Verbal Beginnings 201 Penn Center Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15235

"You'll see by my profile that I don't leave reviews - however with what we've experienced recently, I thought that it would be important to do so so as to help other parents and kids. We used Verbal Beginnings 2 years ago and they were great. Recently we re-engaged them. Our 5 year old son is on the spectrum, and had recently transitioned into an autism support kindergarten in which they'd apparently had significant turnover, the results of which were nascent communications, and not as advertised ABA expertise. We'd reached out to Verbal Beginnings again as they were so good with us before. 2 senior and experienced BCBA's helped put together what we felt was a solid treatment plan to then transition our son into the public school district with their support. Through this process, we'd asked several times about who our BCBA would be. After all of the papers were signed, they finally let us know - and to our son's detriment, is someone that is a first time BCBA, with no experience in the actual areas that our son needs work in the most. In addition to this BCBA being new, and not experienced in our son's core areas of need, she's causing issues with the school district, and doesn't seem to know what she's doing there either - as I've received calls both from their principal and special needs teacher. While in home, we've inquired the therapists on their relative experience and what they'd be working on daily & weekly to which we were advised by their supervisors that we're taking away from their ability to work and bill insurance. (disclaimer - the in home therapists are great, however their not able to do much considering our BCBA) - and basically to not ask any questions as they've advised them to leave if we do so. In reaching out to the 2 BCBA's that helped initially to express our concern, the regional director is leaving the district and has pushed this to someone else, and the BCBA that's to be training ours hasn't responded to any emails. Thus far, in the first month working with them, this new BCBA has not directly spoken with my wife on her own, she's spoken with me for only an hour, and we have no knowledge or what they're working on weekly. They've also created so many goals that it doesn't appear that there's a clear direction into what the in home folks are focused on - nor has this been communicated to us. Had we known, and they communicated that they were going to be placing a BCBA with us that had no prior experience, or experience in our son's areas of need, we would not have transitioned to them. This scenario feels like they bait and switched us, and feels unethical considering the ramifications on our son, just so they can bill for as much insurance as they can. My recommendation to any parents looking into their service would be to have them state who your permanent BCBA is ahead of time - before you sign any papers. At this point, and considering how they're working with us, I would not recommend using this service until they can be more ethical and transparent. If they're unable to provide us with someone that's experienced in our son's needs, we'll be leaving them soon. Pending changes, I'll post an update if they're able to step up to the plate and act in a more ethical and transparent manner."