Hi-5 ABA The ABA Franchising Co.

"Referring to the Mandeville, LA location: Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company. Both of my autistic children got worse, not better with this company. - They practice the old school ABA techniques that most people consider abuse such as “quiet hands” only they say “hands down” to stop your child from stimming. I requested my records and there are notes of physically holding his hands down to stop hand-flapping. - They do not play with or show affection to your children. Just flash cards and one puzzle and they reward with LOADS of candy. - They force eye contact by placing their hands as blinders around their eyes until they look. - They will ignore your child during a tantrum and allow self-harm instead of redirecting. - They will refuse your child food during therapy. - They will watch TV 5 out of the 6 hours they are there. - The BCBA has so many clients she is not able to supervise the way they tell you she will. We went weeks without seeing her. - Their positive reinforcement consists of giving candy and their extent of praise is simply saying good job. - They do not require ANY experience or education whatsoever to be a therapist there, simply a high school diploma. - Their techs/therapists have no consequences for no call/no show and it is going to happen at least once a week. And don’t expect them to be on time or stay until they are supposed to. - They will tell you that it’s no problem to get 30 hours a week of therapy. Mine ended up getting 9. - They do not do parent trainings. We were there for 6 months and never had one. - They do not involve the family in therapy sessions. I was expected to stay away from them during therapy because they said the kids did better without my presence. - They will take your child outside without pants, a jacket, or shoes in extremely cold weather. - They do not at all try to teach socialization skills. - They will bill for hours and services not provided - If you try to discuss your concerns with the owner she will unexpectedly discontinue services. The first time I tried, she blamed us saying that we made the techs uncomfortable, but refuses to tell us what we did or said. The 2nd she said the same and that they were just going to discontinue services, so we withdrew."

"Relating to the Mandeville, LA location: Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company. Both of my autistic children got worse, not better with this company. - They practice the old school ABA techniques that most people consider abuse such as “quiet hands” only they say “hands down” to stop your child from stimming. - They do not play with or show affection to your children. Just flash cards and one puzzle and they reward with LOADS of candy. - They force eye contact by placing their hands as blinders around their eyes until they look. - They will ignore your child during a tantrum and allow self-harm instead of redirecting. - They will refuse your child food during therapy. - They will watch TV 5 out of the 6 hours they are there. - The BCBA has so many clients she is not able to supervise the way they tell you she will. We went weeks without seeing her. - Their positive reinforcement consists of giving candy and their extent of praise is simply saying good job. - They do not require ANY experience or education whatsoever to be a therapist there, simply a high school diploma. - Their techs/therapists have no consequences for no call/no show and it is going to happen at least once a week. And don’t expect them to be on time or stay until they are supposed to. - They will tell you that it’s no problem to get 30 hours a week of therapy. Mine ended up getting 9. - They do not do parent trainings. We were there for 6 months and never had one. - They do not involve the family in therapy sessions. I was expected to stay away from them during therapy because they said the kids did better without my presence. - They will take your child outside without pants, a jacket, or shoes in extremely cold weather. - They do not at all try to teach socialization skills. - They will bill for hours and services not provided - If you try to discuss your concerns with the owner she will unexpectedly discontinue services. The first time I tried, she blamed us saying that we made the techs uncomfortable, but refuses to tell us what we did or said. The 2nd she said the same and that they were just going to discontinue services, so we withdrew."