ABA Success Stories

At IABA, we celebrate success large and small for our clients and their families. Here are just a few examples of some of the successes we see every day.

Stella

Stella’s family contacted IABA because she was not successful in traditional speech therapy and her family could not communicate with her. English is the second language of the family, and Stella was speaking in a combination of English and her native language. This “Stella-talk” was very difficult for the family to understand. Because she was not able to communicate what she wanted or needed, she engaged in tantrums that included screaming, crying, physical aggression and self-injury.

By running comprehensive assessments, Stella’s IABA team discovered the causes for her tantrums. Her team then used the assessments to guide her treatment. They identified what she was trying to communicate and taught her words to ask for what she wanted. Once Stella was able to communicate her needs, her tantrums stopped. Her family was able to consistently communicate with Stella, making life much smoother for the entire family.

Charlie

Charlie was referred to IABA’s Autism Clinic a few short months after receiving his autism diagnosis at two and a half years old. Prior to his intake meeting, Charlie had just started singing songs, which were his first words, but did not communicate in any other way.

Charlie started attending IABA’s Autism Clinic five days a week and almost immediately his language began to blossom. His BCBA and treatment team made sure all of Charlie’s programs focused on teaching him three main concepts: how to understand instructions, understanding his environment, and how using his words could gain him access to the social world and items he wanted.

Over a year later Charlie still comes to IABA’s clinic five days a week, but is now chatting up a storm. He is able to engage in greetings, vocally answer for all his programs, and request what he wants using four-word phrases.

Aiden

Aiden came to IABA after receiving ABA therapy from another company where he was not making progress. His family sought treatment due to Aiden’s engagement in severe self-injury.

Aiden was engaging in self-injurious behaviors in the form of face scratches and had on average 100 occurrences a day. Aiden’s team quickly went to work with the goal of stopping the self-injury and seeing Aiden smile. Before starting assessments, his treatment team spent a week playing with Aiden to learn what he valued and what brought him joy.

After conducting a Functional Analysis, his treatment team determined what was causing Aiden’s self-injury behavior. This led to a behavior intervention plan, which resulted in decreasing the amount of face scratches significantly. Instead, the behavior changed to touching his lower jaw. Aiden’s team taught him to verbally request items as an alternative behavior. The variety of phrases he used increased as well.

Since then, his team has been working on a desensitization program. As Aiden grows up, the program will help him better understand his environment, cope with things that are out of his control, and learn to advocate for himself. While the decrease in self-injury was a true success, IABA’s biggest reward is seeing Aiden’s bright smile on a weekly basis.