SOAP Notes for ABA Therapy Template

What is an ABA Therapy SOAP Notes Template?

SOAP Notes are commonly used around the world in a wide variety of healthcare settings, including Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy. SOAP is an acronym that stands for the four headings used in SOAP Notes: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan. Using this widespread acronym in your own clinical notes has many benefits, as we will discuss in future sections.

Carepatron has a vast community library of different clinical templates, designed to help practitioners from a wide range of healthcare specializations. Templates are super useful as you don’t have to start your clinical notes from scratch every time you write a new document. Our ABA Therapy SOAP Notes template has four headings and a header for the important client details.

This template is a downloadable resource for you to start taking SOAP Notes in your ABA Therapy practice, and this template is also available from within the Carepatron platform.

Take a look at this explainer video to see how you can start using ABA SOAP Notes in your practice.

How to Use This SOAP Note Template for ABA Therapy

This template is very simple to use. The structure of the SOAP Notes for ABA template is just four headings, and for our ABA Therapists who travel to all different locations outside of an ABA clinic, we have added a space for the venue of the session as well as the time and duration of the session. These are all important details to include in your session notes and may become important in the future for legal or insurance purposes.

Once you have filled in the header information such as the patient’s name, session venue, and date, begin filling in the SOAP headings making up the body of the ABA Therapy SOAP Notes template.

Subjective

Information under the subjective heading may include your initial impression of your client’s presentation or anything reported to you by the client or support person relevant to their present condition.

Objective

The objective heading is for your reporting of the facts of the session. What did you do or say? What was your client’s response? How did you intervene? The ABC acronym can be useful here, standing for Antecedent- what happened before a behavior, Behavior- what did your client do, and Consequence- the response following the behavior.

Assessment

The assessment section is where you write your conclusions based on the information gathered in the first two sections.

Plan

And finally, the plan section is your next steps for your client as their ABA therapist- most likely including when and where you will see them next, and any plans for their future sessions.

Who Can Use this ABA Therapy Template?

This ABA therapy template is designed for use by anyone who routinely practices ABA therapy. This might be a:

• Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) or Board-Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA)
• Registered Behavior Technician (RBT)
• Trainee or student for either of the above.

Trainees may find using a template a good way to learn the SOAP Notes structure, whereas certified ABA practitioners or behavior technicians can incorporate this template into their regular note-taking routine.

Why is This Template Useful For ABA Therapists?

RBT’s, BCBA’s or other ABA Therapists face many unique challenges in keeping a comprehensive record of their work.

ABA Therapists may have sessions upwards of many hours in duration that might take place in the client’s home, kindergarten, school, or dedicated clinic space. These sessions will likely produce many important details that need to be noted down – and taking these notes can quickly get very chaotic if you do not have a structure for your notes. Luckily, using this ABA SOAP Notes template can help with many of these challenges.

• This ABA SOAP Notes template helps you to keep your notes structured. This is a fantastic habit to get into for your note-taking as it makes it both easier for you to refer back to, and easier for others to quickly understand your notes.
• Our ABA SOAP Notes template includes space for the client name, date of birth, venue, and session time and duration. These are important factual details, and using a template that reminds you to include them can help you ensure they are included in every session note.

Benefits of Using The ABA SOAP Note Template

Keep your notes organized

ABA Therapy sessions might take any number of directions and you need to be able to respond quickly and adapt as needed. Your notes, however, still need to capture what happened during the session, so using a template to separate the different information you gathered can be a great way to keep your notes well organized.

Substantiate insurance claims

Your client may need to provide proof of their ABA Therapy sessions to their insurance company, so using our ABA Therapy SOAP Notes template for your session notes will help you and your client provide excellent evidence of what happened during your client’s session to anyone who may need to know in the future.

Reflect on your past sessions

Professional development and constant improvement are crucial to any therapy position, with ABA therapy no exception. Reflecting on your past sessions with your client can help you identify any patterns of behavior that may emerge over time, and having the time of day, venue, and the content and duration of the session well documented can be really useful for quantifying any changing variables in your patient’s treatment.

Keep track of your client’s plan

While the subjective and objective parts of the SOAP Notes template might make up the majority of the body section of your notes, having a written record of your plan for your client at the end of each session is an invaluable way to capture your thoughts right at the time of the ABA session.

Ensure your notes have a clear structure

Your notes may be shared with other RBT’s, BCBA’s, your client’s family members, or other members of your client’s care team. Keeping your notes well-structured helps make life easier for these other people who might need to read your notes and quickly find information.

You can also check out our SOAP notes template and therapy SOAP notes template, which offer a structured and customizable approach for various medical and therapy sessions, ensuring comprehensive documentation and optimal outcomes. Explore our guides to see how they can enhance your practice.