You might be surprised! There are no flashcards, clipboards, or set exercises.

Your Real Change therapist will begin by getting to know your child — what genuinely interests them, what excites them, what they’d choose to do on their own. From there, sessions are built around those interests. If your child loves building things, we build together. If they love card games, the card games become the medium through which we work.

Within those activities, our therapists introduce gentle cognitive challenges — real, in-the-moment situations that stretch your child’s thinking. A child who insists on always going first might spend time working through what it feels like when someone else wants a turn. A child who struggles with transitions might gradually discover, through activities they enjoy, that change doesn’t have to feel like a threat.

The work is warm, relational, and child-led. Our goal is for your child to genuinely enjoy their sessions, because a child who feels safe and engaged is a child who is ready to grow.

Most ABA practices focus on changing observable behavior. That approach can produce real improvements, but for many children and families, the changes only occur in controlled or specific scenarios and don’t carry over into daily life the way you’d expect them to.

Real Change ABA works differently. Our approach is built on the Bernstein Cognitive Method for Autism, which targets not the behavior itself but the thinking and understanding behind it. Instead of training your child to respond a certain way in a specific situation, we help them develop the genuine understanding that makes better behavior natural and lasting — at home, at school, with friends, and everywhere else.

The simplest way to think about it: conventional ABA asks “what is the child doing?” We ask “what is the child understanding?” That one question changes everything about how we work with your child, how we measure progress, and what kind of results you can expect to see.

We work with children and adolescents with ASD between the ages of 2 and 21.

Our approach is individualized to each child’s developmental level, so it will typically look quite different for a three-year-old than it does for a teenager, but the underlying method and principles will be the same regardless of age.

Sessions most often take place at home, where your child is most comfortable and where we can see how they move through their real environment. For many families, this is where the most important work happens.

We also recognize that many challenges show up at school, and we do our utmost to support you and your child there. In some cases, with both school permission and insurance approval, we can send a therapist to work with your child one-on-one during the school day. This varies by school district and insurance plan, so we’ll work through those logistics with you.

Regardless of whether direct school sessions are possible, we are always actively involved in your child’s school experience. This includes meeting with teachers and staff, providing training and behavior plans, and advocating on your child’s behalf.

Every child is different, so we can’t give you a single timeline. What we can tell you is that most families in our research study saw measurable improvement within the first few months of treatment, and progress continued to build over six to twelve months and beyond.

The pace depends on where your child is starting from, the nature of their challenges, and how consistently the approach is reinforced at home and at school. We involve parents in the process from the beginning specifically so that the work doesn’t only happen during sessions, but rather becomes a part of how your family operates day to day.

Our explicit goal is independent functioning — a child who can navigate the world without us.

Both in-session and holistically.

Like all ABA providers, we track session data on a regular basis to measure progress. But we also recognize that data collected during sessions only tells part of the story and cannot tell you whether your child is actually doing better in real life.

That’s why we also ask parents to rate their child across multiple areas of daily functioning — things like making friends, getting along with siblings, self-esteem, expressing needs, handling transitions, and academics. These ratings are taken before treatment begins and again at regular intervals throughout their course of treatment.

This gives us a fuller picture of how your child is doing across their entire life, not just in the therapy room. And because these ratings come from you, the person who sees your child every day, we know we’re tracking the kind of progress that actually matters.

Many children who have been through conventional ABA or other therapies arrive feeling pressured, resistant, or like something is wrong with them. And that’s often because they’ve spent years being asked to comply with demands they don’t understand, in environments that don’t feel safe, with people who are focused on their deficits rather than their strengths.

That’s why, before we ask anything of your child, we invest real time in building a genuine relationship: getting to know them, following their interests, letting them feel safe and seen. We never force or pressure. We enter their world before asking them to enter ours.

Most parents tell us that one of the first things they noticed was that their child didn’t dread coming to sessions. That’s no small thing. A child who feels safe with their therapist is a child who is willing to take the kinds of risks that real growth requires.

Real Change ABA is an out-of-network provider, which means we don’t have contracts with specific insurance companies. This allows us the freedom to hire the best therapists and provide a quality of care otherwise not possible.

We handle the insurance process for you. We submit claims directly to your insurance company and manage the ongoing insurance billing, so you do not need to submit claims or seek reimbursement on your own.

Many families have insurance plans that cover out-of-network providers. These are typically called PPO plans, or plans with out-of-network benefits.

Many parents don’t realize they have access to out-of-network benefits until they check, which is why we handle the eligibility verification for you. When you reach out to us, one of the first things we do is check your plan to see what’s covered, what your expected out-of-pocket cost would be, and whether the numbers work for your family. This usually takes a day or two, sometimes longer for more complex situations.

If your current plan doesn’t include out-of-network benefits, there may still be options. Some families are able to switch to a PPO plan during their employer’s open enrollment period. Others may have access to out-of-network coverage through a spouse’s plan. In some cases, families choose to advocate with their insurer for a single-case agreement based on the specialized nature of the care.

We’re happy to talk through your specific situation and help you understand what’s possible. We’ve helped families navigate this process many times before.

We also offer a private-pay consultation option for families who would like professional guidance without beginning an ongoing ABA program.

The first step is a conversation. Reach out to us by phone or through the contact form on our website, and we’ll set up an initial consultation. During that call, we’ll ask you about your child, listen to what you’re experiencing, and answer any questions you have.

From there, we’ll check your insurance eligibility and, if everything lines up, begin the process of getting to know your child and building a treatment plan that’s designed specifically around who they are.

There’s no pressure and no commitment required for an initial conversation. We know you have questions, and we’re here to help you figure out whether this is the right fit for your child and your family.

Yes. In addition to our ongoing ABA services, we offer a private-pay consultation package for families looking for focused guidance rather than a full ABA program. The consultation can include meeting your child, parent coaching, collaboration with the school, and developing recommendations for what to do next.