Evidence-based ABA, led by your child.
Every plan at Anwar House of Therapy starts with a full assessment, is written and supervised by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and is taught through play your child chooses. Here is how it works, in plain English.
- Ages 2–10
- 1:1 with a technician, daily
- BCBA supervision every week
What guides every session.
ABA has a reputation for being rigid. Ours is not. These three ideas shape how your child's technician and BCBA work every day.
Child-led and assent-based
Assent means your child agrees to take part, with words, a nod, or simply by staying engaged. We watch for it constantly, and we respect a "no." A child who feels safe and in control is more regulated, and a regulated child learns more. So we start with your child's interests, not a worksheet.
What it looks like in sessionYour son heads for the cars rug instead of the table. His technician follows him there, and the lesson on requesting ("more," "go," "my turn") happens on the floor, with the cars.
Two ways of teaching: NET and DTT
Natural Environment Teaching (NET) uses play and everyday routines to teach a skill in the place it will actually be used. Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) breaks a harder skill into small, clear steps with plenty of practice and immediate feedback. Your BCBA blends both to teach communication, daily living skills, imitation and safety.
What it looks like in sessionTen minutes matching colors at the table (DTT), then snack time, where the same colors come back as she asks for the red cup (NET).
The whole child, every modality
AHT began as a speech clinic, and our ABA program shares a building and a philosophy with our speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists. Your BCBA collaborates with them so goals reinforce one another. We believe a child's success is the accumulation of every modality working together.
What it looks like in sessionThe speech therapist introduces a new sign on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning the technician is prompting the same sign at snack, and the OT's sensory breaks are built into the ABA schedule.
One plan, written for your child and your family.
After the initial assessment, your BCBA writes a treatment plan that every session, every data point and every family meeting refers back to. It contains five things.
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1
Goals for your child
Specific, measurable skills chosen from the assessment: asking for help, following a two-step direction, using the toilet, staying close in a parking lot. Each goal states what mastery looks like, so you always know how far along your child is.
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2
Goals for caregivers
What you will learn alongside your child, so the strategies that work in the clinic work at home, at the grocery store and at grandma's house.
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3
A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)
If a behavior is getting in the way of learning or safety, the BIP explains why it is happening and exactly how everyone on the team responds, consistently and respectfully.
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4
A transition and discharge plan
Written from day one. ABA is meant to end. The plan spells out the milestones that mean fewer hours, then graduation, so services always point toward independence.
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5
Progress data
Every session generates data, and the plan is updated with it. This is what your insurer reviews at reauthorization, and what you see at every family meeting.
Before we teach anything, we find out where your child is.
A BCaBA, BCBA or BCBA-D completes one or more of these standardized assessments during the initial evaluation. They map strengths as carefully as gaps, and they are repeated before every reauthorization so you can see the change.
Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program
Measures early language, social and play skills against typical developmental milestones, so goals begin exactly where your child is today.
Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills, Revised
A detailed checklist of language, learning, self-help and motor skills: what your child can do now, and what comes next.
Assessment of Functional Living Skills
Looks at everyday independence: dressing, toileting, mealtimes, safety, and getting around the home and community.
A BCBA is in the room every week.
Your child's technician never works alone. Every week the BCBA observes sessions, models techniques, reviews the data and adjusts the plan. The Clinical Director meets with every BCBA weekly, so there is oversight at every level of the program.
We keep caseloads small on purpose: six to eight children per BCBA, one or two per technician. Small numbers mean your child's team actually knows your child.
Ethics also means assent. If your child pulls away from an activity, we pause, change the activity or end the trial, and we tell you about it. Progress that costs a child their sense of safety is not progress.
We ask for the most supervision insurers allow.
Payers require a BCBA to directly supervise at least 5% of a child's treatment hours, and allow up to 20%. AHT requests the full 20% for every child.
More supervision means faster adjustments when something is not working, better-trained technicians, and treatment that stays ethical week after week.
You are your child's most important teacher.
Skills learned only in a clinic tend to stay in the clinic. Generalization (using a skill in new places, with new people) and maintenance (keeping it over time) are how progress becomes real life. Caregiver training is how we get there.
Your BCBA meets with you for at least one hour every month to walk through the data, practice the strategies you will use at home, and check in on the caregiver goals written into the treatment plan. Anyone who regularly cares for your child is welcome to join.
You will never be handed a binder and left alone with it. Training is hands-on, paced to your family, and built around the routines that are hardest for you right now.
Data in every session, explained in plain English.
ABA is only evidence-based if the evidence is collected carefully. Here is how we do it, and what you will see.
Recorded as it happens
Technicians record data on each goal during the session, not from memory afterward, in our designated data-collection software. Session notes live in the same system, so nothing is lost between the room and the report.
HIPAA-compliant devices
Data is collected on clinic-managed iPads that meet HIPAA requirements. Your child's information stays on protected devices and in protected software, never on a personal phone.
Graphs you can read
Your BCBA reviews the graphs every week during supervision and walks you through them at your monthly meeting. If a goal has stalled, the plan changes. We do not wait for reauthorization to fix what is not working.
Trained before day one, and every month after.
Every person on your child's team meets these requirements before they provide services, and keeps meeting them for as long as they are here.
| Role | Before working with your child | Ongoing requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical Director | Oversees the entire ABA program and every treatment plan. | Meets with every BCBA weekly to review cases, data and ethics. |
| BCBA Board Certified Behavior Analyst |
Board certification. Completes assessments, writes the treatment plan, supervises technicians and collaborates with speech and OT. Caseload of 6–8 children. | 32 continuing-education units every two years. Weekly check-in with the Clinical Director. |
| RBT Registered Behavior Technician |
RBT credential. Provides 1:1 treatment daily and collects session data. Caseload of 1–2 children. | 12 professional-development units every two years. Monthly training. Weekly BCBA supervision. |
| BT Behavior Technician |
Initial 40-hour ABA training before any 1:1 session. Caseload of 1–2 children. | Monthly ongoing training. Weekly BCBA supervision. |
| All clinical staff | CPR and First Aid, Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI), HIPAA, mandated-reporter and CMH-required training, all completed before providing services. | Renewed on schedule and tracked by the Clinical Director. |
Ready to see if AHT is a fit for your child?
Call us, or email ahmedma@anwarht.com. We will verify your benefits before you commit to anything.