Ask any Utah County parent who has been in the autism world for a few years and they will tell you about “the cliff.”
Services are relatively plentiful when a child is three. There are early intervention programs, preschool supports, and providers eager to help. Then the child turns seven, or 10, or 13, and the options start to thin. Families who found their footing early, discover they are starting over —or worse— that no one nearby serves their child at all.
The Treetop ABA serves children from age two to 18. That is the whole range, and it is deliberate. A child who starts at age three does not get handed a discharge date on their seventh birthday. Development does not stop at six, and neither should the support.
Inside the Provo center
The Provo center sits on 1910 South, just off the East Bay area, and it was designed around how these kids with autism actually learn.
There are individual therapy rooms, each set up for one child and one therapist at a time. There is a quiet room stocked with tools that help a child settle when things get to be too much, or a little pick-me-up when they need it.
There is a peer-play zone where children practice the social skills that carry into a classroom. An observation area is also available for a parent to watch a session in progress and then talk it through with the behavior analyst who wrote the plan.
The center is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Sunday appointments available by request. Parking is free, the building is wheelchair accessible, and there is a sensory-friendly waiting area, because we know the waiting room can be the hardest ten minutes of the visit.
What the work actually involves
The Treetop provides applied behavior analysis, recognized as an evidence-based autism treatment by the U.S. Surgeon General, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Institutes of Health.
Every plan is written and supervised by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), who is present during sessions. Goals are individualized and family-driven. Parents communicate with staff the things that matter in their homes, and the a plan gets built around that instead of a standard sequence.
For a 2-year-old, a goal might be finding any reliable way to communicate a need. For a 10-year-old, it might be managing frustration without the afternoon falling apart. For a 16-year-old, it might be riding the bus, handling a job interview, or advocating for himself with a teacher. Same discipline, entirely different work.
What a center adds
A center offers three things a living room cannot.
The first is peers. The skills of sharing, waiting turns, or joining a group, are what most families would like to instill in their child, and these are things you cannot often manufacture at a kitchen table. In the peer-play zone, children practice with other children while a therapist watches for the exact moment to step in or step back.
The second is structure. A center day has a rhythm of arrival, focused work, breaks, group time, and a dozen transitions in between. Transitions are often the hardest part of a child’s day, and a center gives us repeated chances to practice them safely.
The third is readiness for what comes next. For younger children, that means the classroom. For older ones, it means the parts of adult life nobody hands you a manual for.
Treetop serving the south Salt Lake valley
The Treetop also operates a center at 986 West 9000 South in West Jordan, serving the south Salt Lake valley with the same program design and the same BCBA-led model. For families near the Point of the Mountain, it is sometimes a shorter drive.
Home and school
The center is not the only door. In-home services cover Utah County, teaching skills in the routines where they actually happen. In this model, parents learn the techniques alongside the therapist, rather than waiting in a lobby.
The Treetop also works in schools, partnering with Provo City School District, Alpine School District, and local charter and private schools on IEP support and classroom-behavior coaching for teachers.
Getting started
Utah Medicaid covers ABA therapy for children with an autism diagnosis, and The Treetop is in network. We also work with Cigna, PEHP, TriWest, Tricare, and University of Utah commercial plans.
The Treetop offers a free benefits check with a quick turnaround and handles the prior authorization paperwork, which is often the step that stalls families before they ever begin. From there, a BCBA completes an assessment and builds the plan.
Those interested are welcome and encouraged to tour either center before committing to anything. Doing this will allow parents and children to see firsthand the room that children will spend their time in and meet the people who will be working with them.
A last word
Families here find each other. A mom mentions something to another mom at preschool pickup, and that conversation does more good than any advertisement will. We want to be part of those conversations.
And if your child is nine, or 14 years old and you have been told there is nothing left for them here, that is not true. Treetop may be able to help.
The Treetop ABA is located at 746 E 1910 S, Suite 2, Provo, UT 84606.
(385) 452-8469.
West Jordan center: 986 W 9000 S, Suite 200. (385) 354-5250.
Submitted By Cristina Medina
