Before 2004 there were no ABA services offered by public institutions in Switzerland. A small number of parents did however seek supervision out of foreign countries. Based on the initiative of parents, the CAPS (Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service) Zurich sent two psychologists to the Lovaas Institute in New Jersey for training. In 2004 the CAPS (which today’s ATZZ is a part of) started the first EIBI in German speaking Switzerland. Since then services have been expanded and more professionals have been trained. As of 2010 the BCBA training became more accessible with the advent of online-training provided by international partners, approved by the BACB.

In 2004 ABA also made a breakthrough in the French speaking region of Switzerland. OVA was founded in 2004 through the initiative of a local group of parents whose children were diagnosed with autism. They were originally faced with a significant lack of trained professionals as well as a lack of effective therapy. As such, they searched abroad for scientifically based interventions and in Canada, these parents discovered ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis). Motivated by the potential of this therapy, they decided to create a partnership with Canadian Behaviour Analysts to establish a training of local professionals in the French region of Switzerland. Thanks to these newly trained ABA professionals, home-based interventions developed rapidly along with a growing demand for more services. In 2007, the association opened a training and intervention centre in Gland, Switzerland.

Since then more ABA has come to Switzerland. First, several expats who had received ABA training abroad, moved to Switzerland and started to offer services here. And second, former employess of CAPS / ATZZ and OVA moved on to provide ABA services in other areas and forms, most notably by running private home-based ABA programs. The demand for ABA services especially in the population of young children with autism is constantly raising. Their parents find out about ABA services online and then look for options for this therapy in Switzerland.

Despite the growing need for ABA services still very little has happened on a political or official level. In 2018 the federal government postulated that every child with autism in Switzerland should have access to early intervention. This led first of all to a struggle between the different therapeutic approaches available for this population in Switzerland. Currently ABA-based EIBI is only one form of early intervention offered in Switzerland. Others include eclectic approaches, FIAS and most rapidely-spreading ESDM. As of 2023 all cantons in Switzerland are asked by the federal government to provide an early intensive therapy program for young children with autism of at 15 hours per week for a duration of 2 years. So far sadly very few cantons have made notable progress.