Programs & Services

The goal of the group is to help parents / caregivers connect to the emotional side of receiving an ASD diagnosis for their child who is latency age or older. Through the group setting, parents and caregivers will be given the opportunity to explore and address their own thoughts, feelings and values surrounding the diagnosis of the child in their care. Themes focused in the group will be priority management, emotional wellbeing, caregiver burnout and personal advocating.

Sessions will include about 30 minutes of information about impacts of ASD, as well as 30 minutes for discussion and questions. This group is well suited for individuals who are aware of their diagnosis and are interested in learning more about ASD while connecting with other teens with ASD.

New diagnosis? Join us for a guided discussion caregiver group. Upon intake, a facilitator will contact you for an individual session to discuss your needs and interests. We hope to create a safe place where families can share and learn from each other while being supported by experts in ABA & Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This virtual information and Q&A session is intended for parents and caregivers of children or adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The workshop uses components of the Parent Management Training (Kazdin, 2008) program and aims to enhance parenting skills to improve challenging behaviours in children, such as aggression, hyperactivity, and noncompliance.

We are happy to offer drop-in clinics for caregivers and their children, or for adolescents with or without their caregivers, specifically designed to address questions regarding a recent diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, to discuss basic strategies, and to review treatment plans and specific recommendations. Sessions will cover topics such as the nature of ASD and what it means for you, your child(dren), and your family, prognosis and planning for the future, intervention options, attachment and relationship building, and the importance of self-care.

Caregivers will participate in a 1-hour consultation meeting with the BCBA to discuss their goal(s), provide any relevant information about their child, and have the BCBA complete a brief observation of their child. Following the initial consultation meeting the BCBA will provide a recommendation for goals and your child will receive ABA service with our clinical team including a BCBA and Lead ABA Therapist for 6 hours a week for 12 weeks.

Focused ABA sessions will last 3 hours and occur twice per week.
Caregivers will be provided the opportunity to participate in service and/or to receive coaching on ABA strategies throughout the 12 weeks.

This service is available in English with limited spaces for service available in French.

The Zones of Regulation will support learners with identifying emotions and their Zones before moving on to take a closer look at how they move through each Zone throughout their daily schedule, as well identifying triggers. Participants should have sufficient language and attention skills to complete sessions.

Children with ASD commonly face challenges with sleep which impacts not only the child, but the entire family as a unit. This session will some of the reasons your child may not be sleeping and strategies for families to try with their children.

Following their participation in the Vocational Training introductory course, youth will have an opportunity to apply their newly learned skills in a small community project selected by the group.

The project will address a community need such as expanding a green space in a non-profit organization; art mural; building items that can be used for play and learning, and/or an innovative idea that will address a community need.

Participants will have the opportunity to practice their skills in the area of resume creation and interviewing, while also developing further knowledge about their community. The project team will work on skills such as planning, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills.

An honorarium will be provided to each selected participant for this project. One to one job coaching and supervision will be provided by an ABA Therapist and a BCBA.

This workshop will support youth on the spectrum that are looking to get into the workforce for the first time. It is geared to youth between the ages of 15-17 who are able to attend independently and participate in a small group setting via a virtual platform or in class.

Youth will learn where to look for job postings, different resume styles, develop the skills for creating a cover letter and resume, Interview tips, common interview questions and how to be prepared for an interview.

Best suited for youth on the spectrum that are looking to get into the workforce for the first time. Youth will be required to attend independently and participate in a small group setting or via virtual platform.

This workshop will introduce caregivers to effective visual strategies that will assist in promoting positive behaviours. Participants can also partake in a one-hour follow up (virtually) to support implementation of visual at home.

Participants learn a variety of visual learning tools they can implement at home to support their child’s independence and learning. The session will focus on creating and utilizing; visual schedules, first/then boards, and visual task analyses. Parents/Caregivers will be given the opportunity to create their own visual with the support of a therapist.

This presentation will provide ways that parents can use visuals to enhance the learning of young children. Visuals are proven to be exceptionally helpful when teaching new concepts to children with low language, delays in cognition, self regulation/anxiety challenges, and those requiring a bit more time to grasp new concepts or adjust to new situations/environments. I am hopeful that viewers will gain insight into how they can use visuals throughout their everyday interactions with children. Some research to support the effectiveness of using visuals to support children with autism can be found on the Autism Speaks website or by following the link below.

Link here

This workshop will discuss strategies that are proven effective when teaching toileting skills. Participants will gain knowledge of steps of toilet training, teaching strategies to implement during the toilet training journey. This is accompanied by a one-hour follow up consultation to support implementation into the home setting.

Now what? Toileting skills are more than just learning to void in the toilet. Let’s talk about next steps:
– initiating to go independently
– males learning to stand to pee
– learning to wipe self
– nighttime dryness

To name a few…

Toileting is an essential milestone for all individuals to acquire as this skill is a steppingstone to the development of other skills. This workshop aims to support parents and caregivers of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to teach toileting skills; the workshop includes teaching:

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

Children with ASD commonly face challenges with eating a healthy range of foods for many reasons. Come and learn more about why your child might be struggling with food, and strategies to support healthy eating habits and a wider food variety. For further guidance and support, an individualized follow-up session can also be scheduled during the week following the presentation.

The Think Good Feel Good program uses a cognitive behavioural approach to explore and test their thoughts and learn alternative cognitive and behavioural skills.

Learners develop prosocial behaviour skills, and have the necessary tools to overcome social and emotional challenges.

This group will run for 6 consecutive weeks with a facilitator mediating the discussions on various topics. Aimed at getting youths to socialize, providing platforms to build social skills, and using technology to do it!

Parents play an important role in the sex education of their children. Every day, they serve as models of sexual health while also conveying their own values and beliefs. It is reassuring for teens to know there are trusting adults to support, guide and act as non-judgemental sources of information and education. The goal of the consultation is to provide parents and caregivers the information needed to support a structure for appropriate sexual behaviour based on ABA strategies and offer opportunities for teaching their teens social integration and healthy sexuality. Virtual brainstorming ABA strategies and sexuality with families on an individual basis. One follow up session to ensure good practice and application of ABA strategies. Parents should come prepared with their questions and concerns. If further evaluation is required, parents will be encouraged to contact a BCBA for clinical treatment.

This workshop has 3 group sessions across 2 months with 2 follow up individual sessions with a BCBA.

Session 1: Review ABA strategies on teaching self help skills
Session 2: Identify and develop a self-help goal
Session 3: Follow up progress and goal monitoring

*Consultative support from a BCBA

Teaching your child play skills to help expand their language and social interactions, for children 2 to 8 years of age who have minimal language during play.

Research shows that language develops after teaching gestures, joint attention and play skills to minimally verbal children. Moreover, having functional and creative play skills increases children’s ability to play on their own as well as with others. Join us to learn about language and play milestones, to identify your child’s current and target levels of play and language skills and importantly, to practice key strategies to promote your child’s play and language development. Our multidisciplinary team uses play-based natural environment teaching, along with evidence based developmental, linguistic, and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) methods.

Caregivers training is provided in a 1-hour weekly session for 5 weeks followed by three, 1-hour in-person, phone or video consultations with a multidisciplinary team member to implement individualized strategies with their child at home.

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, and how to help them make friends. Participants will receive 4 individual consultation sessions with caregiver & child; 8 group learning sessions for caregivers.