AABA Offers Services

1. Cline/Helding Adopted/Foster Child Assessment (CHAFCA)

CHAFCA is designed for use as an assessment tool for adoptive and foster families. Eighty percent of the children entering the child welfare system today exhibit very specific kinds of problems related to early abuse and neglect, environmental deprivation, exposure to domestic or environmental deprivation, exposure to domestic or environmental violence, or family dysfunction. Families frequently tell us that they do not know how to go about identifying the problems their children are having, which is an essential first step to seeking appropriate information and treatment.

CHAFCA has been developed as a tool that families and clinicians can use to point them in the right direction quickly and accurately when seeking therapeutic help and/or help with day-to-day parenting issues.

CHAFCA must be filled out by the child’s parent or primary caretaker, and is written in layman’s language to make both answering the questions and understanding the results simpler.

Once the CHAFCA is complete, it is scored by a professional from AABA and followed up by the professional with the parents so that the parents have an understanding of the results of the assessment.

The assessment checks the following areas:

Emotional Health; Reactive Attachment Disorder; Oppositional Defiant Disorder with Subtest for Passive Aggressive Oppositional Defiant Disorder; Attention Deficient Disorder (ADD) with Subtest for Attention Deficit Disorder, with Hyperactivity (ADHD); Conflict and/or Depression; Neurological Disorder; Learning Disabilities, and Developmental Delay; Sensory Integrative Dysfunction (SID); Sexual Abuse; Predictors of Violent, Dangerous or Aggressive Behavior; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS/FAE); Giftedness; Substance Abuse; and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

2. Skills Development Training (lead by Licensed Professional Counselor). This program helps adoptive, foster, and/or kinship care parents develop skills necessary to keep children in their homes. This is an intensive training suggested for parents to develop skills to help their children develop the capacity to remain in their homes. There is also a component for families’ natural and professional supports. This requires a long term commitment for natural supports who are willing to make a long term commitment necessary to work with children who have experienced early childhood traumas and loss.

3. Reactive Attachment Disorder I, II, II, IV .are offered four times a year. These workshops help parents, natural supports, and professionals understand behaviors of children experiencing early childhood traumas and loss. It also, explains brain development in these children. The course offers a total of 13.5 hours of training over two days. Scholarships are available to qualifying parents. CEUs pending.

4. Parent Support Group. Offers support to parents and caregivers of children experiencing early childhood traumas and loss. Parent meetings are scheduled every three months.