Behavior Therapy Services

Many children and adolescents with autism and related disorders can benefit from behavior therapies that aim to reduce disruptive behaviors, improve a child’s functioning, and address co-occurring mental health disorders like depression or anxiety. Our Autism Center clinicians utilize several treatments matched to the child’s age, specific symptoms, and degree of impairment. Each treatment is strongly supported by research and personalized by our clinicians to each family’s specific needs.

We also consult with school staff and provide specific recommendations to ensure the child is receiving comprehensive support across settings.

Parents of children with autism often need to develop specialized parenting skills to manage behavior, help their child regulate emotions, and navigate routines of daily life. The Rubi Autism Network Behavioral Parent Training program is based on principles of applied behavior analysis and is specifically for children who have autism spectrum disorder with co-occurring behavioral difficulties, including tantrums, noncompliance, challenges with transitions, and aggressive behavior. Parents are taught to use behavioral strategies and preventative tools to reduce disruptive behavior and build replacement skills. The Unstuck and On Target program is a research-based intervention for children on the autism spectrum who struggle with executive functioning, inflexibility, and emotional outbursts. Using the Unstuck and On Target curriculum, parents are coached on how to utilize strategies proactively to help their child manage big emotions, work collaboratively with others, and develop alternative options to solve problems in daily life.

As children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disorders mature, they often experience mood and anxiety issues, academic difficulties, weak organizational skills, and family conflict. To target these challenges, our clinicians use cognitive-behavioral and problem-solving interventions. They help older children and teenagers increase their ability to manage their symptoms, and improve their interactions with parents, peers, and teachers.

Our interventions utilize approaches from the Early Start Denver Model to provide individualized treatment to the child and coaching to the parent. This treatment approach supports the parent’s daily interactions between therapy sessions to enhance the child’s development of communication, social, play, and behavioral regulation skills.

This therapy focuses on the improvement of mealtime behaviors in children with avoidant and restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) as well as children with picky eating or challenging mealtime behavior. The objectives of treatment are to reduce challenging mealtime behaviors, decrease mealtime anxiety surrounding new or nonpreferred foods, increase independent feeding, and expand the repertoire of foods a child will eat.