On a recent Monday morning, ranch owner Paige Clough offered a barn tour to a few autistic youngsters, teaching them about horse behavior and safety precautions while the wind tossed sandy dirt in the air and raindrops sprinkled over Paloma Trails property near Katy.
Some children who are Texas ABA Center clients were thrilled to get the chance to pet the horses, while others refused to interact with them. According to Clough, novel situations, like horses at a ranch, can be too exciting for kids with autism.
According to Clough, they typically begin the experience as shy and end up becoming more receptive. They are drawn to the horses.
One of the many quarterly community engagement events that Texas ABA Center organizes for its autistic clients to promote social interaction with peers and the community and enhance their applied behavioral analysis therapy treatment is equine therapy at Paloma Trails.
In July, Texas ABA Center established its first clinic in Katy, Texas, and by early 2025, it plans to open two more in the Houston area: one in Pearland and one in Sugar Land. Children from 18 months to 23 years old in Harris and Waller Counties can receive diagnostic testing and autism care services from the Katy Clinic, the company’s first ABA therapy care center of its sort in Texas.
Franco, age six, took a while to get comfortable touching any of the ranch’s animals. Franco finally consented to brush a pony after much persistence, support, and encouragement from a registered behavior technician (RBT) and a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) at the Texas ABA Center. He then celebrated his well-earned carriage trip with his fists lifted to the skies.
At the Texas ABA Center in Katy, that is the standard. In order to help children with autism—a neurological and developmental disorder that impacts how people learn, communicate, interact, and behave—navigate life on the spectrum and equip them with the skills they need to have a fulfilling future, its individualized, play-based approach seeks to provide them with an immersive experience. If schools permit an ABA therapist, that setting may be in the home, the clinic, or a day spent in the community with horses.
According to Executive Director Brittani Vincent, it’s crucial to be able to meet clients where they are. It should be organic. It should be relevant to their lives and the things they are attempting to create for themselves.
Two gyms, a game room, a chill room, an arts and crafts room to assess motor skills, a learning center for virtual learning, a discrete trial training room to teach skills with tangible reinforcements, and a social skills cafe to practice ordering, paying for, and dining are all features of the nearly 8,7000-square-foot Texas ABA Center clinic.
Short supply, high demand
The center also takes pride in its ability to diagnose and treat patients promptly and without a waitlist. In order to combat a nationwide industry crisis where families typically have to wait months to years to receive a diagnosis and treatment, Selma Ward, regional vice president of operations for Texas, stated that clients typically receive a diagnostic evaluation within three days and treatment within 47 days from the time initial contact is made. According to Ward, confirming insurance coverage with businesses accounts for the majority of the wait time at Texas ABA Center.
According to a recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services study, over 61% of U.S. centers had wait times for autism evaluations longer than four months, and 15% of centers reported wait times longer than a year or waitlists so full they were unable to accept new referrals. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, autism spectrum disease affects one in every 36 children in the country.
Ward just stated from the Katy clinic that there is an amazing amount of demand and not an amazing response mechanism to meet that need.
It is difficult for a family to wait six months or a year to even receive a diagnostic evaluation when they are saying, “I know something’s there, I know something’s wrong.” This is because they not only do not have an answer, they are unable to receive one. We therefore sought to close that gap.
According to the study, many children may lose out on early intervention within the crucial early neurodevelopmental window when therapies have the biggest potential to change their lives due to evaluation delays.
Consequently, despite data showing an increase in the overall prevalence of autism among 8-year-olds, the vast majority of providers concentrate primarily on early intervention and cease treatment at age 8, according to Adriana Crostley, director of statewide education and outreach with Autism Society Texas. She supports the continuance of ABA therapy for autistic people as they become older, enter adulthood, attend college, live independently, and handle their money.
According to Crostley, ABA skills can be used for anything. We will continue to promote early intervention. It’s crucial for children to attempt, but it goes beyond that.
She stated that although she had never heard of Texas ABA Center before, she was overjoyed to discover that a new provider was offering care that continued into adolescence and early adulthood. It is uncommon to undertake in-house diagnostic evaluations in addition to that, she noted.
Only two or three of the hundreds of businesses I know conduct their own assessments, Crostley stated. According to her, families typically start the process of locating a provider after a diagnostic evaluation is completed by a different physician, pediatrician, or psychologist.
Crostley was taken aback by how quickly they provided services, and now looks forward to adding them to their list of resources for families searching for assessments and therapy.
How do they do it?
Employing well in advance to guarantee that an RBT is in place once their treatment plan is ready so that clients can begin receiving care right away is one method Texas ABA Center avoids waitlists, according to Ward. In order to encourage more RBTs to pursue careers as BCBAs—a position that faces significant workforce shortages—the center also places a high priority on and makes investments in professional development. According to the survey, there is a shortage of professionals who provide evaluations in over 69% of institutions. RBTs enrolled in master’s programs can apply for a fully paid scholarship to Temple University to pursue a master’s degree and become a board-certified behavior analyst. They also provide tuition reimbursement and an apprenticeship program where they can be supervised by one of their clinical directors.
You need a lot of patience because burnout is real. According to Destiny Daniel, an RBT at Texas ABA Center, “there is no perfect child on the spectrum, so you have to be strong-willed and open to a lot of the kids that we get here.”
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According to Ward, the investment has allowed them to create a work environment where staff members enjoy coming to work and where clients may advance quickly after only a few months of treatment.
“It’s difficult to describe the kind of joy and satisfaction that I get from this work because the change is so evident and it happens so quickly,” Ward said.
Since Franco began receiving in-home ABA therapy in June, Franchesca Valenti and her husband have observed a rapid improvement in his speech. Just two days after classes began this year, Franco’s kindergarten teacher told her that she had already observed a change in his conduct.
According to Valenti, he tries more to use his words and breaks out of his behavior with ease. Every child has tantrums, but he manages to escape them more readily [and] tries to tell stories. He may miss connectors, but I see him building sentences and he used to not say anything.
Before his level one diagnosis roughly over a year ago, as a psychologist, she said she noticed some signs that her son struggled communicating and forming sentences. She chalked it up to an effect from the pandemic when he wasn t socially exposed to anyone. She also thought it was something he d grow out of.
She had initially struggled to find the right treatment for Franco, consulting two other providers until she discovered the Texas ABA Center near her neighborhood in Katy.
The main problem she encountered was a lack of adaptability. One provider only accepted kids ages 1 to 6, and had limited hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday with small periods of time in the common area to play. She was also told that her son would spend eight hours in an office with an RBT based on his evaluation.
I wanted him to socialize better, not to be with an adult eight hours a day, Valenti said.
Texas ABA Center offered her flexible options, individualized care and Franco could play with other children. He goes twice a week.
Texas ABA Centers operates Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. It s close to Valenti s home in Katy, and Franco wouldn t have to miss school in order to receive ABA therapy.
We don t think that our family should have to choose between the academic side of things and ABA services that kiddos medically need, Vincent said.
Valenti was thrilled to learn that Franco eventually warmed up to the horses and gravitated so quickly toward his RBT, often holding her hand, hugging her and clinging to her tightly as she carried him around the ranch.
That wouldn t have been possible before, Valenti said. He would ve just not wanted to do the activity.
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