ABA Therapy Overland Park | In-Home Autism Services in Kansas

Between the IEP meetings, the endless paperwork, and let's be real, trying to keep everyone fed and somewhat sane, who has time to drive across town three times a week? Not you.

We're Achieving Stars Therapy. Your living room. Your backyard. The place where your child already feels safe and actually wants to learn. Our board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) and trained Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) design individualized treatment plans that meet your child exactly where they are. No clinics. No waitlists. Just therapy that creates calmer, more connected days for your whole family.

Why Overland Park Families Choose In-Home ABA Therapy

Think about it. Your child already has enough to process without adding a new building, weird smells, and strangers to the mix. When therapy happens at home, we're working in the environment where skills actually need to stick. Want your kiddo to handle transitions better? We practice that in your actual morning routine. Need help with mealtime battles? We're right there at your kitchen table, not in some clinic across town.

We're an in-home ABA therapy provider serving Overland Park and surrounding Johnson County communities, and we do one thing well: help autistic children learn communication, social, and daily living skills through play-based, naturalistic teaching. One family we worked with? Meltdowns used to last 45 minutes. Now they last 5, and she can tell us what's wrong. That's real progress.

Here's what makes us different from the big clinic-based providers you'll find on College Boulevard or off I-435. Our clinical team isn't rushing between back-to-back appointments trying to hit billing targets. We're BCBA-supervised, which means a licensed Board Certified Behavior Analyst is overseeing every treatment plan and checking in weekly, not just at intake and then vanishing for three months. When your BCBA knows that your son loves dinosaurs, hates loud noises, and needs exactly three warnings before transitions, therapy becomes something your kid actually looks forward to.

We're proud members of the Autism Society of Kansas (The Heartland chapter). We help connect families in Overland Park and across the Kansas City metro to local resources, support groups, and community events like autism walks and sensory-friendly activities.

Our ABA Therapy Services in Overland Park

Not every child needs 40 hours a week of intensive table work. Some families want early intervention for toddlers. Others need specific help with behaviors or getting ready for school. We customize every treatment plan based on what your family actually needs, not what maximizes our billable hours.

In-Home ABA Therapy Throughout Johnson County

Picture this: it's 8am and you're already behind schedule. Shoes are missing. Someone's having a meltdown about which shirt to wear. The bus comes in 12 minutes.

That's exactly when we work with you. Because those are the moments that matter, not structured activities in a clinic playroom that look nothing like real life. Our registered behavior technicians (RBTs) and BCBAs come to your home in Overland Park and teach skills in real-world contexts. We practice communication when your child is actually playing with siblings. We build independence during those chaotic morning routines. We work on following directions while your child is building Lego towers and chasing the dog around the backyard.

Your child learns better when they're comfortable. And you get therapy that doesn't add another impossible drive to your schedule, no fighting traffic on I-435 or College Boulevard three times a week. Our in-home ABA therapy covers families throughout Overland Park, Leawood, Olathe, Shawnee, and the greater Kansas City area.

Play-Based ABA Therapy (Not Hours of Flashcards)

ABA therapy sessions at Achieving Stars are like a mix between a playdate and a learning session. Your child and the therapist might work together on the floor doing puzzles, playing games, or drawing, not sitting at a table drilling flashcards for hours. The therapist breaks down skills into small steps, like requesting "more please" during snack time or taking turns during a game they actually want to play, and celebrates every win.

Therapy feels like fun while your child learns skills for everyday life. We teach through play because kids learn better when they're engaged, not shutting down or trying to escape. They practice language while building with blocks. They work on sharing during games. They develop self-regulation skills while playing outside, not sitting still trying to "be good" for strangers in a clinic.

Early Intervention for Toddlers & Preschoolers

Early intervention isn't just a buzzword thrown around by every provider in Overland Park. It's the difference between a four-year-old who can request what they need and one who's still melting down at preschool because nobody understands them.

Research shows that starting ABA therapy between ages 2-6 leads to the biggest gains in communication, social skills, and independence. Our pediatric ABA therapy focuses on building foundational skills through naturalistic teaching, meaning we work during your actual daily routines, not just scheduled "therapy time."

If your pediatrician just handed you an autism diagnosis and you're still processing what that means, we get it. This wasn't the plan. But here's what we know after over 10 years of experience: early, consistent ABA therapy changes trajectories. The skills your child builds now (requesting, following directions, self-calming) make everything easier later. School. Friendships. Independence. All of it.

What to Expect: Our Process for ABA Therapy in Overland Park

We've done this long enough to know what works. Here's exactly what happens when you reach out:

1. Free Consultation – Give us a call at (833) 666-3115 or reach out through our website. We'll listen to your family's goals and explain how in-home ABA can help. We'll also start checking your insurance coverage. We work with Medicaid and most major insurance plans serving Overland Park families.
2. In-Home Assessment with a BCBA – A licensed BCBA comes to your home (or wherever you're comfortable) for a comprehensive assessment. We gather your child's history, review any previous evaluations from schools or therapists, and talk about your family's actual goals, not what some insurance form says you should want.
3. Individualized Treatment Plan – Your BCBA develops a customized plan with measurable goals tailored to your child's strengths and needs. Not generic goals like "improve communication" but concrete targets like "request preferred items using two-word phrases 80% of opportunities" or "complete morning routine with 2 or fewer prompts."
4. Therapy Begins at Home – Your therapy team (a matched RBT working under close BCBA supervision) starts coming to your home. Depending on your child's needs and insurance authorization, therapy typically runs 10-25 hours per week spread across multiple days.
5. Ongoing Progress Tracking & Family Training – We collect data on every single goal, every single session. You're not guessing whether therapy is working. You're seeing actual graphs showing progress (or lack of it, which means we change our approach).

Every 3-6 months we formally review progress with you: look at data, evaluate whether goals were hit, and plan next steps. One family we worked with saw their five-year-old go from 2 independent requests per day to about 12, and tantrums dropped from 4 daily to less than 1 per week. That took 11 months of consistent work, but the data showed exactly when things started clicking.

Our Clinical Team: BCBA-Led Autism Therapy in Kansas

Every client at Achieving Stars is supervised by a board-certified behavior analyst. That's not just letters after a name. That's a master's degree, thousands of supervised fieldwork hours, passing a difficult certification exam from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), and ongoing continuing education requirements.

What does that mean for your family in practical terms? It means the person designing your child's treatment plan knows how to identify the function of behaviors (why is this tantrum happening at 5:30pm every day?), not just label them. It means evidence-based interventions, not whatever seemed like a good idea. It means weekly check-ins and data review, not a BCBA who shows up twice a year.

We're intentionally small enough that our clinical director actually knows every family. You're not Client #4738. You're Sarah's family, and we know Sarah just started requesting "help please" and that's a huge deal.

Insurance & Medicaid: ABA Therapy Coverage in Overland Park

Straight up: insurance for ABA therapy is complicated. But we handle the complicated part so you don't have to become an insurance expert on top of everything else you're managing.

Kansas has strong insurance coverage for Applied Behavior Analysis under state autism mandates. Most commercial insurance plans cover ABA therapy for autism spectrum disorder as an essential health benefit. Kansas Medicaid (KanCare) also covers medically necessary ABA services for eligible children.

We accept Medicaid and most major insurance plans serving Overland Park and Johnson County families. Our team walks you through the benefits verification process so you know exactly what's covered before therapy starts. We handle prior authorization paperwork, submit all claims, and deal with the insurance company runaround.

What you need to know:

• Most plans cover ABA therapy when it's medically necessary for autism
• A formal autism diagnosis from a qualified healthcare provider is required
• Prior authorization is needed (we handle this whole process)
• Coverage varies by plan, but many Kansas families have little to no out-of-pocket costs
• Some plans cover 10-40 hours weekly depending on your child's needs

When you call us, we verify your specific coverage right away. No surprises. No bills showing up six months later for sessions you thought were covered.

The Research Behind Early Intervention ABA Therapy

Applied Behavior Analysis isn't some new trendy approach. It's been researched for over 50 years and is recognized by the American Psychological Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Surgeon General as an evidence-based treatment for autism spectrum disorder.

Here's what the actual research shows. Children who receive early intervention ABA therapy (especially starting before age 6) show significant improvements in:

• Language and communication skills
• Social interaction and peer relationships
• Adaptive behavior and daily living skills
• School readiness and academic performance
• Reduction in challenging behaviors that interfere with learning

And those gains stick around. Long-term studies show children who receive quality early ABA therapy are more likely to attend mainstream classrooms, develop friendships, and achieve greater independence as they grow.

But here's my question: does your three-year-old need 40 hours a week of intensive programming? Maybe. Maybe not. Some children make tremendous progress with 10-15 hours of well-designed intervention. Some need more intensive support. That's why individualized assessment actually matters. We're not here to maximize billable hours. We're here to recommend what will realistically help your child.

Overland Park Autism Resources & Community Support

As members of the Autism Society of Kansas (The Heartland chapter) and the ABA Coalition of Kansas, we connect Overland Park families to trusted local resources beyond just therapy:

• Autism Society – The Heartland – Serving Kansas City and surrounding counties including Johnson County. Offers parent support groups, educational workshops, and community events.
• My Gym – Overland Park – Sensory-aware gym offering inclusive classes and events designed for children with different abilities and sensory needs.
• Exploration Place (Wichita) – Inclusive play space with sensory-friendly morning hours and STEM exhibits designed with sensory sensitivities in mind.
• Community Events – Regular autism walks, sensory-friendly movie screenings, and family meetups where you can connect with other parents who actually get what you're going through.

We're not just a therapy provider dropping in three times a week. We're part of your community support system in Overland Park and across Kansas.

Service Areas in Johnson County

Also serving families in Colorado, Ohio, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

FAQs: ABA Therapy Questions from Overland Park Families

What Families Are Saying