One-One Therapy 

Throughout the day, learners work one-to-one with an ABA Therapist, or Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). During this time, the therapist targets all of the client's programs and takes data on the client’s performance using the Standard Celeration Chart. 

Programs range from joint attention skills (referencing others), manding (requesting), imitation (copying others), tacting (labeling), intraverbals (pre-conversation or conversation skills), building toy play or leisure skills, many kinds of social skills, toilet training, feeding therapy, and much more.

Each learner has his or her own team of therapists who become experts on the client and the client’s programs and behavioral procedures.  Therapists must implement with fidelity their clients’ behavior plans.  As a team, therapists implement instructional programs in precisely the same way, and in this way, we create a “behaviorally-sound” environment that can make significant behavior change!  

Toilet TRAINING (at any age)

Many of our learners begin ABA therapy without having learned to independently void in the toilet. At BLS, after establishing some general compliance, we will fully "toilet-train" all learners, no matter their age. 

We have a specific toilet-training procedure, and we begin the procedure as soon as possible after enrollment.  When we begin toilet-training, we require at least one caregiver to participate for a half-day to learn the toilet-training protocol.  Most parents and caregivers are surprised by how smoothly the process goes and how quickly their children learn to void in the toilet.  

In addition to toilet training, we target all manner of other skills deficits and behavioral issues.  Among these are:  expanding a learner's willingness to eat a variety of foods; self-feeding using utensils; dressing skills; independent toy play or leisure skills; tolerating noise or other "triggers"; and much, much more.  We will teach ANY skill that is socially-significant and necessary for growth.

Power Hour and special events

Many of our learners participate in 45 minute “Power Hour” every Friday at 2:00! Power Hour is something the learners look forward to, and it is a nice way to end the instructional week. It involves participating in fun, structured games, such as a dance party in the dark with flashing lights and light-up bracelets, an obstacle course around the facility, a Mario cart race, a water activity outside, a talent show with singing, magic tricks, and more!  

During Power Hour, as in all activities, therapists support and motivate learners to interact with their peers, and exhibit a variety of social skills.

Our main goals of Pour Hour are to build an association between doing fun things and interacting with peers and adults, as well as expanding our clients’ lists of events and activities they enjoy. 

vocational skills

The main goal of many behavior intervention therapies is to decrease the amount of support a person with autism will ultimately need. We at BLS know (and research has shown) that many of our learners have the skills to perform unaided at vocations and livelihoods that match up to their interests and strengths, when the required skills are taught to mastery. 

Each individual’s therapy team works to create and design personalized teaching programs intended to connect our older learners with skills and tasks they find appealing and shape them into experts. We also encourage our learners to expand their interests, engage with the community, and learn to be an employee. 

Eventually, some of our learners may find employment either within our facility or elsewhere.

circle time & activity time

In the middle of the day, our learners break for lunch on a rotating schedule.  During the rotation, they are also guided by their therapists to participate in a brief circle time and activity time. These events are coordinated and planned by our circle time and activity coordinator. 

During the 15 minute activity time, our learners complete an age-appropriate or skill-level appropriate social game or craft that coincides with the weekly theme. 

During the 15 minute circle time, our learners have the opportunity to practice responding to an instructor, to sing silly songs, to copy peers during various embedded activities, and to play with stimuli that have been associated with the day or the theme of the week. 

group instruction and group responding

At BLS, our learners are first taught “good learner skills” such as sitting at a table and keeping their hands down. Next, they are taught to respond to an instructor on cue, to sit in a group and respond on cue along with one or more peers, and as they develop more language skills and other component skills, they are taught to participate in more and more “group responding” activities. In group responding activities, one instructor works with 2 to 4 learners and teaches the learners to respond to instructions as a group.

In addition to participating in short structured group responding activities, the learners begin to participate in “group instruction”, as they develop the necessary skills. In group instruction, the learners stay in one room, that simulates a classroom. Learners are called to desks or tables periodically to participate in instruction, individually or in small groups. When not participating in instruction, learners are free to find leisure or play activities throughout the room. But they must respect boundaries and stay in the room. During group instruction, a classroom is simulated, and learners begin to build the skills they will need to transition into a less-restrictive placement.

field trips, parties, & Special events

BLS partakes in periodic field trips. In the past, we’ve taken clients to apple orchards, The Museum of Science of Industry, Children’s Museum at Navy Pier, Munster Pool, and Fair Oaks Farms, among other places.  

We host parties for many holidays, including Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas. During parties, we generally eat lunch as a group and then play a range of group games. 

We choose events, activities, and field trips that our learners enjoy.

Parent training

Parent involvement is crucial for a successful ABA program.  Our goal is to shape up our clients' appropriate behaviors, and simultaneously teach parents to utilize principles of ABA in the home to ensure that skills and behaviors are generalized to the home environment.  

As such, parents are required to receive training regularly.  The parent training program begins with a 2 hour general training session during which the BCBA provides training on basic behavioral principles, including reinforcement, functions of behavior, and more. 

Trainings that follow continue to build on this knowledge, but are personalized to the learner, and take place both in the facility and in home.  Parent trainings establish learner-specific parent goals with the purpose of building appropriate behavior and decreasing problem behavior, and are assigned to parents to implement, under the guidance of their child’s BCBA.

Parent trainings are required!