Autism and Special Needs Services
Our services are provided in a variety of settings including the clinic, home, school, and community. In addition, as part of our commitment to community outreach, ACES frequently hosts and participates in a wide variety of community events, parent support groups, parent training sessions, and workshops related to autism and other developmental disorders. To assure quality services, we collaborate with professionals in the international autism community and are participating in various research projects.
ACES is proud to serve families of various cultures. We provide services to families who speak Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Farsi, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Punjabi, and Hmong.
Insurance Based Services
ACES offers services to help individuals impacted with autism or other developmental disabilities maximize their full potential. We believe in providing comprehensive services, including autism therapy, to address all areas of need for our clients. ACES’ staff specializes in areas such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral intervention (ABA).
ACES is contracted to provide insurance-based services with most health insurance companies. We have a dedicated insurance department that can help you determine whether your child is eligible for insurance-funded services.
ACES Accepts Most Insurance Providers Including:
ACES Accepts Most Insurance Providers Including:
Early Infant Intervention
ACES believes in providing the earliest possible intervention for children with developmental disabilities and offers developmentally appropriate programs that focus on the child and family, along with assessing a child’s strengths and individual learning styles.
ACES also works with various local Regional Centers to provide comprehensive services for families. Services may include:
- Assessment
- 1:1 home therapy and training
- Weekly parent training
- Occupational therapy (fine motor, gross motor, sensory, self-help skills)
- Speech therapy (oral motor development)
- Parent support groups, including a 12-week curriculum on topics such as the IEP
- Collaboration with neurologists, pediatricians, and other outside services
- Attendance at transition IEPs, IFSP meetings, and IFSP goal development
- Social skills groups (Buddies, PALS)
- Center-based individual and group therapy
- Home-Based Intervention
Home-Based Intervention
Depending upon your location, local regulations, and funding source, ACES has the opportunity to provide home-based autism therapy and special needs services. Through Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), social skills therapies, and other proven teaching methodologies, ACES works with children and adults throughout the Western United States in their home environments, providing comprehensive and professional services to maximize their potential. Our objective with home-based services is to strike a balance in the home for families through skillful and compassionate intervention services, as well as provide a link between home programs and education through intervention and school support.
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Major Insurances Accepted: Aetna, BCBS, Humana, United, Cigna, and more!
Clinic-Based Intervention
ACES offers educational, behavioral, and social skills intervention at our various office locations. Clinic-based autism therapy and special needs services allow children and their families to access state-of-the-art resources at our facilities. ACES professionals are also able to co-treat at the various offices, maximizing the effectiveness of the services being provided.
Speech Therapy
A child's speech and language skills allow them to interact and communicate with others in their world. Speech and language services include intervention for delays or disorders in the following areas:
- Receptive language: How language is understood
- Expressive language: How language is used
- Speech Sound Production: Articulation and phonological disorders; motor speech disorders including apraxia of speech and dysarthria of speech
- Fluency Disorders: Including stuttering
- Voice and Resonance: The quality of voice production
At ACES, speech and language therapy sessions are individualized to meet the unique needs of each child. Our skilled therapists use motivating, play-based activities to maximize learning opportunities. We consider parents to be a vital component of the therapy process and strongly encourage their participation during sessions. Our speech therapists have been trained in ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and continue to work in collaboration with our ABA staff and the ACES Academy staff. Parents learn about speech and language disorders and are provided strategies to practice with their children at home.
Speech Therapy Services
- Services in both Spanish and English
- Hanen Center - Parent Education Programs
- It Takes Two to Talk
- More Than Words
- Target Words
- Learning Language and Loving It
- Occupational Therapy Co-treatments with OTs
- Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
- PROMPT
- Kaufman Speech Praxis Program
- Manual signing and gestures
- Visual strategies and supports
To see speech and language milestones, please visit the frequently asked questions of the website.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy (OT) focuses on addressing an individual's occupations such as play, independence, self-help skills, making friends, and succeeding in school. ACES pediatric OT utilizes sensory integration, movement, and play-based therapy to teach skills. The following skill areas are commonly addressed using OT: sensory integration, gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, sensory-motor, and social-emotional.
School Services
ACES provides a variety of school-based services in the home and school settings. Depending on the needs of the student and the school district, these services include behavior assessments, needs assessments, teacher consultation, aide training, modification of curriculum, inclusion consultation, and social facilitation consultation. If consultation is not sufficient, ACES can provide ABA aides or ABA supervisors to oversee the district programs. ACES can also design and implement a home-based ABA program to support the school program when needed. In these situations, ACES collaborates with district staff throughout the IEP process including the creation of IEP goals, implementation of goals, data collection, and reporting of progress.
Community-Based Instruction
As our mission indicates, ACES is committed to helping individuals with autism reach their potential in their community and not just in their homes or school. Through the use of autism therapy, such as ABA techniques, ACES provides community-based instruction to increase independence, safety, socialization, and overall integration. ACES provides a number of programs such as the Community Integration Program (CIP) in which individuals, parents, and siblings join other families in the community with the support of ACES staff.
Programs ACES Offers
- Early Intervention Groups: Buddies, Pals, and Friends ACES offers early intervention ABA therapy in small groups with clients 18 months to 4 years. Play and language are the primary focuses of these groups. “Pals” is considered a stepping stone for “Buddies” and is often the first exposure a child has to generalization and group learning. Each client will have an assigned 1:1 behavior interventionist that will target individualized goals. As the client acquires new skills and/or maladaptive behaviors are reduced, the client is incorporated into our peer-centered program, Buddies.
- ACES Learning Center ACES Learning Center is a group ABA program held in the clinic for clients ages 3-5 years old. Small groups (dyad, triad, or groups of 4-6 clients) are formed with peers of similar abilities, with each client having a 1:1 behavior interventionist. Often, clients will join the ACES Learning Center after they participate in the Early Intervention Groups at ACES. Once a client turns 6 years old, they are encouraged to join our Peer Social Skills Groups.
- Weekend or Weekday ABA Programs Weekend or Weekday ABA groups run weekly in the clinic for all ages and developmental levels. A clinic is a great place for clients to have access to peers, fun, and generalized activities. Teaching sessions occur in a small group format, with each client working toward individualized goals. Groups rotate to different stations, including work with teachers, social games, board games, fine motor, large/gross motor, and more. Small groups are formed with peers of similar age and ability.
- Community Integration Programs (CIP) ACES CIP Programs run on weekdays or weekends in the community. ACES staff support the entire family in aiding the client in integrating into their community. Clients will practice generalizing skills in new settings, such as movie theaters, bowling alleys, theme parks, restaurants, malls, and more. Clients of all developmental levels are welcome to participate. This program highlights adaptive and social skills as well as the generalization and maintenance of these skills.
- Peer Social Skills Groups Peer social skills groups at ACES strive to bring together clients of similar skill levels, ages, and interests to work on social skills in the clinic or community settings. Groups are offered for emerging, intermediate, and advanced level learners and have an emphasis on teaching social skills. Turn-taking, waiting, functional communication, perspective-taking, flexible thinking, problem-solving, conversation skills, reading, and responding to body language/facial cues are common skills targeted in these settings. Often, friendships are forged by clients who participate in this program.
- Pre-Teen and Teen Groups ACES offers pre-teen and teen groups to bring together clients of similar skill levels, ages, and interests to work on social skills that will help them make and keep friends. Community outings are planned by the pre-teens and teens based on locations that they want to access and enjoy outside of the ABA group. Often pre-teen and teen groups will practice and plan for an outing, attend the outing together, and finally review the outing. In addition to social groups for teens, ACES offers an adolescent health series to teach pre-teens and teens about their changing bodies and everyday health.
- Focused Social Skills Groups ACES offers a variety of focused social skills groups, including dance and movement, soccer, and t-ball. These groups run similarly to peer social skills groups but have an emphasis on one of the specific activities listed above. These groups are often used to expose clients to new leisure skills that they would have not otherwise experienced. The groups run in increments of 4 weeks in the clinic or a community setting. Friendships are forged from these groups and clients have also mainstreamed into community classes from the foundation given in the focused social skills group.
- Seasonal ABA Camps ACES offers seasonal camps in the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Camps generally run in the clinic for all ages and developmental levels for a duration of 3-5 hours. Clients are placed in small groups according to age and skill level. Groups rotate to various stations, including work with teachers, social games, board games, small motor, large motor, and more. Seasonal ABA Camps are a fun way to generalize skills to new groups.
To inquire about the programs offered in your location call us at: (800) 515-5016. Private pay options are always available if your child does not qualify through other funding sources.
Entrance/Transition/Exit Criteria
Individuals interested in accessing ABA services with ACES typically have a diagnosis of ASD, a related developmental disorder, or show signs of being at risk for ASD/related developmental disorder. ACES works with individuals from birth to adulthood to address areas of concern/delay. A transition plan will be developed for individuals receiving ACES services to specify when needs and progress warrant a change in service level and/or setting. Exit criteria from services will vary and are individualized, but often an individual may be exited from ACES services when all identified goals have been met or the individual has demonstrated age-level norms and no longer shows any delays. Services funded by a third party may have additional requirements for entry, transition, and exit of services.
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Major Insurances Accepted: Aetna, BCBS, Humana, United, Cigna, and more!
Social Skills Classes
ACES provides various social skills classes in a supportive and collaborative atmosphere. Our programs use the principles of ABA to teach critical adaptive, social, and communication skills. Programs are offered in multiple settings, including the community, home, and clinic. Beginner, intermediate and advanced groups are available in each program to accommodate your child’s skill level.
Parents observe weekly sessions and weekly group parent training and most often receive additional parent training in the home or everyday setting.