BI was established in September 1998 in response to the growing need for well-supervised, high-quality, ABA-driven services for children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders and related disabilities. The directors are Dr. Nicole Walton-Allen and Dr. Joel Hundert, both psychologists and Board Certified Behaviour Analysts.

What had begun out of a small office in Hamilton soon expanded to include Children’s College, a centre-based private school in Toronto, home-based services in southern Ontario, and the provision of a full range of ABA services to families in other regions across Canada, and in other countries.

In 2000, the Behaviour Institute was successful at its bid to train more than 2000 instructor-therapists hired by the newly formed Regional Programs across the Province. In addition, BI has developed and delivered the following additional training programs:

A "train-the-trainer" package for training parents of young children with autism

"Advanced Topics Seminars Series" presented via video-conferencing by leading experts

A series of seven week long “supervisor internships” to supervisors at Regional Programs.

Training newly hired staff at Regional Programs on how to take over the training of staff.

Upgrading and revising the instructor-therapist training material.

In 2002, Behaviour Institute provided consultation on the training designed by Children’s Mental Health Ontario on best practices for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families