For children who would benefit from increased opportunities for meaningful social engagement with peers, that would otherwise be limited, one of our clinic locations may be a great fit. At our clinics, we provide an environment rich in social communication and interactions with same-aged peers as part of our program.

At times, a clinic setting is helpful at the onset of treatment to help develop new behavior patterns in a novel environment. Once any challenging or unsafe behaviors have been replaced with more adaptive and safe behaviors, we move back to the home, school, daycare, or other community setting to assist in transferring skills that have been learned in the clinic setting to other settings.

Our goal is to ensure each client is successful across all settings and people with whom they engage on a regular basis to ensure what we call “generalization.” Generalization means our clients don’t just do well with us, they need to do as well as possible with everyone wherever they might go.

At BASICS NW, we contract with local school districts who need additional support and training to ensure a student’s Free and Appropriate Public Education obligations are met. We are able to assist with these important services with a contract in place with a school district.

In addition, many insurance payors will cover medically-necessary ABA services in educational settings to address behavioral excesses and deficits that may put health and safety at risk in a school setting. We are able to provide staff training and direct services to the mutual client/student with a plan to transfer skills acquired by the learner to the school district team as soon as clinically-appropriate. Parents must work with their school district to make any arrangements and a meeting must occur prior to the onset of school-based services to clarify roles and responsibilities. The final step is for the district and BASICS NW to sign a memorandum of understanding for the collaborative work on behalf of the mutual client/student.

For many of our clients, the home setting is the most appropriate location for intervention supports. When we are in the home, we have the opportunity to work very closely with family members to ensure the skills taught are generalized to the home setting and all relevant caregivers. Our job is to ensure your entire family engages in more positive way to improve quality of life for all involved. Sibling dynamics, meal times, sleep routines, and toilet training programs may all be a big part of an intensive home program, depending on the needs of each individual client.

With the global pandemic, one of the silver linings in our field has been the expansion of telemedicine services covered by insurance plans. For families who may live in more remote areas and have difficulty commuting on a daily basis, or may live in a location that is difficult for us to reach, we offer case supervision and family training services remotely. We employ HIPAA-compliant technology with end-to-end encryption in order to meet all regulatory requirements while also providing access to support services that would otherwise be geographically prohibitive.

Daycare is a great place to target a range of developmentally-appropriate social and adaptive skills to set the foundation for school readiness. It is up to the client guardian to make arrangements for services in the daycare setting with their daycare provider.