How are my child’s goals developed and measured?

Butterfly Effects understands the importance of your child’s goals. Therefore, we strive to individualize each goal to fit your child’s needs and are important to the family. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA’s) create these goals in two steps. First, caregiver interviews are a vital piece of determining what goals are appropriate for your child. In these interviews, caregivers can discuss main concerns regarding their child’s current skills and/or difficult behaviors (e.g., tantrums).

Second, BCBA’s use a wide variety of assessments to assess your child’s skills compared to peers their own age. Goals are then created from the current skill level of your child and then continued to be built on for a strong foundation of skills, ultimately increasing skill levels to that of their peers. All goals fit into the following domains: Receptive Communication, Expressive Communication, Pragmatic Communication, Self Help Skills and Behavior.

Before therapy sessions begin, baseline data is collected. This shows your child’s skill level prior to beginning ABA therapy. After 6 months, the baseline data is compared to the current data. For example:

• Baseline: Billy can expressively label 2 objects in 80% of opportunities.
• 6 months Progress: Billy can expressively label 15 objects in 80% of opportunities.

Data on goals are collected during each ABA therapy sessions. Each of your child’s goals will be measured by a range of different data collection procedures. BCBA’s use data collected on your child’s goals to guide them in their next steps to ensure progress is made in every area.