Straight answers.

No. Call us with no diagnosis, no referral and no paperwork. We'll tell you what you'd need for insurance to fund therapy, and if an evaluation is the next step we'll point you to one. What you should not do is wait for a diagnosis before starting the conversation, the two tracks can run at the same time.

We provide ABA, speech and occupational therapy to children up to age 18. Diagnostic evaluations through the practice Success On The Spectrum partners with start at 18 months and go through adulthood. There is no minimum age to call and ask questions.

Availability changes week to week and depends on the hours and setting your child needs, a full-day center placement and two after-school in-home hours are very different asks. Call and ask where we stand today. We will give you a real answer rather than adding you to a list and going quiet.

The assessment day is booked from 9:00am to 3:00pm, on a day that suits you. Your child plays while a behavior analyst works out their current skill level across communication, play, social behavior, self-care and early academics, and you get interviewed about what matters most at home. It does not feel like an exam, and there is nothing to prepare your child for. Bring lunch and whatever your child normally needs for a full day. You don't have to stay for all of it.

About a month, if your child already has a diagnosis and active coverage. Benefits verification takes one to three business days. Then your plan has to authorize the assessment, roughly a week. The assessment is a day. The analyst needs one to two weeks to score it and write the report, then meets you to agree the hours. Those hours go back for a second authorization, about another week. If you need a diagnosis first, add that to the front. Insurers set their own pace, and when one runs late you'll hear it from us rather than having to chase.

With Texas ECI, today. Early Childhood Intervention serves children from birth to their third birthday, evaluation and case management are free, other services run on a sliding scale, and no family is turned away for inability to pay. You can refer your own child. You do not need a doctor's permission. Run a medical evaluation alongside it rather than after it. How ECI works, and what changes at three →

They are decided by different people against different standards. A school district determines educational eligibility for special education; a doctor or psychologist determines whether your child meets medical criteria for autism. Neither produces the other automatically, and insurers generally want the medical one before funding therapy. Run both tracks in parallel. The school side, explained →

Yes, and you should, here and everywhere else you're considering. Bring your child. Watching how a team greets a child they've never met tells you more than any brochure. Request a tour.

It comes out of the assessment data, not a package. Programs generally range from a few focused hours a week up to full-day comprehensive schedules, and the recommendation depends on your child's age, skill level and goals. Your insurance also has a say through authorization. Any provider who quotes you an hour count before assessing your child is guessing.

An RBT works one-to-one with your child on the goals in their plan. New skills are taught through play, and progress is motivated with reward systems your child cares about. Work happens in a stateroom when a skill is new, then moves into the playroom, social room, mock classroom or community as it gets stronger. Data is collected throughout, which is what lets the BCBA see whether it's working.

Hands-on therapy is delivered by Registered Behavior Technicians, working to a plan written and overseen each week by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Everyone on the floor is CPR certified and Safety-Care trained, and the team sits down for training weekly. Behavior analysts practising in Texas hold the TDLR-issued LBA licence alongside national BCBA certification. Ours do. What these credentials mean →

We aim for consistency, because rapport is most of the work. Some rotation is deliberate (a skill that only works for one specific adult isn't a skill yet) and some is unavoidable when people take leave. Ask us who is assigned to your child and how changes get communicated.

Yes, and communication is usually the first target. That may mean vocal speech, or signs and gestures, or a picture system, or a speech-generating device, whatever gives your child a reliable way to be understood soonest. Giving a child AAC does not reduce their chance of speaking.

Yes. Potty training and food programs are two of the most commonly requested targets we run, and often the two that change a family's daily life the most. Where sensory defensiveness or swallowing is involved, our OT and speech teams work on it alongside the ABA program.

These are exactly what a behavior analyst is trained for. The work starts with figuring out what the behavior accomplishes for your child, then teaching a replacement that works better and faster than the behavior does, then building self-calming strategies. Staff are Safety-Care certified. Be candid with us at intake about what happens on a bad day. It changes the plan.

SOS McKinney accepts most insurances. Whether we're in network on your specific plan depends on the plan design, not just the carrier's name, which is why the free benefits check exists. Send us your card and we'll find out in one to three business days. More on how coverage works.

It depends on your deductible, your copay or coinsurance, and your out-of-pocket maximum. Because ABA is high-frequency, many families meet their deductible early in the plan year and some reach their out-of-pocket maximum, after which covered services are paid in full. We'll give you the numbers for your plan in writing before you commit to anything. See the plain-English breakdown.

Many Texas plans are required to cover autism treatment, including ABA, speech and occupational therapy, under the Texas Insurance Code. The big exception is self-funded employer plans, which are governed by federal law instead of the state mandate, though many of those cover ABA anyway. The details, including how to tell which kind you have.

Texas Medicaid has covered ABA for clients 20 and younger since February 2022, with prior authorization and a treatment plan signed by the prescribing provider. Details vary by managed care organization. Tell us which plan you're on and we'll check.

ABA for TRICARE families runs through the Autism Care Demonstration, currently authorized through the end of 2028. It has its own requirements, a diagnosis from a qualifying provider, ECHO and EFMP enrollment for active duty families, and four baseline outcome measures before therapy starts. More detail here.

A denial is a first answer. Many are documentation problems we can fix by resubmitting. Beyond that there's an internal appeal, a peer-to-peer review where your BCBA speaks to the plan's reviewer, and independent external review. If we're out of network and there's no in-network provider with availability, a single case agreement is worth asking for. The full appeal path.

The center runs Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. In-home sessions run Monday to Thursday, 4:30pm to 6:30pm. Social skills groups meet weekly after school. We're open year-round with no summer break and only 10 holiday closures a year. Call to confirm current weekend and before/after care availability.

Whenever you want. The parent viewing room is open to you without an appointment and without a designated observation day. Cameras also cover the building. Ask any provider you are considering whether you could watch a session tomorrow. The answer is informative.

Every session produces data against goals with numbers attached to them. Your child's records are held in CentralReach, the practice system used across ABA, and you get your own login to it. Log in whenever you like to read the progress data, message the team securely, and see invoices. Your behavior analyst also sits down with you regularly to go through what is moving and what has stalled, and a goal that has not moved in a month is our problem to fix, not your child's.

Yes. It is a condition of enrolling, not an optional extra. There is a session every week, and we will coach anyone who spends real time with your child: both parents, grandparents, siblings, sitters. A skill that only works inside our building is not much use to your family, and moving it home is largely your job. What training actually covers →

Yes. School shadowing puts one of our technicians alongside your child in class, supporting them and recording what actually happens without turning them into the kid with a grown-up attached. It needs the district's cooperation and that takes lead time, so raise it early. School support in detail →

Tell us as early as you can. Consistency matters more in ABA than in most therapies, because skills build session over session, but children get sick, and we'd rather they stay home than bring it to a room full of other children. Attendance expectations are set out in the parent handbook.

We can provide your child's progress data and reports for you to take into an ARD meeting, and we can put a technician in the classroom through school shadowing where the district agrees to it. What we are not is your legal advocate, for that, Texas has free parent training and information centers, and they are good. We have written up the evaluation timeline and a template request letter so you can start the process yourself. School support →

Yes. Families come to us from across Collin County: Prosper, Celina, Melissa, Anna, Princeton, Frisco and Allen among them. In-home sessions run within about 10 miles of the center, so whether we can come to you depends on where in the county you are. Ask when you call and we'll tell you straight away.

Three of them, and they are worth knowing before you plan around it. You need to be within roughly 10 miles of the center. An adult has to be present for the whole session, a technician is never alone with your child at your address. And in-home isn't the right setting for aggressive behavior; those goals are worked first in the center, where there is a team and the space to do it safely. Mileage fees can apply depending on distance, and we give you the figure before you agree to anything.

It deserves a real answer rather than a defensive one. Much of the criticism from autistic adults is aimed at how ABA was practiced decades ago: aversive procedures, forcing eye contact, suppressing stimming, drilling compliance for its own sake, and treating “looks less autistic” as the goal. None of that describes the therapy delivered in this center.

What we do: teach through play, use rewards rather than punishment, build communication first so a child has an alternative to frustration, and choose goals that expand a child's independence and choices. Stimming that isn't harmful is not a target. If you ever see something in your child's plan that looks like compliance for compliance's sake, say so, and you can watch any session, any day, to check.

The goal is not to make your child appear non-autistic. It is communication, independence, safety and choices, plus the self-control and positive self-concept that let them use those things. Their personality, their interests and their way of experiencing the world are not the target.

Earlier is better, the research on early intensive intervention is strong and we won't pretend otherwise. But “earlier is better” is not the same as “later is pointless.” Older children and teens work on independence, social competence, self-advocacy, vocational and safety skills, and the gains there are real. We serve children up to 18.

Then we'll tell you, and we'd rather do it in week one than month six. There's an agency comparison checklist on the SOS national site. Use it on us and on everyone else you're considering. If another provider answers it better for your child, that's the right outcome. Download the checklist ↗