while our Behavior Therapists are working with their child.

When is the best time for my child to begin ABA therapy?

The sooner the better. Plenty of clinical research has demonstrated that children who start ABA therapy during the Early Intervention stage (by 2 years old) make the most significant improvements in their areas of deficit.

At Rinn ABA, we specialize in Early Intervention and helping children up to 3 years old. If your child is in the stages of Early intervention, contact us to get started.

What will ABA therapy cost?

The cost of ABA therapy depends on your out of pocket maximum. Most parents will meet the OOPM within the year, after which, the services are free.

What is the difference between a BCBA and ABA therapist?

In short, BCBAs are the team leaders of the ABA community and ABA therapists and Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT) are in-the-field providers. See below for specifics to each role.

BCBA
- Master’s level degree
- Treatment planner
  - Performs initial assessments
  - Sets goals and treatment plans
  - Reviews data collected by therapists in-session
- Instructor trainer
  - Supervises and trains therapists that are working on their cases
- Parent trainer
  - Meets 2-4 hours per month with the parents and caregiver team to discuss progress and any changes in the treatment plan
ABA therapist
- BA level degree
- Implementer of protocols
  - Follows treatment plan set forth by the BCBA
  - Collects in-session data

What is ABA?

In their definitive textbook “Applied Behavior Analysis,” Cooper, Heron, and Heward define ABA as “a science devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behavior.” ABA researchers have spent decades studying how people’s behavior can be shaped by the behavior of others, as well as the rules and routines they encounter. ABA service providers use techniques based on the principles established by these researchers. These techniques span a wide variety of skill areas, and can address issues of socialization, communication, self-care, and problem behavior, to name a few.

What are the advantages of home-based ABA (as opposed to clinic–based)?

Home-based ABA therapy does have a few advantages over clinic-based sessions. Here are few of the main advantages:

You get to monitor your child's sessions when they take place in your home.
Parent training naturally occurs in real-time when ABA sessions are in the home. After-the-fact summarization of sessions are helpful but nothing compares to seeing a behavior modification in real-time.
Providing the initial teaching in the child's home creates efficiency and helps the child apply the skills they learn to new environments and situations. This is referred to as "generalizing".
Home-based sessions have more flexibility. You are not necessarily bound to the hours of operation for a clinic and we do our best to work with your family's schedule.
ABA sessions that take place in the home are one-on-one all the time! The focus is 100% on your child's needs.

Our doctor said that my child was a little slow in developing and that I should just wait. Is that ok?

It is possible that your child will organically develop their skills and overcome their developmental deficiencies (e.g., close the gap), but in most cases, that is not a risk worth taking. Consulting a developmental pediatrician or pediatric neurologist for a diagnostic evaluation is ALWAYS a good idea. These doctors specialize in diagnosing developmental disorders and can provide better informed recommendations than a general pediatrician.

ABA therapy is not only used to develop new skills, it is a means of building up existing skills that the child may be having difficulty putting into use and context.

My child is receiving speech therapy and/or occupational therapy, isn’t that enough?

When a child is diagnosed with Autism, it suggests the child has more skill deficits or inappropriate behaviors than a speech therapist (SLP) and/or occupational therapist (OT) can address. They won't provide enough treatment nor are they experts in addressing the areas children with ASD need help with. These areas can include but are not limited to problem behaviors, rigidity, play skills, and social skills.

The data collection aspect of other therapies is usually less systematic and sometimes non-existent which can make progress difficult to pinpoint. ABA therapy collects and uses data for this very reason.

If your child is receiving speech or occupational therapy services from another provider, we are happy to collaborate with them in order to provide a comprehensive treatment plan.

Is all that session data really necessary?

In most cases, yes. Behavior analysts use the session data to assess the effectiveness of their teaching. This means they can quickly modify ineffective procedures when necessary. Also, data are used to determine precisely when a skill has been learned to criterion, so that skill can be advanced, and the extra teaching time can be allocated to a new skill. It is true, however, that some forms of data collection can be time-consuming and slow the pace of instruction. For this reason, Rinn ABA Consulting uses digital cloud-based data collection and analysis, for maximum efficiency and transparency.

Is ABA all discrete trials and rote memorization?

No! Quality ABA service providers ensure that students learn to "apply" the skills they've learned in truly functional ways. Discrete trial teaching is often used to introduce and hone skills (e.g., playing with a doll, math facts, putting on socks) in a controlled distraction-free environment (e.g., at a desk). However, once the skill is adequately learned in this environment, it is taught "in context" (e.g., during a play date, while paying for a purchase, when getting dressed), and incorporated into everyday life.

Also, there are many essential skills that do not lend themselves to deskwork. Think of self-help skills (e.g., brushing teeth), leisure skills (e.g., playing catch), social skills (e.g., greeting a friend), community skills (e.g., going shopping), and so on. These skills may be more effectively taught using naturalistic teaching methods.

If a child constantly receives rewards, won’t he/she refuse to work in their absence?

This raises the age-old question of whether intrinsic motivation (e.g., being naturally motivated) is hampered by extrinsic motivation (e.g., being motivated by possible rewards). The truth is: extrinsic motivation can, and often does cultivate intrinsic motivation. The principles of ABA suggest that we are more likely to enjoy the things that are associated with rewards, even after those rewards are no longer available.

Think of the eating habits of young children. Most young children are not “intrinsically” motivated to try new foods. However, when provided with praise from parents, and perhaps a preferred treat, children become motivated to try them. Over time, they come to naturally enjoy many of the foods, with or without the promise of a treat.

We all receive rewards in our daily lives that reinforce our behavior. The clearest example of this is receiving a paycheck for hard work. Though many people truly enjoy their jobs, most would not work 40 hours a week simply for the “intrinsic” reward of doing so. The extrinsic reward of a paycheck is what ultimately motivates people to go to work everyday. So why prevent our students from earning something for their hard work?

How will ABA therapy help? What will it change?

ABA therapy is designed and proven to create measurable positive change. Some areas where you will see this change are:

Language and communication skills
Play skills
Social skills
Daily living and hygiene (such as brushing teeth, washing hands, and playing with pets)
Reduction in aggressive behaviors
Community experiences (such as grocery store trips, holiday events, and sports activities)

There are SO many more and each skillset is unique to each child.

How many ABA therapy hours per day or week will my child need?

Every child is different. With that said, a child diagnosed with Autism or ASD should receive 25 hours of ABA therapy per week.

At Rinn ABA, we work with your family's schedule to ensure your child gets these hours.

How long is each ABA session?

Sessions vary in length depending on your referral and authorization from your insurance company. Rinn ABA requires at least 3 sessions per week in order to reach milestones and foster progress with the child as well as the parents.

How extensively have ABA principles been researched?

Behavior analysts have rigorously tested the principles of their science for over 50 years. Unlike many sciences, ABA researchers administer numerous controls to enhance the validity of their experiments. Some of these controls include: baseline measures, inter-observer agreement, treatment integrity, and social validity. Furthermore, behavior analytic research refrains from “averaging” data, which can mask the true effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of an intervention. Click here to access decades of peer-reviewed articles on ABA's principles and methods, in The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA).

How does ABA differ from Verbal Behavior and Positive Behavior Supports?

Verbal Behavior (VB) and Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) can be thought of as offshoots or extensions of ABA, which is the parent science. Both sets of methods utilize behavior analytic principles, and despite slight differences in terminology, do not conflict with ABA in any meaningful way.

Does Rinn ABA use any other methodologies besides ABA?

Rinn ABA Consulting provides applied behavior analysis (ABA) treatment exclusively, however, we consult with medical doctors, speech therapists, feeding specialists, sleep specialists, and many others when appropriate and, of course, with the appropriate permissions in place.

Depending on what your child has going on in their life with other therapies, we make sure to factor in how all therapies will interact with one another.

Does health insurance cover ABA therapy?

Yes! ABA therapy is now considered a "medically necessary" treatment and is covered by most, if not all, insurance carriers.

Rinn ABA currently contracts with the following insurance carriers:

Aetna
Horizon BCBS
Oxford
UMR
UnitedHealthcare

If you don't see your insurance listed but you are eager to work with Rinn ABA, contact us and we can explore our options together.

Do parents get to decide what their children learn in ABA sessions?

We take a full inventory of what a parent would like us to work on with their child in ABA sessions. With that said, we follow assessments, industry standards, best practices, and the progress of the child to ascertain the initial treatment and path and any subsequent changes to that treatment path. Your feedback matters and your priorities matter so we work together to achieve the best outcomes for your child.

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