Clinic-based ABA sessions are carefully planned and highly interactive. Each session is designed around your child’s individual goals and focuses on teaching practical skills in a structured, supportive way.
During a session, your child’s therapist may :

• Work on communication skills, such as asking for help, making choices, or responding to others
• Teach new skills step by step, practicing them until your child can use them more independently
• Practice everyday routines like starting an activity, cleaning up, waiting, or transitioning between tasks
• Support social skills such as turn-taking, sharing attention, and playing alongside or with peers
• Use clear expectations, encouragement, and meaningful rewards to reinforce learning and progress

Sessions are active and engaging, but they are not free play. Activities are chosen and structured with purpose, so children are consistently practicing skills that support learning, independence, and daily life.

Clinic-based ABA focuses on skills that matter in everyday life. Each child’s needs are different; this is sample list of the types of skills your child’s individual treatment plan may address :

• Communication: Asking for help, expressing needs, using words, signs, or devices.
• Social skills: Playing with peers, turn-taking, shared attention)
• Daily living skills: Following routines, transitions, self-care skills
• Learning and attention: Listening, problem-solving, flexibility
• Emotional regulation: Coping with frustration, reducing meltdowns, handling change

Sessions are usually a mix of guided play, structured learning, and everyday routines.
Your child’s therapist may :

• Play games your child enjoys while building specific skills
• Break skills into small, achievable steps
• Practice transitions and routines similar to school or community settings
• Use praise, encouragement, and meaningful rewards to support progress

Sessions are active and engaging—often looking more like intentional play than traditional “therapy.”
Bright Day also offers a unique Early Intervention & School Readiness program. Click here to learn whether this program may be a fit for your child.

Families often choose clinic-based ABA because it allows for :

• A consistent, structured routine, which benefits many children with autism.
• Fewer distractions and more predictable expectations, supporting focused learning.
• Purpose-built therapy rooms, materials, and play spaces designed for children with autism and sensory-processing differences.
• Close, ongoing supervision and collaboration among therapists and supervising clinicians, supporting consistency and quality of care.

Importantly, clinic-based care does not require a caregiver to remain at home during therapy. For many families, this means less disruption to daily life and more flexibility to manage work, appointments, and family responsibilities while their child receives care.

Yes. Every child in Bright Day’s School Readiness Program receives continuous 1:1 ABA support throughout the day. Even during group activities, each child works directly with their own therapist. Group activities simply mean that multiple child–therapist pairs are learning together in the same classroom environment.

“Group-based” refers to the learning environment, not the therapist-to-child ratio. Children participate in classroom routines such as circle time, play, and transitions alongside peers, but each child is supported individually by a therapist who tailors instruction, prompts, and reinforcement to that child’s specific goals.

Yes—intentionally. Each child works with a small, consistent team of therapists across the day, rotating through predictable therapy blocks. This design helps children learn to use their skills with different adults, which is critical for true generalization and school readiness. Your child also works directly with his or her BCBA, who works in close coordination with the RBT team. The BCBA engages with individual children across group and individual therapy settings, refining each child’s treatment plan and providing real-time, hands-on clinical guidance and supervision.

While consistency is important, working with more than one therapist helps children :

• Avoid over-reliance on a single adult
• Generalize skills across people
• Increase flexibility and independence
• Prepare for real school environments where children interact with many adults

All therapists follow your child’s individualized treatment plan and work closely together under the supervision of your child’s BCBA.

Traditional models often provide therapy either entirely 1:1 in isolation or in groups without individualized support. Bright Day’s Early Intervention & School Readiness Program combines the strengths of both approaches: individualized 1:1 ABA delivered within a structured, peer-rich classroom environment, closely aligned with how young children learn and function in school settings.

Garage
We have free dedicated garage parking spaces for cars that are less than 6’2″ tall (sedans and most SUVs without luggage racks have no problem entering the garage). The entrance to our garage is located on Macarthur Blvd.

Surface Parking Lot
Patients can also park in the gravel section of the surface parking lot located to the left of our red brick building, between our building and the white Church in Washington building at 4380 Macarthur Blvd.

Street Parking
There is ample free street parking available on on Macarthur Blvd and Foxhall Road.

Yes! Our Registered Behavior Technicians can provide services for your child in your home, or in our clinic. Regular visits with your child’s BCBA will be scheduled in our clinic. Contact our front desk for more information.

Yes! Whenever possible, we endeavor to schedule children who are seeing multiple therapists in back-to-back appointments, to reduce your family’s travel time and limit disruptions to your child’s schedule.

Yes! We accept many forms of insurance. Please check our Insurance Section for a current list.

Don’t see your insurer on our list? Give us a call at 202-735-4972 and we’ll check if it’s been added!

Yes! We have free wifi and our waiting area has comfortable seats and laptop tables, as well as a small play space for siblings who are tagging along. We also have a separate quiet room with a sofa for parents who need a moment of solitude or a space to take a calls.

Our building has an outdoor terrace and we are located within walking distance of a few restaurants if you would like to take a walk or grab a snack during your child’s appointment.

The door code is included in your appointment confirmation email. If you can’t find it, please call our office at 202-847-5100. Note: The stairs from the garage and lobby do not require a code.

We are a 5 minute walk (or 2 minute drive) to Hardy Recreation Center Playground.