Foundational Family Services

This is a consultative service for parents/caregivers who are looking for support with 1-2 specific goals with their child. The following are examples of suitable areas of need to be addressed via this consultative model:

- Sleeping
- Toileting
- Picky Eating
- Daily Living Skills (e.g., dressing, brushing teeth, taking a bath or shower etc.)
- Increasing Basic Communication (e.g., pointing/gestures, eye contact, joint attention, word approximation, sentence expansion, persistence in communication etc.)
- Augmentative Communication Systems
- Pre-Vocational/Vocational Skills
- Emotional regulation
- Social Skills
- Executive Functioning Skills

*in some cases, the clinician might find it beneficial to work with the child/youth directly for part or all of the session depending on the goal. This will be determined during intake and discussed with families.

This session is for siblings of children with autism to gain a deeper understanding of autism. We will discuss: what is autism, interacting with their sibling, and how to explain autism to others.

Parents of children with ASD or other social communication difficulties will use tools and strategies to strengthen their child’s foundation for communication development. These include building back-and-forth interactions, strengthening imitation skills and expanding play skills.

Parents of children with ASD or other social communication difficulties will use tools and strategies to strengthen their child’s foundation for communication development. These include building back-and-forth interactions, strengthening imitation skills and expanding play skills.

TalkAbility is for parents of verbal children ages 3-7. Parents learn practical ways to help their child tune into the thoughts and feelings of others, consider other points of view and to have empathy for others. These skills are essential for successful conversations and for making friends.

PEERS® for Adolescents is an evidence-based social skills intervention for motivated teens in middle and high school who are interested in making and keeping friends and/or handling conflict and rejection.” (https://www.semel.ucla.edu/peers/teens) Caregivers and teens attend separate sessions that are run at the same time. Teens are taught social skills and caregivers are taught how to support their teen as a social coach.

The Balance Program is a home-based, parent-implemented, skill-based approach to preventing the development of severe problem behavior in young children recently diagnosed with autism. Parents serve as the primary implementers with weekly support from a professional from Brenna Lanktree and Associates, Inc.

The preschool life skills program will be taught using a behavioural skills training model using a 2-tier model – small group and individual. Children will learn skills in the domains of friendship, tolerating, functional communication, and instruction following.

AIM is the combination of Mindfulness Training, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). AIM supports children to help manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions

TalkAbility Program

Participants will learn how your child carries on conversation and next steps to support back-and-forth conversations, how to encourage attending to non-verbal social messages, how to talk so they can tune in to what others are thinking, how to increase story-telling and play imaginatively, how to help them make friends

The Feeding Education Series (FES) consists of two educational sessions for parents.  Participants will learn the skills involved in eating, areas where their child may be having difficulty, and strategies and resources available to assist with feeding difficulties.

The  More Than Words Program was designed for parents of children on the autism spectrum and with other social communication difficulties. Addressing the unique needs of these children, the program provides parents with the tools, strategies and support they need to help their children reach their full communication potential.
More Than Words does this by empowering parents to help your child reach the following three goals:
- Improved social communication and back-and-forth interactions
- Improved play skills
- Improved imitation skills

As a parent and/or caregiver, here are some of the valuable things that are learned when attending the More Than Words Program:
- What motivates your child to communicate
- How to use your knowledge about your child to set appropriate and realistic goals
- How to make interactions with your child last longer
- Tips for using pictures and print to help your child’s understanding
- Strategies for how to talk so that your child understands you
- Strategies for developing your child’s play skills
- Ways to help your child make friends

This Program provide parents with simple strategies to use during every day routines and activities to help their child interact more meaningfully with others and experience less frustration. Participants will receive 4 individual consultation sessions with caregiver & child; 8 group learning sessions for caregivers.

This series is for 8 sessions in a group format for caregivers; followed by up to 4 individual sessions with child afterwards (age 1 to 5 years old).

Following a consultation with our BCBA, caregivers will develop a goal for their child. They will then have access to 3 hours of 1:1 coaching and/or continued consultations with the BCBAor Lead ABA Therapistfor the following 4 weeks. Consultations will occur via telehealth, phone, and in-person where possible.

Following a 1-hour consultation meeting with our on-site BCBA, your child will receive 6 hours of 1:1 ABA therapy with our clinical team for up to 21 weeks. Session dates and times will be arranged with each individual family.

With this parent mediated service, you will work together with a BCBA to pick one goal. The service includes a telephone intake, an observation of the child or youth, 3 individualized parent coaching sessions on data collection(1 session) and strategy implementation(2 sessions ), and a follow up meeting.

With this parent mediated service, you will work together with a BCBA to pick one goal. The service includes a telephone intake, an observation of the child or youth, 3 individualized parent coaching sessions on data collection (1 session) and strategy implementation (2 sessions), and a follow up meeting.

With this parent mediated service, you will work together with a BCBA to pick one goal. The service includes a telephone intake, an observation of the child or youth, 3 individualized parent coaching sessions on data collection (1 session) and strategy implementation (2 sessions), and a follow up meeting.

The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) for Adolescents is an evidence-based social skills intervention for motivated adolescents Grade 6 through Grade 12 who are interested in making and keeping friends and/or handling conflict and rejection.

This hands on presentation uses video clips, group discussions and activities to help children understand the difficulties with language, communication, and behaviour that students diagnosed with Autism face every day. The children participating will also have an opportunity to discuss strengths associated with an Autism diagnosis and will increase their awareness of the disorder.

This hands on presentation will allow children to “walk in someone else’s shoes”, by experiencing what it may be like to have visual, hearing, fine motor, gross motor, neurological and/or speech impairment. Gives the younger participants a better understanding and awareness of different challenges some children may experience on a day-to-day basis.

In this presentation, participants will learn how to define behaviour, including examples of appropriate and challenging behaviour. Participants will learn how to apply the Antecedent-Behaviour-Consequence (A-B-C) Model, looking at the different functions of behaviour and general teaching strategies

Difficulties with transitions are common challenges associated with an ASD diagnosis. This 2-hour group workshop will involve learning opportunities to explore several evidence-based strategies to support with everyday transitions such as going to the grocery store, leaving the house for recreational activities, morning/bedtime routines

Participants will learn the strategies to apply prior to a big life change and how to cope with the change. Big transitions may include moving, going to preschool, moving to a new school, having a new sibling, death of someone close, divorce, etc.

In this workshop you will learn practical strategies to teach your child daily living skills such as handwashing, brushing teeth, getting dressed or taking a shower.

Strategies include learning how to break down a skill into smaller parts and how to use motivation to encourage success.