What Does a Typical In-Home ABA Session Look Like?

In-home sessions of applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy) are great ways to provide direct, ongoing support for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In addition to being extremely convenient for children and their families, in-home ABA sessions provide many advantages over therapy administered in clinical settings.

As a parent of a child with autism, you might be wondering what a typical in-home ABA session looks like. By understanding what goes into such a session, what will take place and what your role will be, you can be better prepared for sessions, which can help them be more successful and effective for your child.

Below, we’ll outline what a typical in-home ABA session looks like so you can be better prepared.

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How is an ABA Therapy Treatment Plan Created?

All ABA therapy treatment plans, whether they are administered in your home or in a clinical setting, are created based on a number of factors. This includes observation of your child, conversations with the parents and results of official evaluations, among other things.

Your child’s therapy team will use this information to come up with initial goals for your child to achieve. Then, they will use specific information about your child and where the session is administered to create the final, specific treatment plan.

When visiting your home for the first time, ABA therapists will take a look at the area that’s set up for the therapy, and find out whether your child has any specific preferences or aversions, such as toys they love or things that make them feel uncomfortable.

They will then use this information to customize the treatment plan to your child’s specific preferences, strengths and challenges.

Will Every In-Home ABA Session Look the Same?

ABA therapy is very flexible and nimble. In addition to being personalized to each individual patient, treatment plans are also designed so therapists can shift between targeting specific skills and/or behaviors your child needs support with.

They also have many different strategies and tools at their disposal that they can choose from, depending on the skill or behavior being targeted, the environment in which the therapy is being administered and your child’s overall mood for the day, for instance.

What this means is that ABA therapy sessions can be very similar to each other but also a lot different. This may change, as mentioned, if the therapist is teaching different skills during different sessions. It may also change if your child is having a particularly challenging day or a good one.

Not only that, but ABA therapy is designed to evolve over time as your child masters skills. Based on data collection and analysis, sessions will change in time as your child exhibits the ability to consistently exhibit certain behaviors or skills that have been taught over previous sessions.

How Long Do In-Home ABA Sessions Last?

Since ABA therapy is so personal to each individual patient, how long in-home ABA sessions last can vary greatly from one patient to the next. Some children may only require one hour per session, while others may need longer sessions that last multiple hours.

Your child’s therapy team will use the information they’ve gathered to set the timeframe for their in-home ABA sessions. Then, as they go through sessions and learn, the time may be shortened or extended based on their progress.

It’s not uncommon, for example, for children to require longer ABA therapy sessions at first, and then shorter sessions as they master skills and learn to modify behaviors.

Are Other People Involved in the Sessions?

Parental involvement — as well as that from caregivers and other family members — is very important to the overall success of ABA therapy. After all, parents spend the most time with their children in real-world scenarios.

As such, a big part of ABA therapy involves parents and any others in the process so they can help emphasize the skills learned during in-home ABA sessions when the sessions are over.
Sometimes, then, parts of ABA therapy sessions will have parents observing their child and therapist. Other parts will directly involve the parents learning what strategies and tools the therapist uses to teach skills. And others will have the parents trying to use the strategies and tools themselves while the therapist observes and provides feedback.

While this won’t happen during every in-home ABA session, it will certainly be a part of some of them.

Blue Gems ABA Administers In-Home ABA Sessions

In-home sessions are a great way to administer ABA therapy, as they are convenient for the child and family members, as well as provide many other benefits. While all in-home ABA sessions will be similar in nature, they can vary greatly from one session to the next depending on a number of factors.

At Blue Gems ABA, we customize each in-home ABA therapy session to the individual child being served, as well as the skills and behaviors that are being targeted. In this way, we’re able to best support children with ASD to help them live happy, healthy, fulfilling, productive and independent lives.

To learn more, please contact us today.