What ABA does
ABA breaks a skill into teachable steps, teaches them deliberately, measures whether the teaching worked, and adjusts when it does not. That measurement is the real point of it: progress is recorded rather than assumed, so a programme that is not working gets changed instead of continuing for a year.
It is most often used with autistic children, and it is applied to communication, daily living skills, play, social skills, and behaviours that are unsafe or that block learning.
Our position on how it should be run
Families researching ABA will find strong criticism of it, much of it from autistic adults describing older, compliance-driven programmes. We think that criticism is largely fair, and it shapes how we work.
- Goals are built around the child's quality of life, not around making a child look less autistic
- Naturalistic, play-based teaching in real situations wherever possible, rather than long drill blocks at a table
- Communication comes first, including alternative and augmentative communication where speech is limited
- Stimming is not a target unless it is genuinely harmful. It usually serves a purpose worth understanding
- Distress is a signal to stop and rethink, never something to work through
- Parents see the data, and can change or end goals at any point
Behaviour is communication
Before any programme starts, we look at what a behaviour is achieving for the child. Behaviour that looks like defiance is very often a request, an escape from something overwhelming, or the only available way to say that something hurts.
Once the function is clear, the work is usually to teach a better way of achieving the same thing, rather than simply removing the behaviour. Suppressing a behaviour without replacing its function tends to produce a different behaviour, and a more frustrated child.
How intensive should it be?
You may read that ABA requires 30 or 40 hours a week. We do not start there. We build a plan around what your child can tolerate, what your family can genuinely sustain, and what the goals actually require, then review it against the data.
For many children a smaller, well-targeted programme alongside speech and occupational therapy achieves more than a large one that exhausts everybody by month three.
What you get at eMbrace
- Goals set around quality of life, chosen with parents and reviewed openly
- Naturalistic, play-based teaching rather than long table-top drilling
- Function of behaviour understood before any plan is written
- Hours matched to what the child and family can sustain, not a fixed number
Where we offer ABA therapy
eMbrace runs three centres across Delhi NCR, plus online sessions for families elsewhere in India and abroad. For locality-specific details, including addresses, travel and what happens at a first visit:
Frequently Asked Questions
Older compliance-focused programmes drew serious and legitimate criticism. Modern practice looks different, and how a programme is run matters far more than the label. Ask any provider exactly how they work.
It is most commonly used with autistic children, but the principles apply to skill teaching and behaviour support more broadly, including developmental delay and intellectual disability.
It depends on goals, age and what your family can sustain. We build a realistic plan and review it against recorded progress rather than starting from a fixed number.
Not unless the stimming is genuinely harmful. Stimming usually serves a real purpose, and removing it without understanding that purpose is not something we do.
Yes, and most children do better that way. Because all three sit in the same team here, the goals are coordinated rather than pulling in different directions.
Not sure whether you need this yet?
Start with a free 15-minute intake call. A clinician will tell you honestly whether ABA therapy is the right next step, or whether something else is. There is no obligation and no waiting list to join.