Step Ahead ABA in North Carolina

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Step Ahead Therapy – A True Gift to Our Family We are beyond grateful for the incredible support from Step Ahead Therapy, especially our therapist Deja and care coordinator Candace. Deja has worked with our middle son for several years, and her impact has been nothing short of life-changing. Watching him read, write, and express himself in ways we never imagined has been a beautiful journey—and Deja has been at the heart of it. Her patience, kindness, and consistency make her not only the perfect therapist for our son, but a role model for our entire family. Even when she’s not here, we find ourselves quoting her or joking about how “perfect” she is—because she truly is. Our youngest and oldest sons adore her, and even our puppies light up when she arrives! Candace, her manager, is just as wonderful—always responsive, thoughtful, and available whenever we need support. Together, Deja and Candace have brought peace, progress, and joy into our home. We couldn’t imagine our lives without them.

Highly professional, kind and effective team. A wonderful experience so far!

Very professional. Would recommend.

My son has been working with step ahead ABA for about a year and a half now and to be honest this is the best place I’ve found for in home ABA ! You can tell they really are passionate about helping my son from the RBT’s that he’s worked with to the staff ! They are very open to communicating needs and wants . And are very educated in my opinion ! My son was on 2 different waiting list for ABA services for 2 years and once I heard about step ahead they hit me up about services within that week . It took a little time to find a therapist but they communicated with me the entire time and it didn’t take too long to find one but I just love how this company is and to top it all off my son is actually progressing ! I’m a real person and they really do help !!! Highly recommend !

Jasmine and the entire team at Step Ahead ABA were amazing. We enjoyed having them as part of our daily routine and family for the over a year we were with them. Nicholas made life changing improvements with their services, and he has retained the habits he built and still utilizes the tools he learned. I would recommend Step Ahead to any family looking for an ABA therapy practice.

I had 3 children receiving services from Step Ahead starting in 8/2022. Staff turnover was very high, which is common in this field, & each child had multiple RBTs & BCBAs of varying quality. Some were really good, & my children progressed so much, hence the 2 stars. However, others were not so good, with various issues such as unreliability & failure to follow the program well. Some staff repeatedly left trash from their lunch for me & my partner to clean up over the course of several months. There was also other property damage, which I admittedly didn't officially broach with the company because I was afraid of straining relationships. My boyfriend wanted me to raise the issues with management, but I told him to stay quiet about it & I would absorb the costs ($100s). On 6/4 the BCBA informed me that there were issues with our home & handed me a checklist saying there must be improvements shown before 6/14. A Medicaid family was given less than 2 weeks to make improvements that would require a significant financial burden. Several of the issues had been raised before, but my partner & I saw them as requests instead of requirements. I spent at least $600 to buy things necessary for the improvements, such as a higher-powered AC for the therapy room. On 6/6, sessions were ended early due to a child getting sick, & by that night we were both vomiting. This resulted in me suspending sessions for a week while the kids got sick in succession. Normally, their dad would help, but he had to leave town for most of the week for personal emergencies. One of his longest friends had a catastrophic accident & wasn't expected to live. So even though I was sick, I was the only caregiver for almost a week for 4 kids, doing the work that it normally took 2 parents to do. I pushed myself really hard all week. By the time the dad came home, he was sore from days of sleeping in chairs & could not help me with the labor to finish the checklist. I informed the BCBA on Thursday that we could have sessions on Friday, which happened to be the deadline, but I wasn't able to finish the list. I didn't want to miss another day if we didn't have to. On 6/14, we had sessions, then the BCBA told me we were being discharged. It didn't matter that I'd already invested a significant sum & had all materials ready, to show good faith intent on my part. It didn't matter that we'd had extenuating circumstances for the preceding week. It didn't matter that all we needed was a weekend to finish. It didn't matter that we could be given the weekend as a grace period without putting the staff at risk, since they weren't due to step foot into the house over the weekend. Three children's relationships with their RBTs were severed due to issues that could have been easily fixed without putting anyone at risk. The BCBA even told me when 1 child was still in the room & removed the boxes of reinforcers in front of him. I emailed Nick H. at 3:25 to make sure he knew of the extenuating circumstances. He did not respond until Monday. He'd had his phone on silent even though he knew what was happening with us on Friday. He insisted on discharging. At this point, the RBTs were still showing up on online scheduling. On the Friday after discharge, I finally heard from the COO. She said she was responding to various messages I'd sent other people & yet she didn't directly address several points, such as the fact that granting us grace would have hurt absolutely nobody. On Monday, we finally received the discharge papers. They include a blurb about reason for discharge, that conveniently leaves out context & could potentially prejudice other companies in the future. Before signing up, please decide whether you want to open yourselves up to similar treatment. We had extenuating conditions, but we had shown good faith by investing significant money, & just needed the grace of a weekend. The company's handling of the matter was inflexible, disproportionate (not necessary to protect staff) & really cruel to the kids, who still ask about their "friends" & are heartbroken.

My son had therapy for 11 months with Step Ahead ABA. Cacey was an absolutely exceptional rbt, mentor, friend, and an amazing person. Vanessa was also amazing and so attentive! They listened to my concerns, did their best to answer my questions, and had no problem helping me research when we didn't know. We've been to a lot of places, and through a lot of therapists, these girls were easily the best. I was so sad to see them go, but so glad we were able to have them in our lives for as long as we did. Cacey and Vanessa are the best!! Getting in touch with any of the office people is crazy though. 🙃