Starting ABA therapy means a lot of new conversations. An evaluation. Insurance questions. A treatment plan full of terms you have never heard before. Parent training sessions where you are asked to practice strategies at home.
Those conversations are demanding in any language. If English is not your first language, or not the one you are most comfortable in, they can feel impossible.
You should feel welcomed and included in your child’s care at all times. At ABS Kids, we believe every child and family should feel supported from the first day. Here is what support is available, what to expect at each stage, and exactly how to ask for what you need.
You can request an interpreter, and it should not cost you anything
Language assistance is available at no charge to you. We provide it as a service to better support you and your family.
At ABS Kids, we have Spanish interpreters on staff. They are ABS Kids employees, which means they know our programs and the terminology your clinical team uses. For families who speak languages other than Spanish, we work with a professional interpretation service to arrange support.
You can request an interpreter at any point in your family’s care, from your very first phone call onward.
Where interpreters can support your family
Your initial assessment. This is the evaluation where a clinician gets to know your child and determines what services would help. You will be asked detailed questions about your child’s development, daily routines, and behavior. Your answers shape the treatment plan, so being able to answer fully and precisely matters more here than almost anywhere else.
Parent training and supervision meetings. These are the sessions where your child’s Behavior Analyst teaches you the strategies your child’s team uses, so the progress made in therapy carries over to home. This is the part of ABA that depends most on clear two-way communication.
Phone calls with your child’s team. Scheduling, questions between sessions, updates on progress. Our team is here for the everyday questions and discussions as well.
Conversations about your child’s documents. An interpreter can go through a report, treatment plan, or any other paperwork with you, as long as a member of your child’s team is on the call. That may be your Behavior Analyst, your assessor, or the clinician who completed the evaluation. Interpreters support the conversation between you and your provider, so you hear the explanation from the person who knows your child’s case.
“Interpreters are the bridge between families and understanding, a lifeline for voices that may not speak the same language but share the same hopes.” *Andrea Castaneda, Interpreter Team Lead, ABS Kids
What can be provided in Spanish, and what cannot
We want to be straightforward about this so nothing catches you off guard.
Onboarding forms and consent documents. Our ABA and psychological services onboarding teams include Spanish speakers who walk families through these documents. Ask your onboarding contact for the Spanish versions of any intake paperwork.
Reports, treatment plans, and authorization documents are not translated. Official clinical reports cannot be translated under our guidelines. What we can do instead is schedule a call where your provider goes over the document with you, section by section, with an interpreter present, so you can ask questions as you go. Families who want a written report in Spanish have the option of seeking an evaluation from a Spanish-speaking provider who produces reports in Spanish.
Bilingual staff at your center
Many ABS Kids team members are bilingual, including our teams in regions with large Spanish-speaking communities. In California, that includes Greater San Diego, Imperial Valley, the Inland Empire, Ventura County, and Temecula Valley.
Therapy sessions themselves are delivered in English, in line with clinical guidelines. Interpretation supports the conversations around your child’s care: the assessment, parent training, planning meetings, and everyday questions.
Bilingual staff are not a substitute for a trained interpreter during clinical conversations like assessments and parent training, where precision matters. But for daily drop-off and pickup, quick questions, and building a comfortable relationship with the people who work with your child, it makes a real difference.
If it matters to you that someone on your child’s team speaks Spanish, say so during intake. We cannot promise it in every location, but we can tell you honestly what is available.
Written materials in Spanish
We have information about autism and ABA therapy available in Spanish, including a plain-language FAQ that covers:
- What autism spectrum disorder is and what the common signs are
- What is currently understood about the causes, including a direct answer on the vaccine question
- How autism is diagnosed and what the evaluation process involves
- What ABA therapy is, what it teaches, and what it looks like day to day
- Back-to-school checklists for parents and teacher notifications
Ask your intake specialist or your child’s Behavior Analyst for these materials. If you would rather read something before your first call, that is a completely reasonable thing to request.
A question many families ask: should we speak English at home?
Parents often ask whether continuing to speak Spanish at home will slow their child’s progress or make communication harder.
Talk with your child’s Behavior Analyst about this directly. Your child’s goals are built around your child and your family, and your home language is part of that picture. A good clinical team will treat your family’s language as something to work with, not something to work around.
Dr. Lucina Uddin, a neuroscientist at UCLA, talked about this on an episode of our podcast, Autism Weekly. Her research found that autistic children from bilingual households showed stronger cognitive flexibility, and her takeaway for families was that there is no harm in speaking more languages at home. Listen to episode.
What to expect, step by step
Intake. Your first contact with ABS Kids. Tell the intake specialist at this stage that you would prefer to communicate in Spanish. This gets noted early and follows your family through the process.
Onboarding. You will complete forms and consent documents. Our onboarding teams include Spanish speakers who can go through these with you.
Evaluation. A clinician assesses your child. Request an interpreter for this appointment when you schedule it. This allows our team to prepare and make sure the right support is there for you and your family.
Treatment plan and authorization. Your plan is developed and submitted to your insurance. The plan itself is not translated, but you can ask for a call with your Behavior Analyst and an interpreter to go through it before therapy begins.
Therapy begins. Your child works with a Behavior Technician or Registered Behavior Technician, supervised by a Behavior Analyst.
Parent training. Ongoing sessions where you learn the strategies being used with your child. Request an interpreter for these on a standing basis rather than one at a time.
How to ask
You do not need special wording. Any of these work:
- “I would prefer to have this conversation in Spanish. Can you arrange an interpreter?”
- “Can we schedule a call to go over this document in Spanish?”
- “Do you have this form in Spanish?”
An open line of communication helps us support you and your family. If you have asked for language support and it has not reached you yet, follow up with your center’s Operations Manager. We value your feedback at any point in the process, as you and your child experience new milestones.
Getting started
If you are just beginning to look into ABA therapy for your child, or you are already receiving services somewhere and language has been a barrier, we are happy to talk it through.
Call us at 800-434-8923 or email [email protected]. Let us know Spanish is your preferred language and we will arrange the conversation accordingly.
Every family deserves to understand their child’s care completely.
About ABS Kids: ABS Kids partners with children and families to deliver high-quality, compassionate applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy at home, in schools, and in our centers. From diagnosis to ongoing treatment, we support children with autism every step of the way. We proudly provide ABA therapy in California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Join our team to combine purpose with professional growth.
