Beyond the Silo: Building a Collaborative Model That Serves the Whole Child

Children with autism are rarely served by a single discipline, and no single perspective captures the whole child. Each discipline brings its own lens, and when OT, PT, speech, behavior analysis, education, medicine, and the family combine their expertise, the result is more holistic, more durable, and more meaningful care. The way in which these professionals collaborate has real consequences and can bring significant value for treatment fidelity, generalization, social validity, and family experience.

This session offers a practical roadmap for moving from parallel, siloed services toward genuinely integrated, client-centered care. We begin by mapping the team around the child and the unique contribution of each valued member of the team. We then walk through a continuum of collaboration - multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary models - alongside the evidence-based standards that support effective interprofessional practice and strategies for navigating non-behavioral treatment recommendations. We address the barriers that commonly derail collaboration (differences in terminology, scope-of-practice concerns, and limited time to coordinate) and concrete strategies to overcome them in alignment with the BACB Ethics Code. Finally, we present an in-depth, real-world example: a sustained, nature-based farm program that integrates ABA, OT, PT, and speech therapy into functional, everyday activities, serving children across all autism support levels. Attendees will leave with a framework they can apply to their own teams in any setting along with a vivid model of what collaborative, socially valid autism care can look like in practice.