The plain-English glossary of ABA & autism terms

The evaluation that opens the door to EIDBI. A qualified professional reviews your child's needs and documents whether therapy is medically necessary. No CMDE, no EIDBI-funded therapy.

Minnesota's public benefit that pays for autism therapy, including ABA. If your child qualifies, EIDBI is usually how therapy gets covered — most families we work with pay nothing out of pocket.

Minnesota's staffing tiers for EIDBI, running from the professional who designs and supervises the treatment plan (Level I) to the staff who deliver day-to-day therapy under supervision (Level III).

Your child's written therapy plan under EIDBI: the goals, the hours, the methods, and how progress gets measured. It's reviewed and rewritten as your child changes.

Minnesota's name for Medicaid. It's the most common way autism therapy gets paid for in this state, because EIDBI sits inside it as a covered benefit.

State health coverage for Minnesotans who earn too much for Medical Assistance. It also qualifies a child for EIDBI, so it can be a route into covered therapy.

The EIDBI role for the clinician who oversees your child's therapy and is accountable for the treatment plan. In practice this is usually a BCBA.

A path to Medical Assistance for a child with a disability that counts only the child's own income — not the parents'. Earning too much for MA does not rule your family out.

A master's-level clinician certified in behavior analysis. The BCBA designs your child's program, trains the team that runs it, reads the data, and changes the plan when the data says to.

The person your child actually sits and plays with in session. Every BT works under BCBA supervision; an RBT is a BT who also holds the national RBT certification.

A pediatrician with extra training in child development. Often the doctor who diagnoses autism, and one of the professionals qualified to complete a CMDE.

A nationally certified therapist who delivers most of the hands-on session work, following the plan a BCBA wrote and under that BCBA's supervision.

A therapy that teaches skills in small, teachable steps and studies what happens around a behavior to understand it. Goals are individualized; good ABA looks like play, not drills.

A detailed skills inventory across language, self-help, play, and academics. It produces the grid of filled-in boxes you may see in a progress meeting.

The written plan that follows an FBA: what to change in the environment, what skill to teach instead, and how everyone responds. Used in clinics and in schools.

A task analysis breaks a routine like handwashing into its actual steps. Chaining teaches those steps one at a time until your child can run the whole routine.

An approach built on following a child's lead in play to grow connection and communication, rather than leading with structured teaching.

Structured teaching in short, repeated trials: a clear instruction, your child's response, and immediate feedback. Useful for skills that need many clean repetitions to build.

Starting support while a child's brain is at its most flexible. It doesn't mean rushing — it means not waiting for certainty before getting help in place.

Repeating back what someone says. It sounds small, but echoing is scaffolding — a lot of early speech is built on a child copying sounds and words.

A play-based early-intervention approach for young children that blends developmental and behavioral teaching inside everyday routines and play.

No longer reinforcing a behavior that used to work, while teaching a better way to get the same result. Always paired with a replacement skill — never used on its own.

Figuring out what a behavior is for — escape, attention, access, or comfort. Behavior is communication, and an FBA is how the team works out what's being said.

When a skill works outside the room it was taught in — with Grandma, at Target, in a new classroom. It's the point of therapy, not a bonus, so it's planned for from day one.

A request. Asking for juice — with a word, a sign, a picture, or a device — is a mand. It's often the first thing therapy targets, because it hands a child control.

Teaching in the middle of real life — during play, snack, or getting shoes on — instead of at a table. Skills learned where they're used tend to stick where they're used.

The first job of any new therapist: becoming someone your child likes. Before any demands, the team pairs itself with fun, so therapy starts from trust.

Time your child's BCBA spends coaching you, so the strategies that work in session work at bedtime and in the grocery store. It's a covered EIDBI service, not an extra.

A prompt is help — a gesture, a model, a hand guiding a hand. Prompt fading is deliberately removing that help step by step, so the skill ends up belonging to your child.

Anything that follows a behavior and makes it more likely next time — praise, a favorite toy, a turn on the swing. It's the engine of ABA, and it's individual to each child.

How a child takes in sound, light, touch, and movement. A room that feels ordinary to you can be too loud or too bright for them — which changes what they can learn in it.

Building a skill by rewarding closer and closer attempts. A sound becomes a syllable, a syllable becomes a word — each step counted as progress on the way.

Small planned groups where children practice turn-taking, sharing, and play with peers, with a therapist supporting the moments that are hard.

Repetitive movement or sound — rocking, hand-flapping, humming — that helps a person regulate. Stimming is not a problem to be erased; it's addressed only when it's unsafe or blocks something a child wants.

Naming something in the world: pointing at a dog and saying "dog." Not asking for it — just commenting on it, which is how children start sharing attention.

An assessment that maps a child's language and learning milestones against typical development, so the team knows where to start and can show you movement over time.

Accommodations that remove barriers at school — extra time, a quiet room, a movement break — for a child who doesn't need specialized instruction through an IEP.

A structured play-and-conversation assessment a clinician uses during an autism evaluation. It's one input into a diagnosis, never the whole of it.

A shorthand for how much support a person needs day to day, from Level 1 to Level 3. It describes support, not ability — and a child's level can change.

A legal document from your child's school district: the goals, services, and supports the school will provide. It's an education plan, and it's separate from therapy.

The IEP's counterpart for children under three. It plans around the whole family, not just the child, because that's where a toddler's learning happens.

A short questionnaire a pediatrician gives parents of toddlers. It is a screening tool, not a diagnosis: it flags who should be looked at more closely, nothing more.