ABC's New Center Design: The Cloudscape

"I recently toured a family who was searching for an ABA center, but expressed concern that many of the facilities available feel like a medical office, instead of a place for children.  

By the end of the tour, the parent teared up, saying she’d never felt so supported by a center. Parker felt so warm, inviting, and safe, and she finally feels as though she’s found a center that will care for her child in the same way that she does.

Parker’s look and layout makes every family feel so connected. This really has sparked a lot of comforting and safe feelings for our kiddos and their families.”

- Operations Manager, Parker, CO

Lana David once said:
“Behavior is communication.
Change the environment and behaviors will change.”

The environment we create within our centers is paramount to the success of our teammates and the children we serve. By creating an engaging atmosphere with open floor plans, naturalistic elements, stimulating sensory rooms, and soft color palettes, we’ve created the perfect space for children on the Autism spectrum to learn and grow.

At ABC, we strive to create meaningful learning opportunities for each child. We’ve dedicated ourselves to finding the most talented, caring teammates in order to achieve that goal. The latest behavioral insights, cutting-edge training for our teams, and maintaining the best culture are all areas where we endeavor to be at the forefront for our kiddos. 

Our dedicated team researched and reached out to leaders in the environmental design, psychology, and child behavior fields to learn what we could be doing better.

These field-leading experts spoke to us about colors and shapes and textures and spatial science - and we listened. How do you most effectively create an environment designed specifically for children on the spectrum?

We got to work, the ABC way. We completely transformed the way we build out new locations. Higher ceilings in open areas, fewer hallways to improve circulation, soft, safe materials, lighter color palettes, and themes that sparked imagination and play.

We partnered with our clinical team to design the most engaging play scapes to advance our therapy, adding whimsical elements such as trees indoors to spark imaginative play, active play equipment to aid in focus, kinetic flooring for safety – every aspect of our design was made with the clinical needs of our kiddos first and foremost.

When kiddos engage and explore their environment, they take the first steps to interact with the world around them. To this end, we have created sensory rooms, stimulating different areas of the brain, and helping develop their visual processing as well as fine motor skills. 

To provide the best opportunities to help every child reach their full potential, we can never stop innovating, never stop trying to advance and do better. At ABC, we are excited about the new environments we are creating to achieve these goals, one wondrous cloud at a time.