Choosing a system for the clinic is a years-long decision. The team will record in it daily, supervision will depend on it for decision-making, and the family will receive reports generated from it. It is worth comparing calmly, looking at actual daily routine and not just the feature list.

This guide covers the questions that weigh most in practice.

1. Are the protocols you use included?

Start with what the clinic already uses. If the team works with ESDM, VB-MAPP, or ABLLS-R, the system must have these instruments digitized, with their respective scoring scales, rather than a generic spreadsheet.

Also ask:

  • Is the checklist organized by level and domain, as in the original instrument?
  • Can you compare two or more assessments for the same child?
  • Do protocols with their own scoring, such as IDADI normative calculation or VB-MAPP milestones, appear as the instrument requires?

Remember that copyright-protected protocols require the professional to be certified to administer them, in any system.

2. Does the assessment convert to a plan without rework?

The point where most time is lost is moving from assessment to intervention plan. See if the system allows you to select an assessment and add to the plan the goals linked to items not yet mastered.

A bank of ready-made goals, with objectives and steps already written, saves hours of drafting for every new plan. Verify if these goals are linked to the items of the protocols you use.

3. Can session recording fit into the session?

If recording is time-consuming, the team leaves it until the end of the day, and data quality suffers. In the demo, ask to see a session being recorded on a phone:

  • How many taps to record a successful opportunity, with or without prompting?
  • Does the step criterion appear on the screen?
  • Can you record behaviors using the right technique (frequency, duration, latency, intensity) and perform ABC analysis in the same flow?

4. Are charts generated from what was recorded?

Hand-drawn charts at the end of the month consume supervision time. The system must generate, from the sessions, session performance, progress per goal, and evolution per assessment domain.

Check if it is possible to export to PDF what the family and team need to see, without creating a report from scratch.

5. Can supervision keep up without being in every session?

Supervisors need to see the history of sessions per child and therapist, and compare periods. Some systems also allow recording the session and reviewing with transcription, or turning supervision voice notes into notes. Ask how this works and who decides what becomes a record.

6. Do the team and family see only what they should?

In a multidisciplinary team, each professional needs a role per child: supervisor, therapist, assistant. Permissions must follow this role.

With the family, the care is greater. See if each note, report, or snippet of recording has its own visibility, and if there is the option of a note that only the author reads.

7. Does it work where the team works?

Intervention happens at the clinic, school, and home. Confirm that the system works in the mobile/tablet browser, without depending on a clinic computer, and if it separates records by location.

8. What is the real cost?

Compare the billing model. Price per child served tends to match clinic size better than price per professional. Ask if there is a free trial period with the full workflow, to test with real cases before deciding.

A table to take to the demonstration

Question What to look for
Protocols The ones you use, with the original scale
Assessment to plan Importing goals from items
Session recording Fast on mobile, with visible criteria
Charts Generated from sessions, exportable to PDF
Supervision History, comparison, and session review
Permissions Role per child and visibility per note
Cost Per-child model and trial period

How Proaba responds to this guide

Proaba was built around this routine: 15+ digital protocols, importing goals from the assessment with a bank of 2,000+ ready-made goals, mobile session recording, plan and assessment charts generated from what was recorded, session recording with cross-referenced summary with the plan, and role-based permissions. Plans are per child served, and the free account is valid for 3 months with up to 2 children.

The best way to evaluate is to see it with a case similar to yours.