As Speech-Language Pathologists, our role is to support the communication development of individuals on the autism spectrum disorder or of those who have social communication difficulties. When working with children, involving parents and caregivers is the key to success. As the therapist applies Hanen’s 4Is to Socialize™ framework, parents and/or caregivers will learn how to use responsive interaction strategies with their child that will foster socialization and ongoing communication development. Sessions will involve both parent/caregiver education and coaching, as well as direct support to the parent/caregiver while interacting with their child who will be present during some sessions.

This skills group will aim to teach school aged learners’ important social skill for engaging in social play and social interactions, building friendships with peers, as well as managing emotions in challenging social settings. Learners will have the opportunity to identify their social strengths as well as an opportunity to practice play skills, language skills, self-regulation skills and school readiness skills. This social skills group will provide a variety of facilitated activities that will encourage learners to connect with peers, enhance their self-awareness skills and practice problem solving and cooperation skills.

This social skills group will provide learners with an opportunity to explore and practice social skills such as asking for help, greeting peers, turn taking, asking peers to play, and joining in on other peers’ play. Through a variety of facilitated activities, this group will also help learners identify and practice skills needed for managing their emotions and learning to cooperate with others.

The RUBI Parent Training for Disruptive Behaviours is intended to equip parents with a variety of techniques and tools that can help minimize disruptive behaviours and increase desired behaviours. It provides families with a wealth of information that can assist in their day-to-day planning for their child by including teaching opportunities for play skills, daily living skills as well as opportunities to apply behaviour management skills for encouraging desired behaviours.

The Pretend Play and Language Assessment and Curriculum assesses play skills and accompanying language and provides a behaviourally based curriculum to expand a child’s play repertoire. The assessment and consultation will identify next steps in developing play skills and provide parents with programming to continue to advance their child’s play.

Critical Core is a role playing game that features cooperation between players to achieve goals within the game. Using a game master who facilitates the play, players determine their characters strengths and abilities and use these to work collaboratively with the other players. With a focus on skills that are critical for building relationships and having meaningful social interactions, Critical Core makes learning enjoyable for players.

Individualized targeted 3 session consultation to work on a specific goal. These may include: functional skills such as toileting, eating, hygeine; communication goals (i.e., functional communication); identifying alternatives to disruptive behaviour, etc.

Caregivers often assume that the challenges that they face in helping their children develop healthy daily routines are a part of their child’s autism and must be endured. This workshop provides caregivers an overview of strategies that include the application of behaviour analysis. The use of practical strategies to promote desired behaviour, and a focus on improving the quality of life for the child and their family.

These workshops and consultation series are recommended for families whose child has recently received an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. After receiving news of a diagnosis, families will navigate through a lot of information to make important decisions about next steps. This series offers 3 workshops, along with 3, 1:1, 30-minute consultations with a BCBA-D. Workshop 1 will provide an overview of various services recommended to families with a child with ASD. Workshop 2 will provide an overview of Autism and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and why ABA is well suited to address ASD. If seeking ABA based services, this information is key for knowing what to look for in providers and how caregiver involvement is key to helping children reach their full potential. Workshop 3 will review things to do as you wait for service that will aid in developing skills and routines in the home to maximize learning from the get-go. The initial consultation is aimed at gathering information that will be pertinent to focusing the workshops on the audience attending, with follow up consultations occurring after Workshop 3 which will focus on implementing ABA strategies in the home with coaching from a BCBA-D.

This workshop provides an opportunity to learn Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) strategies to teach your child play skills that increase and promote language. Teaching communication skills and expanding your child’s language through play increases skill development across many areas maximizing learning opportunities. There are four individual consults with a BCBA-D included with this workshop. These consultations are individualized specific to implement the strategies reviewed at the workshop with your child.

Friendships are key for a healthy development for children and youth. Maintaining and developing friendships can be especially tricky to navigate for children and youth with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This peer group is aimed at teaching and providing participants with opportunities to practice the skills necessary for developing friendships as well as how to maintain friendships. Participants will practice getting to know each other, how to initiate and end conversations, conversation do’s and don’t’s and how to host and be a guest at a play date. Participants will have opportunities to learn these skills while interacting with each other and participating in group games.

Join us as we focus on social skills needed for play with friends and peers. Target skills include: - Taking-turns
- Waiting
- Sharing
- Winning & Losing
Parents and guardians are welcome to join us for at 11:30 for generalization on Friday August 11. Generalization handouts will also be provided daily.

This workshop series is recommended for families with a child who has recently received an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. After receiving news of a diagnosis, families will navigate through a lot of information to make important decisions about next steps. This series offers 3 workshops, along with 4, 1:1, 30-minute consultations with a BCBA-D. Workshop 1 will provide an overview of various services recommended to families with a child with ASD. Workshop 2 will provide an overview of Autism and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and why ABA is well suited to address ASD. Workshop 3 will focus on developing positive interactions as a foundation to teach a variety of different skills in these early stages. 4, 30-minute, 1:1 consultations will follow Workshop 3, where families will identify a goal and will work with the BCBA-D to develop this skill. 1:1 consultations are for caregivers and child to attend. Workshops are delivered virtually and consultations can be virtual or in person, based on preference and availability.

Teaching Parents to Toilet Train Their Child
We will train parents via telehealth and provide a few 1:1 consults specific to the implementation of teaching their child.

This toilet training program reviewed with participants comes from Dr. Natalie Paquet Croteau’s recent article published in the Journal of Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities.

Toileting is an essential skill for all individuals to acquire and serves as a steppingstone to the development of many other skills. This service aims to support parents and caregivers of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to teach toileting skills.

Toileting phases
• Research supported strategies
• Child centered approach to toileting
• Collecting and interpreting data
• Reinforcement and troubleshooting

People interact socially many times in a day. For children with autism, developing social skills may require more practice and more opportunities. In this workshop series, caregivers are provided an overview of the importance of social skills and are introduced to various strategies that can be used with their children to target specific social skills. Caregivers will be given an opportunity to identify a relevant social skill to teach their child, utilizing a strategy reviewed in the workshop and will have opportunities to practice and report back in a 1:1 follow up consultation.

This Social Resilience Builder Group for Teens is intended for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, aged 13 to 18 years. This group is adapted from The Resilience Builder Program (Alvord, Zucker, & Grados, 2011) that is designed to support individuals to bounce back from stress by developing resilience and protective factors, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, flexible thinking, and social competence. All materials will be provided.

Note: All applicants must undergo an intake interview to determine eligibility.

The Cool Kids Program for ASD (Chalfant, Lyneham, Rapee, & Carroll, 2011) is an evidence-based, structured therapy designed to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, aged 9 to 12 years effectively identify, manage, and overcome anxiety. The program uses a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach and incorporates various techniques and strategies to help young individuals develop the skills necessary to better identify feelings, cope with anxiety, foster social skills, and improve overall function. All materials will be provided.

Note: All applicants must undergo an intake interview to determine eligibility.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND. This service is intended for caregivers or adolescents (age 13+) to receive direct individual support from a psychologist or clinical associate working under the supervision of Dr. Stephanie Price or Dr. Matias Mariani to address challenges related to a range of issues (e.g., family problems, parenting stress, bullying at school, worries, etc.). The goal is to provide time-limited counselling to better manage emotions, improve problem-solving, and learn various coping skills.

This workshop is a condensed version of the Parent Management Training (Kazdin, 2008) program. It aims to enhance parenting skills to improve challenging behaviours in children, such as aggression, hyperactivity, and non-compliance. The training will take place virtually. Handouts will be emailed to participants, as appropriate.

Roots & Wings Psychology is pleased to offer social skills groups using the POWER-Solving®: Stepping Stones to Helping Children Solve Life’s Everyday Social Problems curriculum. This comprehensive social skills curriculum teaches problem solving, anger management, social conversation, and developing friendship skills. Examples of skills targeted include, but are not limited to: setting and achieving a goal within a given situation; staying calm when told ‘no’, or when things don’t go their way; starting, maintaining, changing the topic, and ending conversation appropriately; accepting others who are different from them; and learning how to play a game appropriately.

Eligible participants must be between 7 and 11 years of age with no externalized behaviours (i.e., physical aggression, property destruction, self-injurious behaviours), and well-established verbal repertoire (i.e., can read and write close to their grade level).

Pizza and drinks will be provided at each session.

Roots & Wings Psychology is excited to offer a new service called Sleep Tight. Good sleep is crucial in supporting our children/youth’s growth and development as well as healthy brain and body functioning throughout their day. The Sleep Tight program is a time limited service that offers a sleep assessment and treatment plan, along with one month of follow up support.

Goals of the treatment plan are developed collaboratively with caregivers in consideration of the client, family values, as well as safety and subjective experience. Goals can include but are not limited to: falling asleep quickly, staying asleep throughout the night, rise without difficulty in the morning, decrease drowsiness during the day, and fall and stay asleep unassisted.

Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is not therapy, but rather avenue for sibs to have fun, laugh, talk about the good and not-so-good parts, play some great games, learn something about the services/diagnosis of their brothers or sisters, and have some more fun. This all-day Hallowe’en-themed session includes snacks and lunches.

Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is not therapy, but rather avenue for sibs to have fun, laugh, talk about the good and not-so-good parts, play some great games, learn something about the services/diagnosis of their brothers or sisters, and have some more fun. This all-day Hallowe’en-themed session includes snacks and lunches.

Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is not therapy, but rather avenue for sibs to have fun, laugh, talk about the good and not-so-good parts, play some great games, learn something about the services/diagnosis of their brothers or sisters, and have some more fun.

Celebrate the New Year with us! Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is an opportunity for those who have a sibling with an ASD diagnosis. Sibshops is not therapy, but rather a venue for sibs to have fun, laugh, talk about the good and not-so-good parts, play some great games, learn something about the services/diagnosis of their brothers or sisters, and have some more fun. This all-day session includes snacks and lunches.