3 Advantages of Center-Based ABA Therapy Over Home-Based Therapy

As a result of the pandemic, many young children spent the years in isolation. Those years are typically when social skills really start to develop through interaction with other children and with other adults outside of the home. For your child, this is on top of potentially struggling with many social skills to begin with. Opportunities to interact with peers, therefore, is more important now than before.

While home-based ABA therapy may provide practice with social-emotional skills between the child and their sibling, center based ABA therapy provides explicit instruction on how to interact with peers. Along with the social interaction this access to peers provides, it also creates a space where children can imitate each other’s behaviors which further supports your child’s social and emotional development.

Providing the opportunity for a young child to receive care from an RBT at a center can be nerve-racking for parents, especially when their child has never attended school outside the home. The thought behind home-based therapy is that parents are in the home and can easily participate in all treatment sessions. 

However, home-based therapy has its set of challenges that may actually make parental involvement difficult, such as siblings being present or busy parent schedules. Because the staff at ABA therapy centers are experienced in working alongside parents, they are able to provide more structured parental participation and use that participation in a more intentional way. 

In other words, parents will always be an integral part of the process.

Therapy at home has benefits. For instance, while teaching skills used in daily living, such as brushing teeth, eating, or cleaning, being in the typical space in which this occurs can make the skills more transferable. 

However, the home also brings in a specific family dynamic potentially not conducive to some skills, and the living space may not provide the right environment for all activities. 

A center allows the Registered Behavioral Technicians (RBT) to create the necessary environment, including its structure and its capabilities.They are able to monitor distractions and enforce routines. 

In addition, the environment can be adapted for all types of instruction. When preparing students to enter school, a center can mimic the classroom. RBTs can also create their own situations using the other students and the center to teach skills such as taking turns and following directions.

Another benefit of receiving therapies in a center environment is to help ease the difficulties children often experience when transitioning between activities or environments. A center-based ABA program allows for regular practice switching between a one-on-one setting with an RBT and a group of peers in addition to exposure to an environment outside their own home.

Springtide Child Development is an integrative, evidence-based autism treatment center providing care to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and support to their families as they navigate this often overwhelming journey with their child. We look at the whole child when individualizing therapy plans- collaborating with specialists and therapists across the spectrum to create a more effective model that increases results and lowers the overall cost of care.

Springtide families receive ABA therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy all in one location. Families benefit from the convenience of multiple therapies, and specialists can collaborate to develop robust treatment plans – ensuring each child can reach their fullest potential across various disciplines..

To learn more about our unique centers and how Springtide is reimagining autism care, please reach out on our website , email us at hello@myspringtide.com, or give us a call at 888-260-1609