Behave Yourself LLC provides individualized Applied Behavior Analysis services for children, young adults, and adults with autism. I design treatment around the client’s strengths, needs, learning style, relationships, and everyday life.
Some of the most meaningful goals can sound fairly ordinary on paper: asking for help before frustration becomes overwhelming, getting through a shower routine more independently, handling an unexpected change, joining a sibling’s game, or enjoying a successful family outing. These changes matter because the client and family experience their impact every day.
What ABA Means at Behave Yourself
Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, uses careful observation and data to understand how behavior develops, what a person may be communicating, and what changes in teaching or the environment may help. Before becoming a behavior analyst, I was an elementary and special education teacher. That experience taught me to look beyond the behavior we can immediately see. When someone is refusing, withdrawing, becoming upset, or repeatedly making the same mistake, I want to understand what is making the situation difficult. The person may need a clearer instruction, a different way to communicate, more practice, a smaller step, a visual support, or a change in how the environment is responding. ABA gives us tools for figuring that out. We can teach skills in manageable steps, arrange meaningful opportunities for practice, reinforce progress, and adjust treatment based on how the client responds.
Areas We May Address
Each client’s treatment plan is different. Depending on the client’s needs, ABA services may address:
- Functional communication
- Expressing needs, preferences, feelings, or discomfort
- Conversation and social interaction
- Play and leisure skills
- Friendship and relationship skills
- Flexibility and coping with changes
- Transitions between activities
- Waiting and tolerating delays
- Participating in family routines
- Self-care and daily living skills
- Independence at home and in the community
- Safety awareness and safety skills
- Learning-related behavior
- Behavior that is unsafe or significantly interfering with daily life
- Caregiver strategies for supporting skills outside treatment sessions
I want every goal to have a clear connection to the client’s life. A goal can look impressive in a treatment plan or on a graph, but it also needs to make sense for the actual person. Families should be able to recognize why we are working on it and how progress could help.
What Treatment May Look Like
Treatment may include naturalistic teaching during play, conversation, family routines, leisure activities, community outings, and other everyday situations. More structured practice may also be used when a particular skill benefits from repetition and carefully planned teaching.
Sessions may involve:
- Practicing communication during real situations
- Teaching a routine one step at a time
- Using visual supports, schedules, checklists, or written cues
- Practicing transitions and changes in plans
- Building independence with self-care or household activities
- Developing play, conversation, and social skills
- Practicing safer and more effective replacement skills
- Helping caregivers use consistent strategies
- Collecting data to determine whether treatment is working
One lesson I have learned repeatedly is that a program can be carefully written and still need to change as soon as we see it in real life. A client may respond differently than expected, a routine may be more complicated than it first appeared, or a teaching strategy may work during one activity and fall apart during another. That information is useful for observing what is happening, reviewing the data, and revising the plan rather than continuing something simply because it was originally written that way.
Who Provides Treatment
I am the BCBA responsible for assessment, treatment design, clinical decisions, caregiver collaboration, progress review, and supervision. Some direct treatment may be provided by me. When an RBT is part of the treatment team, the RBT implements the client’s programs during day-to-day sessions under my supervision. Supporting RBTs well is extremely important to me. Direct service is demanding, thoughtful work. RBTs need clear instructions, client-specific preparation, opportunities to practice, useful feedback, and access to their BCBA when something changes or does not make sense. When an RBT begins working with a client, I introduce the case gradually. The RBT learns about the client, observes and practices programs, reviews behavior-support procedures, learns the session routine, and receives modeling and feedback. I continue to observe sessions, review data, evaluate implementation, and update instructions as treatment progresses.
Partnering With Caregivers
Parents and caregivers know the client in ways that an assessment cannot capture. They know the person’s history, preferences, routines, relationships, difficult moments, and accomplishments across daily life. I work collaboratively with caregivers to select priorities, understand what is happening outside scheduled sessions, and develop strategies that fit the family’s actual routines and capacity.
Caregiver support may include:
- Discussing current concerns and successes
- Learning why a behavior may be occurring
- Reviewing treatment strategies
- Watching a strategy being modeled
- Practicing with coaching and feedback
- Developing a realistic plan for a home routine
- Reviewing progress and treatment data
- Problem-solving when circumstances change
- Receiving visual supports, written guidance, or other practical resources
My standard for caregiver guidance is practical: could the family realistically use this strategy during a busy weekday, when people are tired and several things are happening at once? A strategy needs to work in the family’s life. With caregiver permission, I can also collaborate with teachers, physicians, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and other professionals involved in the client’s care.
Where Services Take Place
Services are primarily provided in homes and community settings in southern Connecticut, depending on the client’s needs, location, insurance authorization, and current provider availability. Working in everyday environments helps me see details that may otherwise be missed. A skill that appears easy during a quiet teaching activity may be much harder when siblings are nearby, dinner is being prepared, or the family is trying to leave the house. Those are often the situations in which support matters most. Community-based work may be incorporated when it is clinically appropriate and included in the treatment plan.
How Services Begin
1. Initial Conversation
A parent or caregiver contacts me to share basic information about the prospective client, location, insurance, current concerns, and the type of support being requested. This first conversation is also an opportunity for the family to ask questions and learn whether my approach feels comfortable to them.
2. Preliminary Fit and Insurance Review
I consider whether Behave Yourself may be able to meet the prospective client’s needs, whether the location is within my current service area, and whether scheduling, provider availability, and insurance participation align. If I believe another provider or type of service may better meet the person’s needs, I will be honest about that.
Insurance-funded ABA services generally require an autism diagnosis, active coverage, and authorization from the payer.
3. Assessment
If we move forward, I complete an assessment to learn about the client’s skills, needs, behavior, preferences, family priorities, and relevant history. Assessment may include caregiver interviews, record review, observation, and direct skill assessment.
Assessment is also the beginning of our working relationship. I am learning how the client responds to me, what helps them feel comfortable, what captures their interest, and how they show me when something is too difficult or unclear.
4. Treatment Planning and Authorization
I use the assessment findings to develop individualized goals and treatment recommendations. The treatment plan is reviewed with the caregiver and submitted to the payer when authorization is required. Families should understand what I am recommending, why I am recommending it, and how the proposed goals connect to the concerns that brought them to me.
5. Starting Treatment
Once the necessary approvals are in place, services are scheduled based on the treatment plan and provider availability. If an RBT will provide direct treatment, I complete client-specific onboarding and provide support as the RBT gradually assumes the regular session routine.
6. Ongoing Review
I review progress through treatment data, direct observation, caregiver reports, and the client’s response to intervention. Goals and procedures are updated as needed. Treatment should evolve. Some goals will be mastered, some will become less important, and new needs may emerge as the client grows and circumstances change.
Is Behave Yourself the Right Fit?
Fit depends on the prospective client’s needs, age, location, insurance coverage, scheduling needs, and current availability.
Behave Yourself may be a good fit for families seeking:
- Direct involvement from the supervising BCBA
- A small and closely supported clinical team
- Individualized goals connected to everyday life
- Caregiver collaboration and practical guidance
- Regular review of treatment effectiveness
- Honest communication about progress and recommendations
I especially value the moments when a family begins to notice that something is becoming easier: their child communicates before becoming overwhelmed, completes one more part of a routine independently, handles a change that previously would have ended the activity, or joins an interaction that used to feel out of reach. Those moments are the reason the data, planning, teaching, and collaboration matter.
The first step is a conversation so I can learn about your family’s needs and we can determine whether moving forward together makes sense.
Behave Yourself LLC 