What we’re all about
Autism Behavioral and Educational Services, LLC. is committed to enhancing independence and lives of individuals and their families on the autism spectrum. We value the needs of each unique child and adapt to their developmental goals.
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Family involvement is important too!
ABES, Inc. encourages parents/caregivers to be involved in their child's treatment. Parent/caregiver training in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a crucial component of ABA therapy that focuses on teaching parents/caregivers the principles and techniques of ABA to help them support and manage their child's behavior effectively.
The goal of this training is for the family to create a bond with their child and not become a therapist. The training also empowers parents/caregivers to become active participants in their child's therapy, allowing them to reinforce and generalize the skills learned during therapy sessions. It helps them better understand their child's needs and abilities, which will strengthen the parent-child relationship and improve the child's and their family’s quality of life.
Clinical Staff
ABES has a combined experience of 65 years amongst their Board Certified Behavior Analysts by working with individuals with autism and other disabilities such as ADHD, ODD, eating disorders and social deficits ranging from 18 months through adulthood. The staff come from various backgrounds and have utilized ABA in many settings such as clinics, in-home, preschools, classrooms and inpatient pediatric psychiatric hospitals.
Science Behind What We Do
Similar to experts from other fields, we are bound to an ethical code and professional standard. We must implement scientifically proven treatment to ensure the maximum success of our clients. It’s important for us to not waste our time with ineffective treatments as it is one thing that we cannot give back to a child’s life.
There are countless treatment methods available for autism. How does a parent make the decision between so many methods? What guides the decision to try one treatment over another or to combine treatments? This is where the difference between science and pseudoscience becomes critical.
What matters is what helps the individual and family the most. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Claims of a cure or recovery from autism draw attention without necessarily demonstrating how improvement is measured. Whatever works is important – what works for each individual is the issue. The illusion of something working can cloud good judgment.
This education section is to address topics, interests, and issues of individuals and parents of children receiving services. It is intended to offer some guidelines on treatment strategies that are able to meet the requirements of science and most importantly – effectiveness. Sections that follow will provide additional brief guidelines.
Additionally, ABES adheres to the ABA Practice Guidelines established by the Council of Autism Service Providers. The most current guidelines can be found at https://www.casproviders.org.
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One of the most important issues in behavior change is how we determine if the treatment is working. Many successes are reported as anecdotes and are often powerful emotional statements. To truly determine if a behavior is changing and if that change is a result of the treatment, you must measure the behavior.
Measuring behavior before the treatment is applied (baseline data) and comparing it to behavior during and after treatment (treatment data) is essential. It is also important to consider measuring the validity and acceptability of behavior change.
A change alone does not always represent a good change, just that change was made. Crucial to ABA is the issue of social validity: Does the change improve the quality of life of the client and those involved with the client?
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Treatment strategies range in terms of the premises behind what will change the behavior at issue. These points back to measurement to help guide how we can design a treatment that is ethical, acceptable and measurable.
This is a guideline to detecting the true effectiveness of any procedure. Does the treatment address the behavior and does the behavior change in the desired direction such that there is strong agreement that the behavior change has improved a socially significant behavior? Does the change make life better for the person receiving the treatment?
Is the treatment something that can be continued in the absence of a professional; that is have we been able to teach parents and other caretakers how to use effective strategies? Treatment needs to result in improvements that will be effective in environments other than the treatment environment. This generality of treatment is one of the requirements of ABA.
A highly recommended report for parents regarding the strength of evidence for various treatments for autism can be found in the National Autism Council’s Summary Report.
National Standards project. For an extensive review of research on treatments see the National Standards project.
This used to be a free service but due to the high demand, a fee has been implemented. The report classifies the strength of evidence into the categories of (1) Established, (2) Emerging, (3) Unestablished and (4) Ineffective/Harmful.
Another great organization is Association of Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT). They provide resources to families, educators and providers. In addition, ASAT provides up to date research on various autism treatments. ASAT can be accessed at: https://asatonline.org
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A number of studies indicate that early intervention and lots of it make a clinically significant difference. The more treatment hours a child receives, along with strategies that enable parents to use and maintain treatment, increase the effectiveness compared to lesser treatment.
While professional treatment can bring about significant improvements, significant changes are more likely to happen when parents’ involvement is effective because they have been taught how to continue an effective strategy in the daily routines of their children.
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A number of links to resources and materials have been reviewed based on the issues above so that these topics can be identified based on their potential effectiveness and parents can use their own criteria for deciding how to help their child and improve the quality of life for their family.
In the end, it’s the parents’ decision and any guidelines offered here are to help parents make the best decisions they can based on the educational information and resources presented.