Our BCBA/BCABA certified behavior analysts and Bachelor/Master level ABA therapists provide ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) services to children with developmental disabilities such as: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Learning Disabilities, Mental Retardation, Down Syndrome, etc…

We work on : * Academic Skills * Adaptive Skills * Behavior management * Community Outing *Communication * Discrete Trial Training * IEP Assistance * Life Skills * Motor Skills ( Gross Motor and Fine Motor) * Parent/Teacher Training * Play Skills * Pre-Academic Skills * Pre-language Skills * Therapist Supervision * Verbal Behavior Programs * Toilet Training * Social Skills

We do provide free of charge ABLLS assessment , quarterly progress notes by the ABA therapist, quarterly supervision by BCBA/BCABA with along ongoing ABA therapies.

We do not require a contract or minimum hours of therapy.

We help you to provide all the paperwork you would need to claim with your insurance company.

Feel free to call Nicky Altikulac for free consultation! # (404) 394 3382

“ABA Therapy” is a term used to describe myriad procedures that are based on the tenants of Applied Behavior Analysis. These can include Incidental Teaching, Discrete Trail Training, (DTT), Verbal Behavior and other Instructional methods that use consistent, systematic and frequent prompts and consequences to teach new skills. “ABA Therapy” is not synonymous with any one procedure. Together, ABA is the most researched and successful group of treatments for children with developmental disabilities. "Applied" means practice, rather than research or philosophy. "Behavior analysis" may be read as "learning theory," that is, understanding what leads to (or doesn't lead to) new skills. (This is a simplification: ABA is just as much about maintaining and using skills as about learning.) It may seem odd to use the word "behavior" when talking about learning to talk, play, and live as a complex social animal, but to a behaviorist all these can be taught, so long as there are intact brain functions to learn and practice the skills. That is the essence of the recovery hypothesis--for many children, the excesses and deficits of autism and/or developmental disabilities result largely from a learning 'blockage,' which can be overcome by intensive teaching. Typically developing children learn without our intervention--the world around them provides the right conditions to learn language, play, and social skills. Children with autism and/or developmental disabilities learn much, much less easily from the environment. They have the potential to learn, but it takes a very structured environment, one where conditions are optimized for acquiring the same skills that typical children learn "naturally." ABA is all about how to set up the environment to enable our kids to learn. Behavior analysis dates back at least to Skinner, who performed animal experiments showing that food rewards lead to behavior changes (learning). This is accepted by everyone who wants to train their dog to 'go' outside, though we are not so inclined to believe the same of ourselves. People, fortunately, respond to a broad range of reinforcements (rewards); an ABA therapist may use "edibles" at first, and then move on to a much wider range of "reinforcers." The skills that we more often think lead to learning--motivation, self-discipline, curiosity--are marvelous and essential to our development--but those are truly sophisticated "behaviors" that bloom only after more basic language and social skills are in place. Conversely, any new behavior that an animal (or you or I) may try, but is never rewarded, is likely to die out after a while (how often will you dial that busy number?). And, as common sense would have it, a behavior that results in something unpleasant (an aversive) is even less likely to be repeated. These are the basics of behavioral learning theory. ABA uses these principles to set up an environment in which our kids learn as much as they can as quickly as possible, with a constant emphasis on the use of positive rewards. It is a science, not a 'philosophy.' Even the "as quickly as possible" part is based on science, since there is some--not conclusive--evidence that the developmentally disordered brain "learns how to learn" best if the basic skills are taught in early childhood. Behavioral learning is not the only type of learning. Most learning in schools is from an explanation or from a model, what people call natural learning. Typically developing children learn from their environment (other people) at an astounding rate, usually completely unassisted. The whole point of ABA is to teach the prerequisites to make it possible for a child to learn naturally.

The most common and distinguishing type of intervention based on applied behavior analysis is discrete trial teaching. It is what people most often think of when you say "ABA" or "Lovaas method." This is partly because there are so many hundreds of hours of Discrete Trial Teaching, and partly because it looks so odd. But it is what it is because that's what works--every aspect has been refined (and is still being refined) to result in maximum learning efficiency. Briefly: the student is given a stimulus--a question, a set of blocks and a pattern, a request to go ask Mom for a glass of water--along with the correct response, or a strong 'hint' at what the response should be. He is rewarded (Jelly Beans, a tickle, a happy "good job!") for repeating the right answer; anything else is ignored or corrected very neutrally. As his response becomes more reliable, the 'clues' are withdrawn until he can respond independently. This is usually done one-on-one at a table (thus the term table-top work), with detailed planning of the requests, timing, wording, and the therapist's reaction to the student's responses. It is a mistake, however, to think of an ABA program as just Discrete Trial Teaching. Lovaas (among others) notes very clearly that a behavioral program is a comprehensive intervention, carried out, as much as possible, in every setting, every available moment. The skills that are taught so efficiently in discrete trial drills must be practiced and generalized in natural settings. A child who does not know the difference between 'ask' and 'tell' may slowly get a higher and higher percentage of right answers during table-top drills until he is considered to have 'mastered' that skill; but he will not go on to use 'ask' and 'tell' appropriately without additional support in natural situations; it takes time to go from 'mastery' to 'ownership.' It takes trained and supportive people--parents, teachers, relatives, even peers--to help reinforce a wide range of appropriate behaviors in a variety of settings, until the level of reinforcement fades to a typical level, such as the smile you get when you greet someone.

A naturalistic teaching strategy is any spontaneous, individualized instruction that occurs when a child and an adult verbally interact during a naturally occurring activity in the child's environment (Diamond, Hestenes, & O'Connor, 1994). Typically, notes Wolery (1994d), naturalistic interaction is "responsive to children's verbalizations, thus providing them with opportunities to use more complex language in natural and relevant situations" (p. 132). Within the early childhood classroom, such strategies provide a noninvasive means for a teacher to implement intervention within regular classroom routines (Bricker & Cripe, 1992).

Here is a child's interaction with a teacher or other adult, one who is being as helpful as possible but lacks the training to facilitate the child's learning:

Teacher: Hi, John, are you excited about X-rmas?John: [no response] Teacher: What are you going to do on X-mas? John: I don't know. Teacher: Are you going to get presents? John: Yes. Teacher: What else are you going to do? John: [no response] Teacher: Do you have a X-mas tree? John: Yes. Teacher: Who's going to bring presents on X-mas? John: I don't know. Teacher: Is it Santa Claus? John: Yes. Teacher: [smile] Thanks, John! This is the child's half of the conversation: "I don't know, Yes, Yes, I don't know, Yes." There is no learning going on? Here's how a trained person might make this an opportunity for practicing conversation skills: Therapist: Hi, John, are you excited about X-mas? John: [no response] Therapist: Are you excited about X-mas? Say, Yeah, I want to open my... John: Yeah, I want to open my presents! Therapist: [Smile] Me too! What presents did you ask for? John: I asked for presents. Therapist: What presents did you ask for? Say, For X-mas, I asked for... John: I asked for a bike. For X-mas. Therapist: Cool! [Small tickle] Are you excited about X-mas? John: Yeah, I want a bike. Therapist: [Bigger tickle] A bike! That's great! I've got my tree all decorated with ornaments. I put lots of ornaments on MY tree. [Point to John's tree.] John: I put heart ornaments on my tree. Therapist: John, that's so great! [Great big tickle] John: Ahhhhh! Cut it out!

Incidental teaching provides structured learning opportunities in the natural environment by using the child’s interests and natural motivation. Incidental teaching was developed to increase language and social responses by maximizing the power of reinforcement and encouraging generalization (Hart & Risley, 1968, 1974). As with more traditional teacher directed instruction, incidental teaching’s intended purpose is to implement an instructional curriculum and related goals for a student with autism or related needs. However, incidental teaching is unique in its focus on child directed teaching, in other words, following the child’s lead regarding interests with in naturally occurring daily activities. This is particauly useful with children with autism who often initially tend to exhibit difficulty maintaining interest in teacher or parent lead activities. Most parents and teachers are very accustomed to teaching children many different skills throughout the day in the natural environment. For example, parents may point to pictures in a book and ask the child to label the pictures. Teachers ask children to make requests and choices in the classroom. These are all teaching opportunities. Incidental teaching involves being intentiona l and plan for those “teachable moments” that are initiated by the child. Almost any situation throughout the day can be made into a “teachable moment.” Daily routines that can be used for teaching include: meals, dressing, playtime, car trips, watching television or listening to music, and functional or academic tasks.

One major difference between the Lovaas Approach and Verbal Behavior Therapy are the first skills taught to a child. The Lovaas Approach typically begins with training the child to sit and make eye contact. After those two skills are established the Lovaas Approach teaches receptive skills, which usually consists of pointing to pictures the therapist labels. In Verbal Behavior the therapist motivates the child by allowing them access to preferred items/activities by using mand (request) training. The child is first taught that speaking benefits them directly, as a result they are reinforced for speaking and are taught when they speak they get what they want (instead of pulling parents hands or tantrumming).

For many children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), succeeding academically at school is an achievement they work long and hard for. Sometimes, however, this intent focus on academic competence can lead parents and educators to overlook critical social skill development. This is most apparent on the playground and other places at school where large amounts of unstructured time leave children with ASD to sink or swim in a complex social environment.

Over the last twenty years, much research has indicated that social impairment is a common feature of ASD, and a common misperception is that these children lack interest in relating to others. Kids with ASD do not choose to alienate themselves – they are simply missing skills that are essential for developing meaningful peer relationships. You may have noticed some of these common social deficits:

• Opening and closing a conversation
• Initiating peer interaction and joining play
• Decoding facial expressions and body language
• Observing and mimicking appropriate social behavior in specific situations
• Predicting and understanding the emotions and reactions of others
• Eye contact
• Body distance
• Empathy
• Giving and receiving compliments
• Sharing interests
• Interpreting and using facial expressions
• Ways of approaching and leaving friends
• Picking appropriate conversation topics
• Table manners
• Community rules
• Dating and sexual etiquette
• Grooming
• Respecting authority
• Dealing with new social situations
• Developing acceptable self-calming techniques

If you stop and think about it, these are not easy concepts, and in fact, most children succeed socially at recess or in the locker room because they’ve acquired these skills automatically through repeated exposure to real-life scenarios. Children with ASD, however, don’t have that ability. In fact, it is notoriously difficult for these children to acquire social skills that come to many of us naturally. In order to master social skills, children with ASD must be taught them explicitly, and have the opportunity to practice them again and again and again. This last point is a key one, because many children with ASD don’t master social skills simply because the adults in their lives arbitrarily decide that a certain number of trials should be sufficient and give up on the effort too soon.

Therapists who use social skills training begin by breaking down complex social behaviors into smaller portions. Next, they arrange these smaller parts in order of difficulty, and gradually introduce them to the kids.

Such specific techniques as instruction, modeling, role-playing, shaping, feedback, and reinforcement of positive interactions may be used in Social Skills Training. For example, instruction may be used to convey the differences among assertive, passive, and aggressive styles of communication. The technique of monitoring may be used to ask kids to increase their eye contact during a conversation. In role-playing exercises, group members have the opportunity to offer feedback to one another about their performances in simulated situations.

Another common focus of Social Skills Training programs involves improving a patient's ability to perceive and act on social cues. Many kids have problems communicating with others because they fail to notice or do not understand other people's cues, whether verbal or nonverbal. For example, some children become unpopular with their peers because they force their way into small play groups, when a child who has learned to read social signals would know that the children in the small group do not want someone else to join them, at least not at that moment. Learning to understand another person's spoken or unspoken messages is as important as learning conversational skills. A social skills program may include skills related to the perceptual processing of the conversation of other individuals.