Your 9 year old is in school all day, so therapy has to fit around that. Budding Futures brings ABA into your Colorado home, works alongside the IEP or 504 plan your child already has, and verifies Medicaid or insurance before anything starts. Sessions run between 8 AM and 8 PM, and there is no waitlist right now. Hablamos Español.
Yes. Budding Futures provides in-home ABA therapy for 9 year olds across Colorado.
| Ages served | Toddlers through teens, including 9 year olds. |
| Insurance accepted | Health First Colorado (Medicaid), Aetna, and Anthem BCBS. We verify other plans before you start. |
| Where we work | In your home, across 13 Colorado cities from Denver to Grand Junction. |
| Hours | 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, so sessions fit around the school day. |
| Waitlist | No waitlist right now. The BCBA assessment is scheduled once benefits are verified. |
| Cost | Usually $0 on Health First Colorado. We confirm your cost before therapy starts. |
Most parents who call us about a 9 year old were told recently to look into ABA. Sometimes the pediatrician brought it up. Sometimes the school did. Underneath, the worry is usually the same one: has too much time already passed? Nine sits comfortably inside the range where ABA helps. Budding Futures works in your home, on your schedule, and your child can opt out of any activity.
ABA is short for applied behavior analysis, an evidence-based therapy for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. A board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) writes an individualized treatment plan, a registered behavior technician (RBT) delivers the sessions, and the plan can run alongside speech therapy and occupational therapy. We use positive reinforcement, we treat the caregiver as part of the team, and we never force eye contact or push a child through compliance drills.
Yes. At nine the goals shift toward communication, friendships, emotional regulation, and independence at home and at school. Other conditions are usually part of the picture by this age. In the 2020-2021 National Survey of Children’s Health, 45.7% of autistic children had anxiety and 44.3% had ADHD (Salehi and colleagues, Children, 2025). Those coping and self-advocacy skills are exactly what we teach. A BCBA writes the plan and measures whether it is working.
Real Google reviews from the Colorado families we work with.
"My son loves his RBT Dani, she is a super star. As well as Mark and Rachel always keeping in check and checking in."
BadBry 48, verified Google review"Wonderful in-home therapy provider in Denver. Thank you so much!"
Ariel Becker, verified Google review"Budding Futures ABA gives amazing in-home ABA therapy in Colorado. Would definitely recommend for anyone with children with autism."
Mindee Meyer, verified Google review"The support they bring to the families is insane. You'll feel so supported and valued. They truly do care for these kids and I couldn't feel better anywhere else."
Bella Calvillo, verified Google review"This is a company that truly supports their clients, clients' families, and staff members in a way I've never seen."
KyRa Lee, verified Google review"Mark and the team at Budding Futures are truly the type of team I want to work with my child. Compassionate, driven, and they strive for excellence."
David Brody, verified Google reviewShe writes and reviews every treatment plan, and supervises the therapists who work in your home.
Read Rachel's profileHe founded Budding Futures and runs the day to day, from a family's first phone call onward.
Read Mark's profile
Every ABA therapy program starts from an assessment, so goals are individualized rather than copied from a template. These are the goals Colorado families of 9-year-olds ask about most, and they usually cluster around social interaction, life skills, and daily routines.
| What is hard right now | How in-home ABA helps |
|---|---|
| A newer or later diagnosis | Nine is a common age for a first diagnosis, especially for kids who masked well. We assess first, then build the plan around who your child is now. |
| Friendships at school | We teach how to join a conversation, read a group, and handle being left out, then practice it in real settings. |
| Big reactions to small setbacks | We teach coping and self-advocacy, so one hard moment does not swallow the whole evening. |
| Homework and routines | We build morning, homework, and bedtime routines that hold together without constant reminders. |
Parents of school-age kids want the whole sequence up front, not just the therapy part.
| Before: the diagnosis | We do not diagnose. Families come to us with an evaluation from a pediatrician, Children’s Hospital Colorado, or JFK Partners at CU Anschutz. Through school, Colorado’s Child Find covers ages 3 through 21. |
| Insurance and authorization | We verify your Health First Colorado or commercial benefits and handle prior authorization, so you know your cost before anything is scheduled. |
| The BCBA assessment | A behavior analyst meets your 9 year old at home and uses tools such as VB-MAPP or ABLLS-R to find the real gaps, then writes an individualized treatment plan. You help set the goals. |
| During: the sessions | A registered behavior technician runs sessions in your home around school hours, working on social skills and daily living skills. A BCBA supervises at roughly 20 percent, above the BACB minimum. You can sit in on any session. |
| Working with the school | With your permission we share progress data with the school team and line up home goals with the IEP or 504 plan. |
| After: stepping down | Goals are reviewed on a schedule. As your child masters skills, recommended hours come down. |
Newly diagnosed? Start with what to do after an autism diagnosis in Colorado.
Yes, when you ask us to. School and ABA sit in two different systems, and progress tends to leak out in the gap between them. With your written permission, Budding Futures shares progress data with your child’s school team and writes home goals that line up with the IEP or 504 plan.
Two Colorado specifics are worth knowing. Child Find covers ages 3 through 21, and once you put an evaluation request in writing, the district has 60 calendar days to complete it. Summer break does not pause that clock. Nine year olds sit squarely in that window, so if your child does not have an IEP yet, you can start the request today.
More on this: how ABA, speech, OT, and school teams coordinate.
Yes. Budding Futures provides ABA. We do not provide speech therapy or occupational therapy ourselves. When your child already sees a speech-language pathologist or an occupational therapist, we coordinate with them so everyone works toward the same communication and daily-living goals. With your permission that coordination extends to the school team.
Families most often ask us about four things at nine. Hitting and meltdowns get treated as communication, so we teach a skill that works better than the behavior. Toileting that never fully clicked is still very teachable at this age, worked on privately and on your child’s timeline. Limited speech or an AAC device comes first, because a reliable way to be understood changes everything else. And if you are waiting elsewhere, we have no waitlist right now.
Most Colorado families on Health First Colorado pay $0 for a 9 year old’s ABA. Here is how the payers break down.
| How you pay | Typical family cost | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Health First Colorado (Medicaid) | Usually $0 | Covered when eligible, after prior authorization and a medical-necessity review. |
| Commercial insurance | $0–$500 or $0–$1,000 | Depends on your deductible, copay, and plan. We verify Aetna, Anthem BCBS, and others up front. |
| Private pay (no insurance) | ~$2,000–$8,000 | A range that depends on the weekly hours your BCBA recommends. Examples only, never a set quote. |
We verify your benefits and explain your expected cost in plain language before therapy starts. See our full ABA therapy cost guide for Colorado.
Yes. Health First Colorado covers medically necessary ABA for eligible 9 year olds through EPSDT, which covers members age 20 and under. Budding Futures is enrolled under Provider Types 83 and 84. We verify benefits and handle prior authorization, so you know your cost before therapy starts.
On a commercial plan, Colorado law helps you. Under C.R.S. 10-16-104(1.4), plans issued or renewed in Colorado must cover autism assessment, diagnosis, and treatment, including applied behavior analysis. Senate Bill 15-015 removed the old age and dollar caps effective January 1, 2017. Self-funded employer plans follow federal ERISA rules and sit outside that mandate. We check which kind you have when we verify benefits.
More on the $0 path: Medicaid ABA therapy in Colorado and our Colorado credentials.
“We recently went to a pediatrician who strongly recommended ABA therapy for him. But I’m wondering if it would help much?”
— a parent on r/Autism_Parenting
Budding Futures brings ABA to your home, so a school-age kid is not sitting in traffic after a full day of class. We serve families up and down the Front Range and on the Western Slope.
Budding Futures supports kids across every age and stage. Explore by exact age, or see the broader guides below.
ABA Therapy for School-Age ChildrenCommunication and routines through the school years.ABA Therapy for ChildrenHow ABA supports kids across childhood.Modern, Assent-Based ABAWhat good, gentle ABA looks like today.No. Nine is well inside the range where ABA helps. The goals move toward communication, friendships, emotional regulation, and independence, and school-age kids make real progress on all four. Starting now is better than waiting another year.
Yes, when you ask us to. With your written permission we share progress data with the school team and write home goals that line up with the goals already in the IEP. Colorado's Child Find covers ages 3 through 21, and a district has 60 calendar days to complete an evaluation once you request it in writing.
Yes. We run between 8 AM and 8 PM and we come to your home, so a 9 year old is not commuting to a clinic after a full day of class.
Health First Colorado (Medicaid), Aetna, and Anthem BCBS, and we verify other plans before you start. We work in your home across 13 Colorado cities, from Denver, Aurora, and Colorado Springs to Fort Collins, Boulder, and Grand Junction.
One call is all it takes. We will check your Medicaid or insurance, answer your questions, and connect your family with a BCBA who is right for your child, anywhere in Colorado.