Welcome to the ABA Pathfinder assessment

This assessment process plays an important role in developing behaviour strategies and skill acquisition programmes for your child. The completed assessment form will allow the consultant to gather and analyse information about your child’s behaviours and accompanying circumstances in order to determine why they occur. By determining the purpose of these behaviours, we can then devise interventions to reduce undesirable behaviours and help your child display more appropriate behaviours that will meet his/her needs or desires. Please be specific and detailed, where required, when completing this assessment as it will form a key part in devising an effective treatment plan for your child.

How long will this take?

We expect this assessment to take around 30 minutes to complete, but it could be more or less depending on your child. Please take your time and answer all the questions as thoroughly as possible. They will form the basis of your ABA Pathfinder so it is critical the data is accurate. You can leave this form and come back at any time - all your data will be saved.

How much will it cost?

There is a one off fee of £250 once you have completed the assessment form, which covers a consultant reviewing your submission and developing your unique ABA Pathfinder programme plan. There is no obligation to begin an annual ABA Pathfinder programme after receiving your plan.

Section 1 - You

This form is divided into 12 sections. Let’s get started with section 1. Here you will need to fill in your personal contact information and how you came to hear about Pathfinder. Make sure your email address is correct as this is how we will contact you.

Don't forget you can leave this form at any point and come back to complete it at a later date - as long as your browser allows cookies (all do by default) your data is saved as you go.

Section 2 - Your Child

From now on, all the information you give is focused on your child.

Let's start with the simple questions. In this section you'll need to fill in basic information about your child, their diagnosis and additional information on any treatments and therapies that they access.

It’s also important to let your consultant know a bit more general information about your child. We’ll ask about your child’s strengths and preferences as these are important considerations when putting together his/her individualised support plan.

Section 3 - Challenging Behaviours

This section focuses on your child’s current challenging behaviours. These will include behaviours that are impacting negatively on your child’s life, like tantrums, aggression and property destruction. You’ll need to describe what each problem behaviour looks like. For example, if you were describing a tantrum you might say he/she throws objects, kicks out and shouts. It’s important that you give a clear and detailed description of what the behaviour looks like. In addition, you can also tick the option which best describes the challenging behaviour.

We’ll also ask you to identify the intensity of the behaviour, how often it happens per day, and for how long. This information helps to determine the best way to measure the behaviour.

Finally, you will be asked to tick a box if there is a link between any of the behaviours you have described. For example, do the behaviours happen at the same time; happen in a predictable chain and/or occur in response to the same situation.

We tend to find most young people will have four to six challenging behaviours. You can enter a maximum of ten. Your consultant will help you focus on the few behaviours that will have the biggest impact when designing your programme.

Section 4 - Medical

It is important for your consultant to understand any other medical issues your child has as these can affect the behaviour and the way that behaviour is addressed.

Section 5 - Sleep

This section will focus on your child’s sleep patterns and the effect they may have on his/her behaviour

Section 6 - Food

In this section please provide a breakdown of your child’s eating pattern. It’s helpful to provide information on their food likes, dislikes and any diet restrictions they may have.

Section 7 - Schedule

This section focuses on your child’s daily routine. It's important to give the consultant a full picture of your child's day and how certain behaviours may relate to the activities.

• First for each hour of the day, please let us know if their time is generally structured or unstructured.
• Second tick the activities that tend to happen in this hour. You can tick as many activities as are relevant for each hour

Section 8 - Triggers

In this section of the assessment we look at four very important questions:

1. When problem behaviours are likely to occur
2. Where problem behaviours are likely to occur
3. With whom problem behaviours are likely to occur
4. During what activities problem behaviours are likely to occur

This information is vital in helping your consultant identify key factors that may lead to challenging behaviours. Please be specific when identifying times of day, people and situations, where the problem behaviours are most likely to occur.

When are the behaviours most and least likely to occur?

Where are the behaviours​ most and least likely to occur?

With whom are the behaviours most and least likely to occur?

During what activities are the behaviours most and least likely to occur?

Section 9 - Leisure

This section of the assessment looks at your child’s play skills, particularly focusing on how they spend their leisure time. We'll ask who they spend down time and leisure time with, and how they respond to spending time with others during leisure time.

Section 10 - Function

In section 10 we focus on why the problem behaviour occurs. Behaviour is a form of communication, so we need to figure out what your child’s behaviour is saying and what they are getting and/or avoiding/escaping. Essentially we need to determine the function of their behaviour.

Are the problem behaviours more or less likely in the following scenarios

Why do you think your child engages in this behaviour?

Section 11 - Comments

By now we should have enough data on your child for one of our skilled consultants to begin to build a comprehensive ABA programme. However, we know that every child is different. This section allows you to add anything else you think we should know about.