Blog Archive

On October 1st and 2nd, Behavior Frontiers team members from our Los Angeles-area offices were guests of honor at Dodger Stadium! Our San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena, Palmdale, and scheduling offices all got to enjoy a night out to catch up with each other, enjoy some favorite ballpark foods, and take in a great Dodger baseball game. This is just one of the many ways in which we love to show our team how appreciated they are. Check out some of these great photos from the game! Read more…

Are you looking for a new career path? One with opportunities for growth, financial stability, and the chance to really make a difference in someone’s life? Then Applied Behavior Analysis might be the career for you! The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 23% growth in this field in just the next five years. This means that now is the perfect time to “get in on the ground floor” of this exciting career path. But where to begin? Most people enter the field of ABA as a Behavior Technician (or BT, also known as a Behavior Therapist or Behavioral Interventionist). It is surprisingly easy to get started, doesn’t require that you have done this kind of work before (because the company you choose to work for will train you), and, in many cases, doesn’t even require you to have completed your college degree. Here are the top five reasons why you should consider a career as a Behavior Technician! Read more…

Matching, though it seems like a simple skill, is the foundation for the development of receptive and expressive labeling. Luckily, it is a skill that you can easily work on with your child, with no special equipment or training required! Matching can be taught using a variety of teaching styles: highly structured teaching (which may take place at a table or floor), or a naturalistic approach through play. Matching lessons can also vary from matching identical 3D common objects, to using 2D pictures, combination of both 2D and 3D, or matching non-identical objects. Today we will focus on teaching matching using 2D images to 3D items using a naturalistic approach. With this exercise, you will present your child with a picture of an item, and then have them find that item in their natural environment! Read more…

Fall is here, and with the new season comes a lot of opportunities for family activities! For most of us, family time is on the top of our priorities list, but more often than not we find ourselves stressed, planning these activities while juggling therapies, work, and homework. This week, I’ll be sharing a list of places you can visit while on a budget, as well as some cool things you can do with your child/children including those on the spectrum. These are some suggestions and can be modified to fit your family’s needs. Read more…

Parents often ask what resources they can access for teaching their child with ASD. As a parent of children with autism, I know that the list of books out there can be quite intimidating. With so much information now available at our fingertips, it’s hard to decipher what is good quality, with evidence-based research that one can trust. Read more…

There is no doubt that having children with special needs is a full-time job in itself. The hours are long, and sometimes it can feel as though your work isn’t appreciated. That’s why it’s so important to develop some self-care strategies to help recharge after all the work we do as parents! One of the ways that you can do that is to reinforce yourself in the same way that you reinforce your children for positive behavior. Most of us already do something like this: “After I finish cleaning the living room, I’m going to have a cookie.” That’s reinforcement, even if we don’t think of it that way. Reinforcing yourself with intention is a great way to practice self-care, and if you have a specific goal tied to a specific reward, you’re less likely to skip it and wind up feeling burned out. Read more…

As the parent of a young child, you may wonder: how can a parent teach their child to recognize letters and sight words with success? Have you heard of DTT (Discrete Trial Training)? If your child is receiving ABA, then you have probably heard your Behavior Technician or Case Manager talk about DTT programs or targets that they may be working on with your child. But really, what is DTT? DTT is a structured ABA technique that simplifies and breaks down skills into small parts which are presented in a systematic manner until current targets are mastered. New steps/targets (i.e., sight words, ABCs, Addition Facts) would not be introduced until a set number of targets have been mastered. Read more…

With school being back in session and homework starting to be assigned, it might be useful to provide parents with some tips to make homework more manageable and ease some of the stressors involved. These tips can be modified to fit your child’s needs and routine. Read more…

Behavior Frontiers is pleased to announce that we are now working with the Three Rivers Provider Network! TRPN is an intermediary plan manager that connects providers and payors, and currently serve more than 200 MILLION people nationwide. From Three Rivers Provider Network: “Founded in 1996, TRPN is the largest and fastest growing proprietary provider network in the United States. The TRPN network is now comprised of more than 1.5 million provider locations, including greater than 5,000 hospitals and 75,000 ancillary facilities.” Read more…

With families often juggling work, children, and extracurricular activities, one may wonder how can one be involved in their child’s treatment while staying on top of everything else? There is no doubt that parent involvement is crucial to treatment success. There are various roles caregivers can take to feel involved without compromising their sanity. Read more…

Day-to-day routines can often become overwhelming and stressful for parents with a child who has autism spectrum disorder. Common daily and to-do routines can often fall by the wayside and end up being disregarded or never completed. Creating day-to-day structured routine can help a parent feel more organized and assist in having your child stay on track with their daily structure and routine. Read more…

My name is Elizabeth Gudiel, and I am the Clinical Director in our Salt Lake City region. My journey into ABA is very unique to say the least…I was just about to start school at Cal State LA when my son, Julian, was diagnosed with autism. His diagnosis changed our lives dramatically; I had originally wanted to become a Special Education teacher but had to place my education on hold in order to take care of my son. Read more…

Behavior Frontiers is pleased to announce that we will be participating in the Autism Alliance of Michigan’s Autism Hero Walk! This wonderful event takes place at the Detroit Zoo, and gives individuals with autism and their families the chance to be heroes for the day. Participants in the walk will also be invited to spend the day at the zoo, with fun activities for the kids, an autism resource fair, and plenty of photo opportunities with the superheroes! Read more…

A little over thirty years ago I learned about Autism. I was a young girl, and a close family member was diagnosed with “Severe and Profound Autism”. Despite learning of Autism over thirty years ago, I had no idea what ABA therapy was until 2008. I happened to apply for a job because it involved working with children with Autism. I was truly amazed at what I saw just in the first week of working as a behavior technician. After years of observing other strategies and therapies, I had never seen such an effective, systematic, enjoyable, and individualized therapy as ABA. Read more…

Really early on, I knew that I wanted all my kids to go to college. I mean, what parent doesn’t want that for their children? I knew that I did not want them to take the path that I did; it took a lot of work, dedication, tears, and student debt to get to where I am today. I wanted to have them go directly into a four-year university and avoid all the drama and hardship. However, it became clear pretty quickly that this might be my dream, but it wasn’t my son’s. Read more…

Puberty…. aah! How I dread you!!! Really, talk about not knowing where to start when you have to tell your child their body is changing…like every day! Oh man, those awkward moments of silence and as a parent, dreading the next question your child may ask. But really, as parents we are our child’s resource, so we must be brave and power through all those questions. Read more…

Our children with ASD love their routines. They tend to get a bit obsessive or fixated on things. I don’t know about you, but this often drove me crazy! My son liked having the same routine every single day and if things didn’t go the way he thought they should, then it resulted in a tantrum/meltdown. Of course, as a behavior analyst I knew this would happen. However, as a parent, it was frustrating. Read more…

It is scary to think of the day when you will finally need to have that hard conversation with your child/teen regarding their diagnosis. As a clinician, parents often ask, when is it okay to disclose to their child that they have ASD? How should they do it? They often ask, how did I do it? The reality is that it depends: some kids will realize that they are a bit different and will begin to question “why?”, while others will be completely unaware of their differences. What I often tell parents is to gauge their child’s maturity level and understanding. Read more…

I know that we all have questions about how to parent a teenager: how are we going to make it through these teenage years? Will we have our sanity at the end of the road? What can I do to set up my kids for success? What if my kid gets bullied? Will they have friends? And most importantly, will our kids end up being productive adults? Read more…

Every day as a parent is a challenge. Those words ring true for every new parent across the globe. When your child is born you are not given a set of directions. It is up to you as a parent to understand your child, their talents and what makes them different and special. When my son was born 11 years ago, he was the light of our world and we knew that our lives would never be the same. Read more…