Most children attend ABA 10–40 hours a week for 1–3 years. The right answer depends on your child’s age, goals, and what insurance authorizes. Here’s how we figure it out together — with no waitlist.
ABA isn’t one-size-fits-all. Most insurance plans authorize one of two formats — and the hours-per-week number you’ll hear depends on which one your child needs.
For younger children (usually under 6) and families addressing a broad set of skills — communication, play, daily living, social, and behavior — all at once. Built around the early-intervention window when learning is fastest.
For older kids, school-age learners, or anyone with a narrower goal list — like reducing a specific behavior, building a particular life skill, or supplementing what school already provides.
The number of hours isn’t arbitrary. It’s based on the BCBA’s assessment, the goals your family wants to reach, and the dosage research supports for that age and skill set. We never push for more hours than your child needs — and we adjust the plan as your child progresses.
ABA is a marathon, not a sprint — but it has a finish line. Here’s what the journey usually looks like, broken into the phases your family will actually feel.
Building rapport
Your child meets their RBT and BCBA. Early sessions are mostly play — we’re learning what motivates your child and pairing the center (or therapist) with good things. Real teaching starts when your child is happy to be there.
Skill acquisition
The bulk of new learning happens here. Families typically see first words, first independent requests, first toilet successes, fewer meltdowns. We hold a 6-month review with you, the BCBA, and your insurance.
Generalization
Skills move from the therapy room into real life — home, the grocery store, the playground, school. Hours often start to step down here as your child takes on more independence.
Transition & discharge
Once goals are met or your child is school-ready, we plan a structured fade-out. Some families graduate fully; others move from comprehensive to focused ABA for ongoing support. Either way, discharge is the goal.
Before a single therapy session, your BCBA spends several hours assessing your child and writing a treatment plan. That plan is what your insurance reviews — and what tells us how many hours per week to recommend.
See our full intake process →Your BCBA uses tools like the VB-MAPP, ABLLS-R, or AFLS — depending on age — to map your child’s current skills against age-typical milestones. We also interview you about what matters most at home.
The BCBA drafts 8–15 measurable goals across communication, social, daily living, play, and behavior reduction. You approve them. Nothing gets worked on that you didn’t sign off on.
We submit the plan; the insurer authorizes a weekly hour count — usually 6 months at a time. Most authorizations fall in the 15–30 hour range for school-age kids and 25–40 hours for younger ones.
Every 6 months we re-assess, share data with you, and recommend stepping hours up, down, or holding steady. The plan flexes — your child’s real progress drives it, not a calendar.
Every goal in your child’s plan has a measurable definition and a way to track it. That’s the “A” in ABA — Applied. You’ll see exactly what’s improving, what’s plateaued, and what we’re changing.
RBTs log frequency, duration, and accuracy on each goal during every session — not at the end of the month, not from memory. The BCBA reviews it weekly.
You meet with the BCBA once a month to review graphs, watch a session if you’d like, and decide what to push on next. No surprises at the 6-month mark.
A goal is “mastered” when your child performs it independently across 3 sessions, with 2 different people, in 2 different settings. Then we move on — or fade hours.
A few hours each month are reserved for coaching you — because gains don’t generalize if home looks completely different from the therapy room.
The same assessment from intake gets re-run at 6 months. Now you can see the same scoresheet, side by side — what shifted, what didn’t, what’s next.
We don’t keep families in ABA forever. When goals are met, we fade hours and plan a clean exit — often into a less-intensive support model or directly to school.
Every family’s plan is different — and we’d rather have a real conversation than guess. One short call gets you a custom recommendation.
“My son is a level 3 autistic. He has improved SO much here! He even found 2 of the therapists he really loves making him want to come to school.”
— Carmen E., On Target ABA parent
One conversation with our intake team gets you a realistic hours-per-week range, an insurance check, and a start date — usually within 72 hours. No waitlist.
Mon–Fri, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM · Most families pay $0 through insurance