Our Services

Our team provides a range of services to help your child and your family. ABA programming may be conducted in-home, at our center located in O’fallon IL and in the community (such as daycares or private schools). All programs are created using research-based, developmentally appropriate, strategies. Teaching of treatment goals are done in a one on one or group setting in a natural environment (NET) and Intensive Teaching (ITT) settings.

ABA programming is typically a tiered model that is administered by a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT), who is a paraprofessional trained in ABA techniques, with the ABA program being overseen by a behavior analyst. The behavior analyst is the individual who writes all plans, provides initial and on-going training and supervision to the RBT, and provides family/caregiver training.

Each ABA program is tailored to the individual needs of the child, however typical intensity is between 10-40 hours per week. We know life is busy. We will create a unique plan around your schedule to allow us to maximize the results. What type of therapy is best for your family? Visit In-home vs. Center Based Therapy.

When you first contact Behavior Therapy Services you will be in contact with a member of our office staff to identify the types of supports and services you are looking to receive. During this conversation, we will ask questions to get to know more about your individual child and family’s needs. Based on this conversation, a new client packet will then be sent to you in order to gather relevant background data.

Once the new client paperwork is received, a behavior analyst will contact you to set up a time to meet your child and conduct needed assessments. This initial meeting may be in your home or at our clinic.

At the initial visit you will discuss with our analyst the main concerns for your child and what areas you would like us to focus on. You may also fill out behavior assessments during the initial interview in order to help further our understanding of problem behaviors.

This is an attempt to look beyond the obvious interpretation of behavior as “bad” and determine what function it may be serving for your child. Truly understanding why a child behaves the way he or she does is the first, best step to developing strategies to stop the behavior.

Various skills assessments such as the PEAK, Autism Social Skills Profile, or Vineland may be conducted by working directly with your child and through caregiver interview. This entire process typically takes between 1-2 hours.
After assessments are conducted, a Behavior Support Plan (BSP) is then created by the behavior analyst.

Once the BSP is created, the behavior analyst will meet with your family again to go over the BSP and answer any questions you may have. Once you have approved the BSP, an RBT will be assigned to your case and a therapy will begin.
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Increasing communication and adaptive skills is the primary focus of any ABA programming.  Many challenging behaviors can be reduced with your child’s acquisition of developmentally appropriate targets.  Skills training may target the following areas:

Functional Communication Training: Strategies used to increase appropriate communication. Focus on increasing functional communication skills including vocal speech, assistive technology, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), requesting, commenting, turn taking, staying on topic, receptive language skills, non-verbal communication such as body language and eye contact, and conversational/social communication.  Decrease echolalia (repetitive speech) and increase functional language by teaching replacement language.

Community Participation Skills: Focus on increasing skills necessary to actively participate in a variety of community activities such as play areas (parks, playgrounds), stores, community sports, doctor/dentist visits, etc.

Social Skills/Play Skills: Early social skills may focus on toy play, pretend/imaginative play, and cooperative play.  Advanced skills include active listening, listening with understanding and empathy, recognizing/understanding others’ point of view, social problem solving, peer negotiation, and conflict management.

School Readiness Skills: Focus on increasing skills for to increase successful participation in school such as attending to task, following directions, self-management, organization, transitions, staying with a group, etc.  Academic skills such as math, reading comprehension, etc may also be included in the program.

Daily Living Skills: Focus on providing assistance in teaching your child day to day self-help skills including dressing, eating, grooming, household chores, etc.

“Potty Party”: Parents are trained how to provide a child-specific plan for toilet training.  Toilet training can be challenging; BTS is here to support and encourage this process.  Several packages of various intensity levels are offered including rapid toilet training, schedule/habit training, and a parent training model

Executive Functioning Skills: Focus on paying attention, organizing, planning, and prioritizing, staying on task, regulating emotions, flexible thinking, and self-monitoring.

Safety/Personal Advocacy Skills: Focus on differentiating between trusted adults and strangers, setting boundaries, asking for help, knowledge of rights, and communicating support needs.  Safety and personal advocacy skills are an important component of any ABA program to help children protect themselves from abuse and other violence.

The Behavior Support Plan (BSP) takes the observations made in the FBA and turns them into a concrete plan of action for supporting a child’s behavior.  A BSP may include ways to change the environment to keep behavior from starting in the first place, provide positive reinforcement to promote desired behaviors, and intervention strategies when challenging behaviors are displayed.

One-on-one caregiver training is a crucial component of any ABA program.  This consists of basic principles and techniques of ABA specific to your child's current needs to increase your child's independence, daily living skills, and communication. We coach parents through behavior problems, help parents maintain consistency, help them learn strategies to improve following directions, manage behavior, and help provide appropriate consequences.

We also provide crisis management and de-escalation strategies for very challenging and potentially dangerous behavior utilizing the Safety Care for Families Curriculum.  

Navigating the school IEP process can be a challenging and daunting process.  We can provide the following services to assist your child in the school setting:

• IEP Review: Assist in creating IEP goals with the parents, teacher, and administration team.  We can also attend IEP meetings to help advocate in the best interest of the child.  Collaborate with parents to understand how to navigate the IEP process.

• Independent School Observations: Conduct observations of your child in the school environment to provide an objective analysis of student behavioral concerns and implementation of school supports.

Teacher/Paraprofessional Training: Training of ABA principles and specific behavioral supports for the student.

See our page on speech and language to learn more about speech services offered!