Why Number of Hours Are Important
Applied Behavior Analysis goals are developed to allow people to live their best lives. Many people have had the experience first hand or as a parent of attending speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapies. There are many similar goals but all of them encompass making progress towards goals!
ABA differs from other therapies as it requires a time commitment that is vastly different than other therapies. The reason is that hours of ABA therapy that are allocated to client’s are based on evidence base research of what is known about efficacy or how a program will work. Many of our client’s goals require multiple trials for mastery of skills. As such, hours per week are assigned to meet these goals.
BCBAs use evidence based research to determine the “prescription” of hours that is needed for each client. This is similar to a doctor who may prescribe a medication for illness or chronic condition. The doctor is prescribing based on research, individual variables as age and weight and other criteria. If a doctor were to prescribe 100mg of an antibiotic for 10 days; compliance is a must for treatment to work and to avoid antibiotic resistance. This is also true for ABA therapy.
If a client is recommended for 20 hours of therapy a week, it is because evidence shows that this is the prescription. If a client only attends 10 hours per week, that is only 50% of recommendation. It would be similar to taking half of an antibiotic and likely not effective.
ABA is a time intensive commitment. However, research shows that it is effective. At the time of the writing, there is no cure for autism and ABA remains the “Gold Standard” for autism intervention. Autism is a lifetime diagnosis.
While BCBAs will determine the specific hours based on their clinical recommendations and evidence based research, hours cannot be adjusted based on client availability. In other words, if a family reports that their child is only available “4-6, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday” (or 6 hours per week), and the clinical recommendation is 20 hours, BCBAs cannot recommend 6 hours simply because of scheduling issues. The prescription does not change based on schedule, but can change based on progress and severity level.
The below table is an example of hours recommended. Please note that this table should not be used instead of a behavior analysts recommendation for individual clients:
| Level 3 (requiring very substantial support) |
30-40 hours per week |
| Level 2 (requiring substantial support) |
20-30 hours per week |
| Level 1 (requiring support) |
10-20 hours per week |
