Delays in ABA access are preventable. Our kids deserve better.
As a Registered Behavior Technician, one of the hardest things I have to do is look a parent in the eye and tell them their child has to wait — sometimes 6, 9, even 12 months — before they can begin ABA therapy. Unfortunately, this is the norm across the country. In one recent survey, nearly 75% of caregivers reported their child being placed on an ABA waitlist, with an average wait of around 5½ months. I’ve met parents who waited months just to get an autism diagnosis, only to be told they’ll spend even more time in limbo before treatment can begin. All this is happening during the most crucial window of a child’s development — and it goes against everything we know about how young brains grow.
The first few years of life are a period of explosive brain development. In fact, during infancy and toddlerhood more than 1 million neural connections form every second. During this time, the brain is highly “plastic,” meaning it can adapt and reorganize itself based on new experiences and learning. This plasticity declines with age, which means the earlier we intervene to support a child, the greater our ability to positively influence their learning, behavior, and developmental trajectory.
Research is abundantly clear that starting autism intervention early leads to significantly better outcomes for many children. A 2020 review of early intervention studies found that 12 out of 14 studies showed earlier start age was linked to better skill gains and developmental outcomes in children with ASD. One landmark study showed that intensive behavioral therapy begun before age 4 resulted in far greater improvements in cognitive and language skills than the same therapy started later in childhood. And in a recent clinical trial, infants at risk for autism who received a parent-led intervention around their first birthday had three times fewer autism diagnoses by age 3 compared to those who received standard care. In fact, only 7% of the infants who got the early therapy went on to meet ASD diagnostic criteria at age 3, versus 21% in the control group. That is a staggering difference – a nearly 67% reduction in likelihood of an autism diagnosis for the early-intervention group.
I have personally seen the power of early intervention. I’ve seen nonverbal toddlers say their first words after just a few months of therapy, and preschoolers learn to communicate their needs instead of melting down. Children gain skills and independence, and families find hope – all because intervention started early. Every month that a young child waits is a missed opportunity to shape developing neural pathways. That’s what makes these long waitlists so devastating.
Despite everything we know about early brain development, families are still all too often being told to “wait it out.” In Colorado and across the U.S., ABA therapy providers are overwhelmed. Autism diagnoses have risen dramatically – now estimated at 1 in 36 U.S. children (about 2.8%), up from closer to 1 in 54 just a decade ago. Yet the number of trained professionals hasn’t kept up with this growing demand. This mismatch has led to months-long waitlists even after a child has been diagnosed and deemed ready for therapy. One national analysis found over 70% of families of autistic children experienced waitlists for services, with typical waits of around 5–6 months. And location matters — in areas with fewer providers, waits can be even longer. I’ve spoken with parents juggling multiple waitlists, making desperate phone calls, and hearing “maybe in a year” from clinics because their caseloads are full.
Parents often describe the waiting period as agonizing. “It’s like knowing your child is ready to learn — but being told school doesn’t start for another year,” one parent told me. For a toddler with communication delays, an extra six-month wait can be the difference between entering preschool with words and social skills or entering without them. For a preschooler with challenging behaviors, those months of delay can allow problems to escalate unchecked, turning mild issues into severe ones. Research suggests that problem behaviors may worsen the longer a child is stuck on the sidelines without appropriate support. Indeed, many parents report their child losing skills or regressing while waiting for services, which is heartbreaking when you know early therapy could prevent so much hardship.
And it’s not just the children who suffer — families bear the emotional and financial weight of these delays. Parents in waitlist limbo often try to patch together stopgap resources: perhaps a speech therapy slot here, a few hours of state early intervention services there, or online parent training modules to learn behavioral techniques on their own. These can help, but they’re not a substitute for the intensive ABA therapy their child truly needs. The stress on families is enormous. Some parents have had to reduce work hours or quit jobs to manage their child’s needs while waiting. Many battle constant anxiety that critical developmental time is slipping away. No family should have to feel helpless watching their child miss out on proven therapies during the window when they stand to gain the most.
Across the country, families are being told to wait—5 months, 6 months, even a year—for autism services their children urgently need. Over 70% of families with autistic kids face long waitlists, juggling desperate phone calls and hearing “maybe next year” from overwhelmed clinics. Meanwhile, kids lose precious time to develop speech, children regress, and behaviors escalate into crisis.
Michelle was one of those parents. For over a year, she begged for help as her son became stronger, more aggressive, and increasingly unsafe to live with—yet still, no support came. Only after her situation reached a breaking point did the system approve 24/7 care—just weeks before COVID lockdowns would’ve slammed that door shut.
"I first reached out for help in the summer of 2019. I walked in hoping for support—and left feeling like I had hit a brick wall. I ended up crying uncontrollably in a concrete parking garage stairwell. It took over a year before anyone actually stepped in.”
These delays aren’t rare—they’re routine. But when support finally came, everything changed. Her son was no longer in crisis—he was calm, safe and progressing. That’s what timely access can do. It’s not a matter of convenience—it’s a matter of stability, safety, and giving families the support they need before reaching a crisis point.
For families seeking more intensive services for high-need kids – for example, a spot in a center-based program for severe behaviors or a 24/7 therapeutic residential placement – waitlists can stretch 12, 18, even 24+ months. I have encountered families looking into residential ABA programs for their teenager with profound behavioral challenges, only to be told the wait could be well over a year or two. Unfortunately, this isn’t an exaggeration. According to one advocacy report, tens of thousands of autistic individuals nationwide are on waiting lists for housing or residential support services, with some waits reported at 10 years or more for appropriate placements. Even at the state level, the numbers are sobering. In Connecticut, for example, officials reported an autism services waitlist exceeding 2,000 children and adults, and nearly 1,000 people on a separate waiting list for developmental disability residential programs. These kinds of multi-year backlogs leave families in limbo during what may be a critical period of a child’s adolescence.
These waitlists don’t just delay care — they trap families in limbo during the most fragile moments of a teen’s life. In some states, the only option left is the ER, where autistic teens may wait weeks or months because no residential beds are open.
24/7 residential placement waitlists can stretch 12, 18—even 24+ months, leaving families in crisis with nowhere to go. Connecticut’s official report found over 2,000 individuals on waitlists — a situation mirrored across the U.S.
When an adolescent with autism and high behavioral needs doesn’t get services, the consequences can be severe. Long delays mean missed educational opportunities, prolonged social isolation, and behaviors worsening to the point of dangerousness. I’ve worked with teens who engage in self-injury or aggression, or who can’t attend school due to behavioral issues. For these kids, waiting a year or two for specialized support isn’t just frustrating – it can be truly dangerous. There have been cases in recent years of high-needs autistic youth essentially stuck in hospital emergency rooms for weeks or months because there was nowhere else equipped to take them when a crisis hit. These kinds of situations arise when appropriate residential or intensive treatment programs have no open beds and families are left with nowhere to turn. It’s a tragic scenario for everyone involved.
And it’s not just about placement scarcity – funding and policy barriers play a role too. Residential ABA programs or therapeutic group homes are few and far between, and often prohibitively expensive or not covered adequately by insurance. State-by-state rules vary, and many states lack any residential options tailored for children with autism. The programs that do exist are frequently under-resourced and have waitlists stretching into years. Meanwhile, families in crisis are often left trying to manage day-to-day as best they can. In some cases kids with high needs might bounce between short-term psychiatric stabilization units (which are not designed for long-term autism care) or simply be sent home with minimal support, leading to repeated cycles of crisis and caregiver burnout. We should not consider this acceptable. Just as we urgently need to expand services for the little ones, we must also expand capacity for older children and adolescents – particularly those who require intensive, 24/7 behavioral support. The longer we wait to act for these kids, the more we risk their safety, stability, and chance to achieve their full potential.
Why am I sharing all of this? Because I refuse to accept that long waitlists are inevitable or “just the way it is.” We know that early intervention works. We know that the earlier we start, the better the outcomes. We know that providing intensive therapy before age 5 can lead to major improvements in cognitive ability, adaptive skills, communication, and social functioning – in many cases enabling children to gain skills to the point that they no longer meet the formal criteria for autism by school age (though they may still have other challenges like anxiety or attention issues). One prominent autism researcher, Dr. Sally Rogers, put it this way: good early intervention with toddlers and preschoolers has powerful effects and improves long-term outcomes. High-quality early therapy can literally change the trajectory of a child’s development.
Crucially, early help doesn’t only benefit the child and family – it benefits society. Children who receive timely intervention often need fewer special education supports later on and are more likely to develop skills that lead to independence. Economic analyses have found that investments in early autism therapy yield significant returns in the form of reduced future care costs and improved productivity. For example, a recent cost-modeling study of an early intervention program estimated a savings of about $2 for every $1 invested by the time the child reached adolescence. In short, early intervention pays off. And beyond the dollars and cents, it’s simply the right thing to do. We would never tell parents of a child with a hearing impairment to “wait” 12 months before getting hearing aids during the language learning years, or delay treating a vision problem that’s worsening. We recognize that intervening during the most responsive phase of a medical or developmental condition is just common sense. Why should it be any different for autism?
The longer we force children to wait, the harder it becomes to help them. Small delays compound into bigger delays; learning gaps widen over time; behaviors that might have been a small bump at age 3 can become major roadblocks by age 7 or 8. Skills that come naturally to typically developing peers – like communicating wants and needs, or tolerating transitions – only grow harder to catch up on the longer a child goes without targeted support. By the time intervention finally starts, therapists are often working uphill against ingrained habits and more intense behaviors. None of this is to say it’s ever “too late” – autistic individuals can learn and grow at any age, and should have access to help at any age. But early childhood is a uniquely sensitive period when the brain is most adaptable, and it’s our duty to take advantage of that for each child’s benefit. Every month lost in that window is a loss we can’t fully give back to that child.
That’s why I feel such urgency to make sure families don’t have to wait a year for help that should have started yesterday. We can do better. We just need the will and the resources to make timely autism services a reality.
There is no single easy solution to eliminate waitlists overnight. This is a complex, multi-faceted challenge. But there are clear steps we can take – as providers, as policymakers, and as a society – to start breaking down this “waitlist wall.” Here are a few:
By pursuing these strategies together, we can start to tear down the barriers that leave kids stuck waiting. It will take collaborative effort and sustained commitment, but I truly believe change is possible. We’ve seen other pediatric health crises (like long wait times for organ transplants or mental health services) improve when society made them a priority. Now it must be autism’s turn.
According to Act Now for Severe Autism, 80,000 autistic individuals are waiting years—some up to a decade—for residential placements.
If you're a parent currently sitting on a waitlist, you are not alone.
Your frustration is real — and you’re right to be worried about the time lost while your child waits for help. These delays are not okay. But you’re not powerless. Your voice matters. And you can take action.
The waitlist crisis won’t improve unless city leaders hear directly from families like yours.
That’s why I created a simple letter-writing kit to help you print and mail a physical letter to your local officials — one that gets noticed.
If you’re a parent, provider, or concerned advocate, your voice matters — especially to the people making decisions in your city. The waitlist crisis won’t improve unless local officials hear directly from those it affects most.
That’s why I created a simple letter-writing kit to help you print and mail a physical letter to your local leaders.
Unlike email, a mailed letter stands out. It shows city officials that families and providers are watching — and waiting — for action.
It's that easy — and it makes a real impact.
👉 [Get the letter + step-by-step guide here]
Simple PDF download, ready to print.
Mailed letters are read. They’re taken seriously. They’re often shared in meetings and kept on file. And when multiple parents and providers in a city speak up, change follows.
Let’s break down the waitlist wall — one letter at a time. Your story, your voice, and your action can help bring ABA therapy access to more children who need it now.