Helping your Child thrive
Finding the right place for your child to learn is step one in making this happen, but when your child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), this task can feel much more challenging.
Problem Solutions
Why Best Abilities?
Autism interferes with a child’s interactions, preventing them from learning many cognitive skills. Best Abilities has the potential to reduce daily demand on educators and district resources, and increase a child’s opportunity for mainstream education. By providing early intervention ABA therapy, we aim to:
i. Promote children’s independence and participation
ii. Improve long-term outcomes and quality of life
iii. Educate, train and support parents and families
Research data suggests that early intervention ABA therapy can maximize a child’s chance to reduce or eliminate behavior that interferes with learning. Children have a greater chance to catch up to same-age peers and increase quality of life at home, school and in the community with ABA therapy
Early Intensive Developmental and
Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI)
General Information
a. The Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI) Benefit is a Minnesota Health Care Program. The purpose of the EIDBI Benefit is to provide medically necessary early intensive intervention for people with ASD and related conditions, as well as:
i. Educate, train and support their parents and families
ii. Promote people’s independence and participation in family, school and community life
iii. Improve long-term outcomes and the quality of life for people and their families.
EIDBI eligibility
i. A person is eligible to receive EIDBI services if he or she meets all of the following criteria:
ii. Has had a comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluation (CMDE) that establishes medical necessity for EIDBI services
iii. Has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or a related condition
iv. Is enrolled in Medical Assistance, Minnesota Care, Minnesota Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (MA-TEFRA) or other qualifying health care program
v. Is younger than 21 years old.
Example of potential related conditions
i. Asperger syndrome
ii. Pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS).
iii. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)
iv. Rett syndrome
v. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
vi. Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, or tourette’s syndrome.
vii. Oppositional defiance disorder
EIDBI services coordinate with other services, including:
i. Mental Health
ii. Crisis services
iii. Respite
iv. Speech, Occupational and Physical therapy
v. Case management.
EIDBI Core Services Include:
Comprehensive Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation to determine whether or not a child or young adult is eligible for EIDBI services, and if so, to make recommendations for treatment. Intensive Intervention to teach skills and help individuals regulate behavior and reach development milestones. Family and Caregiver Counseling and Training to help parents and caregivers understand the individual’s condition, about the treatment plan and how caregivers can help the person generalize skills learned in treatment, and about other resources available to support the person and their family, and how to access them.
Comparison of Children’s Therapeutic Services and Supports (CTSS) and EIDBI
a. CTSS
i. CTSS is a Minnesota Health Care Program (MHCP) benefit. It provides a flexible package of mental health services for children who need varying therapeutic and rehabilitative levels of services. CTSS psychiatric rehabilitation services for children combine both:
ii. Psychotherapy to address internal psychological, emotional and intellectual processing deficits
iii. Skills training to restore personal and social functioning to the proper developmental level.
iv. CTSS addresses conditions of emotional disturbance that impair and interfere with a person’s ability to function independently. Services are designed to either:
v. Restore a child to an age-appropriate developmental track that had been disrupted by a psychiatric illness
vi. Help the child self-monitor, compensate for, cope with, counteract or replace psychosocial skills, deficits or maladaptive skills developed over the course of a psychiatric illness.
EIDBI
i. EIDBI is a Minnesota Health Care Program (MHCP) benefit. It provides medically necessary, early intensive intervention for people with ASD and related conditions, as well as:
ii. Educates, trains and supports their parents and families
iii. Promotes people’s independence and participation in family, school and community life
iv. Improves long-term outcomes and the quality of life for people and their families.
v. Definition of related condition
1. A related condition is a condition that is closely related to
ASD and:
a. Is severe and chronic
b. Requires treatment or services similar to those required for a person with ASD
c. Results in a person’s substantial functional limitations in three core developmental domains
ABA Therapy for Autism
a. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), previously known as behavior modification, is a therapeutic approach to change behavior which begins by identifying the relationship between one’s behavior and their
environment to better understand why they are behaving in a particular way. This is followed by applying a set of behavioral principles and techniques to increase desired behaviors and decrease undesired
behaviors.
An ABA Therapy Program will consist of:
i. A period of time to establish baseline levels with the child.
ii. Direct, one-on-one or structured small group interaction between
the behavior therapist and the child.
iii. A variety of research-based teaching strategies that addresses
each child’s particular learning style in order to promote language
and other important developmental skills.
ABA therapy can help:
i. Increase language and communication skills
ii. Improve attention, focus, social skills, memory, and academics
iii. Decrease problem behaviors
What does an ABA Program Involve?
a. Good ABA programs for autism are not “one size fits all.” ABA should not be viewed as a canned set of drills. Rather, each program is written to meet the needs of the individual learner. The goal of any ABA program is to help each person work on skills that will help them become more independent and successful in the short term as well as in the future.
Resources
a. Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS)
i. https://mn.gov/dhs/
ii. https://www.proofalliance.org/
b. Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)
i. https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/autism/index.html
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