ABA therapy provides lasting improvements for those with autism

ASN

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is widely recognized as the single most effective therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder, providing substantial, lasting improvements in the lives of individuals with autism. ABA-based treatment strategies maximize the learning potential of persons with ASD, and are flexible, individualized and dynamic. The problem is that many ABA programs, particularly when paid for privately, can cost a family tens of thousands of dollars a year. What is a family to do that either can’t afford the cost of private ABA, or perhaps lives far from a trained ABA therapist?

Rethink Autism has created a tool to answer these challenges: a state-of-the-art, web-based curriculum to help you assess your child’s strengths and challenges, creating a recommended customized multimedia curriculum for you to follow. They also provide strategies to help you adapt each lesson to your child’s individual abilities, and tools to modify and individualize your child’s personal program goals. As you move through the curriculum, the data collection program tracks your child’s progress and adjust program goals and lesson plans in light of his performance.

Each carefully designed lesson breaks down complex skills into simple, easy-to-follow teaching steps. Each lesson is accompanied by a dynamic video demonstrating just how to teach each step, and every video is accompanied by an easy-to-follow written description of the teaching procedure. As parents and their children work through each lesson, performance data is constantly collected – and as new skills are mastered, new lessons are added. Rethink Autism also has programs that are designed and priced for institutions that might need to train their staff on ABA, and track students’ progress.

Rethink Autism’s short, easy-to-follow training program helps parents, grandparents, and even the babysitter learn to teach effectively, m...