Throwing, breaking, ripping: it all does a job for your child. We find the job and teach a safer way to do it, in your home.
The third broken tablet. Holes in the drywall. Books ripped, glasses thrown, a sibling's project torn up. Property destruction wears families down financially and emotionally, and most advice amounts to "stay consistent." Budding Futures ABA treats destructive behavior at home, where it happens, with function-based plans built by Rachel Blackburn, BCBA. Medicaid families usually pay nothing.
Destructive behavior keeps happening because it works. For some kids, throwing ends the demand they could not face. For some it brings an adult running, which beats being ignored. For some the crash and rip is sensory, the most satisfying input available in a boring room. And for many it is the loudest sentence a child without reliable language can say.
Which job the behavior does decides the treatment. Punishing sensory-driven destruction leaves the need unmet, so it moves to a new target. Calmly replacing escape-driven destruction without fixing the demands just relocates the storm. So the plan starts with a functional behavior assessment: your BCBA watches what comes before, what comes after, and what the behavior reliably earns, then writes the plan against that evidence.
Your child gets a faster, safer way to do the same job: a break request that always works, a bid for attention that gets answered, real sensory options that deliver the input on purpose. That replacement gets taught and reinforced until it beats destruction at its own game, which is functional communication training doing what it does best.
The environment changes too. Demands get resized, warning signs get a response plan, high-value targets get less reachable while the plan takes hold, and the household stops paying the behavior in attention or escape. None of that is punishment. It is making the safe path the easy path.
Data runs through all of it. Your child's RBT logs every incident and every successful replacement, and Rachel reviews the plan at roughly 20 percent supervision, about four times the BACB minimum. You will see the incident curve on paper, not just feel it in the house.
Destruction is local. It happens at your desk, your TV, your bookshelf, at 5:45pm when dinner is late and the tablet died. A clinic never sees the real conditions. We work inside them, across every Colorado city, 8AM to 8PM, and coach you through the plan in the exact moments that used to end with something broken. Parent coaching is the multiplier here, because you are present for the moments we are not.
Destruction often travels with aggression toward people or with self-injury. Those have their own pages and their own plan components, and one assessment can cover all of it.
| Ages | 18 months through 18 years |
|---|---|
| Setting | Your home, statewide across Colorado |
| Plan basis | Functional behavior assessment, replacement communication, environment changes, incident data |
| Typical cost | Medicaid usually $0; commercial $0 to $500; private pay $2,000 to $8,000 |
| First step | Free consultation, benefits check, then FBA |
Destructive behavior is one of several behavioral conditions we support with in-home ABA.
Natural ones, sometimes, like helping clean up when calm. But consequences alone do not touch the reason the behavior exists, which is why years of consequences have not fixed it. The lasting fix is a replacement that does the same job faster, plus an environment that stops paying for destruction.
Temporarily securing high-value targets is a reasonable safety step while the plan takes hold, and we will say so. As a permanent strategy it fails, because the behavior finds new targets. The plan is what retires it.
Different conditions, different payoffs. School may have tighter structure, fewer demands your child hates, or faster attention. That contrast is useful assessment data, and it is also why in-home treatment fits this behavior: the plan has to work where the behavior lives.
Yes. Reducing destructive behavior is core ABA therapy, Colorado requires state-regulated plans to cover it, and Health First Colorado usually covers therapy at $0. We verify your benefits first.
She 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 profileTell us what gets broken and when. We will explain what the assessment would look for and what your coverage looks like.