ABA therapy for children in Kazakhstan: how to get help from a BCBA specialist without moving

In Kazakhstan, the situation with behavioral help for children with developmental differences is different from the "long queues" conversation more often heard about European countries — here the key problem isn't so much the wait as the fact that there are physically almost no certified applied behavior analysis specialists, especially outside major cities. ABA therapy for children is developing in Kazakhstan, but for now it mostly rests on the enthusiasm of individual specialists and growing government attention, rather than an established, widely available system.

What's already changing at the government level

Kazakhstan is expanding its early intervention system and has approved a new action plan for 2025–2027 aimed at strengthening support for children with autism spectrum disorders and their families — including improving access to speech therapy, psychological support, and inclusive education in schools and daycares. This is a meaningful shift, but systemic changes like this take years, and families who need help for their child now shouldn't build their plan solely around waiting for the reform to be completed.

The gap between cities and rural areas is already noticeable today: according to a study of parents' experience in Kazakhstan, about 39.7% of surveyed families received government support within up to three years, and this was noticeably more common among city residents — 42.3%, versus a markedly lower share among rural families, who, according to the same data, have access to fewer specialist consultations because of staff shortages specifically in remote regions.

Why a BCBA specialist is hard to find even in a major city

Applied behavior analysis as a distinct specialization with international certification is only limitedly developed in Kazakhstan, and this isn't a uniquely local problem — according to the official registry of certified behavior analysts, the entire world outside the US and Canada accounts for only about 3.7% of all certificates, spread across 67 countries, and Kazakhstan isn't among the countries with a documented notable presence of such specialists. The difference from a situation like Germany's or Poland's is that there, the shortage is largely organizational (long queues in an overloaded system), whereas in Kazakhstan it's first and foremost an objective shortage of the specialization itself on the market, regardless of a family's willingness to pay.

What you can do right now, without waiting for the local system to develop

• Start with a remote skills assessment for your child using VB-MAPP/ABLLS-R — it doesn't depend on whether there's a BCBA specialist in your city, and can start right away, in parallel with seeking available government support.
• Use government and local resources where they actually work — speech therapy and psychological support, inclusive groups in daycares — as a complement to the systematic behavioral program, not a replacement for it.
• Don't put off starting sessions while waiting for a certified specialist to appear in your city — given the objective shortage of the specialization on the market as a whole described above, the remote format is, for most families in Kazakhstan, not a temporary measure but a realistic main path.

At Sense Behavior, families from Kazakhstan get a full remote program — skills testing, an individual plan, and ongoing supervision from a certified specialist — regardless of which city in the country they're in, urban or remote.