Optimal Beginnings, LLC

My son has been at Optimal Beginnings for three years, since he was two years old. He absolutely loves the staff, and we’ve had consistently good experiences with the BCBAs, who have taught us so many helpful ways to work with our son at home and school to set him up for success. Optimal Beginnings is very play-based, which works wonderfully for my son, and he always looks forward to going to ABA, even after a long day at school. We also get speech services through Optimal Beginnings, and Joe’s speech therapist post notes on the central online portal after each session so we can track his progress. The central portal can be a bit difficult at times to navigate, and my one suggestion would be to offer occasional training sessions on how to use and track progress through the portal. Thanks so much to Optimal Beginnings for creating a fun, welcoming learning environment and always being available to work with parents through difficult child behaviors and changing schedules!

In my personal experience, I would strongly advise any parent to think twice before placing their child here. I enrolled my child with the hope of receiving structured support and meaningful care. Unfortunately, that is not what we experienced. From what I observed and based on what I was told, the children seemed to spend much of the day watching movies rather than engaging in educational or therapeutic activities. It felt more like babysitting than actual support. When I asked for updates or progress reports, I was not provided with any clear information. I was also not permitted to observe what was happening in the rooms, even just once, which made it very difficult to understand what—if anything—was being done to support my child’s development. When I expressed concern and requested more transparency, I felt stonewalled and dismissed. I didn’t feel like a partner in my child’s care, which is critical when working with children who have special needs. This is just my experience, and others may have had different ones. But for me, it was incredibly disappointing and upsetting. I’m sharing this so other parents can make fully informed decisions.

my initial impression: just put my boss's name on waitlist so we haven't started with them yet, but the front desk admin for Maryland office was on point and respond latest next day. Other places have either not called me back after 2 days, or their admin staff weren't clear on their intake process.

I’m grateful for everything OB has helped my family achieve for our son in the past 6 months. We almost quit on them, because when we started they began their 100% in-center ABA model with lots of virtual/zoom BCBA supervision. Thank god we’re proven wrong because our BCBA, Melanie, observes our son very well, pulls his data quickly during meetings, and easily collaborates with parents on goals. She readily includes our input and implements things that challenges our son, unlike the slow red tape school IEP teams demand of parents. With 6 months of pick-ups, I see the same RBT faces - which means staffing is consistent and there’s constant coverage when one RBT falls sick. Our child has NEVER missed a service date because of company staffing issues. We’ve dealt with in-consistent staffing for at-home ABA for another child. At-home ABA was ideal for us, but it’s no use if no one can show up! I plan on daily speech sessions with OB during the summer, knowing it will be a smooth transition from ABA that saves me a commute, plus we can target speech goals with parent input to help our son progress faster.