Programs & Services by Service Provider

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

We seek to empower caregivers with the knowledge and confidence to help their child become more functionally independent communicators. Our approach is based on the ABA principles of Verbal Behaviour and uses play-based natural environment teaching.

Caregivers participate in two 1-hour webinars, and receive two 1-hour in person, phone or video consultations to implement individualized strategies with their child at home.

Both English and French families are welcome and will receive the consultation in their language of choice.

Please Note: registration cut off 1 week prior to session

Are you looking for a dynamic approach to teaching your child /youth life skills? Using a BST (Behaviour Skill Training) approach supported by a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCaBA), you will learn fun ways to incorporate teaching your child with ASD life skills into your every day routine. This model uses an Instruct, Model, Practice and Feedback (tell-show-do) to consolidate newly learned skills. The parent and child/youth choose one specific goal to target over the course of 3 weeks, ranging from dressing, personal hygiene, cooking, independent skills, community skills, etc. Support form the Behaviour Analyst to assess needs and guide programming goals is provided. The parent then engages in the sessions with their child/youth to putting the practice of specific skills into effect to provide long lasting learning at home and in the community.

Simple and effective ABA strategies can easily be incorporated into everyday life at home. This webinar offers practical solutions for families to develop a routine, integrate visual aids into daily life, keep children busy, master controlled choices, Before and After, and following through. These one hour consultations will focus on direct parent training of simple, parent friendly ABA strategies that can be incorporated into everyday life (between the loads of laundry and making supper).Individual consultations will be offered to participants to brainstorm ABA strategies and resolve potential challenges.

Domains that can be addressed; Social/interpersonal skills, Communication skills, Play and leisure, Cognitive functions, School readiness, Transition to Adulthood, Adaptive skills, Self-regulation, Challenging behaviour. These consultations will focus on direct parent training of simple strategies that can be incorporated into everyday life.

3 one hour virtual Individual sessions scheduled in accordance with family availability.

In our virtual group session, we will discuss a strategy that may be helpful in communicating emotional states: The Incredible 5-Point Scale. Children or youth who are interested in learning about the strategy for themselves are welcome to join their parents!

In the week following, we will meet individually with each family (virtual or in person) to support the development of their own individualized scales that can be used within the home.

A follow-up meeting the next week is when we will discuss any successes or barriers to using the scales and whether any ‘tweaking’ has to be made to make the scales more effective for you and your family!

Want to learn how to make money? Want to learn how to volunteer? Are you ready to join the workforce? Join us from the comfort of your own home to learn how to pursue jobs you might be interested in. By the end of the group, you’ll know how to search online for jobs, you’ll have a resume you can hand out to potential employers, and you’ll have practice with an ‘actual’ interview situation. Take the next steps toward being a part of your community!

Fine print for caregivers: Participants will join group sessions online with 2-3 facilitators. Peers will learn alongside each other how to search for employment (volunteer or paid), actively apply for jobs, and participate in interviews.

Participants will be expected to complete a mock interview in their final session individually with a novel facilitator (i.e., not with the whole group present) so they may demonstrate the skills they learned in the previous 7 sessions.

This parent and child group will focus on developing basic organizational skills for everyday life (time and things). Emphasis will be placed on organizational strategies for the school and home. Participants will learn the importance of being organized in their daily lives and strategies for how it can be maintained.

Caregivers can register for a one-hour clinical consultation with a multidisciplinary team including a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst, Psychologist/Psychological Associate, and Speech Language Pathologist who have experience working with children and youth with ASD and their caregivers. The team will work in collaboration with caregivers to review their child’s strengths and needs across skill domains, to identify and prioritize specific goals, and to learn about evidence-based approaches to meet these goals for their child. Caregivers will be asked to complete a background form prior to the consultation to help the team become more familiar with their child and family.

This caregiver group involves participation in a Parent Management Training (Kazdin, 2008) program that aims to enhance parenting skills to improve challenging behaviours in children, such as aggression, hyperactivity, and non-compliance. The training will take place virtually in a group session.

Handouts will be emailed to participants prior to each scheduled session.

This presentation covers, from an occupational therapy perspective, the importance of sleep, some of the mechanisms of sleep and strategies to help instill good sleep at home.

Webinar link will be sent out after every registration.

My child is becoming a Teenager: Now What?’ – An informative presentation about female or male puberty and how it relates to your child with special needs.

Objectives of the presentation:
- To provide education about what is happening to your child in terms of puberty
- To enable you to assess where your child is at and if they are ready for building their independence in a variety of skills
- To provide you with the language in order to have a comfortable and confident conversation with your child

*Webinar link will be sent out after every registration

An opportunity to explore what is “picky eating” as well as some common causes and strategies you can use at home to help introduce new foods, encourage food exploration and help mealtimes become more enjoyable.

*A webinar link will be sent out after each registration

This presentation will help parents learn easy and simple ways to introduce the use of symbols for functional communication into their everyday activities at home. Parents will also learn about beneficial aided language strategies to help their child learn to communicate using symbols. There will also be some demonstration of various types of communication devices and communication apps that are designed to help children with their communication. This presentation is intended for children of all ages, who may be non-verbal or have communication abilities that are not meeting their communication needs (less verbal).

This presentation will help you make the best of your everyday interactions with your child, to support the development of their communication in their early years. The communication strategies highlighted in this presentation are easy to use and incorporate into daily routines such as snack time, bath time, etc. This presentation is intended for early communicators (ages 2-5), who may be verbal or non-verbal.

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.

Parent/Caregiver Workshop for children preparing to transition into Kindergarten or Grade 1.

Start the countdown to school by setting up your child for a successful transition into their new classroom. This workshop will address the challenges children face during this major milestone in their life and focus on the different skills that will help your family have a smooth and exciting start to the year. Participants will explore a variety of evidence-based tools and strategies for developing early self-regulation, self-care routines, as well as social and play skills.

Session 1 Establishing Self-Care Routines (toileting, dressing etc.)

Session 2 Developing Early Self-Regulation Skills

Session 3 Building Social and Play Skills

Conversation Cues is an 11-week evidence-based social skills program delivered virtually for students aged 9 – 17 years of age.

Topics include:
- When to start a conversation
- How to start a conversation
- Take turns appropriately
- Maintain conversation with peers
- Talk on topic
- Identifies disbelief & responds appropriately
- Identifies confused, bored, not interested vs. interested & responds appropriately
- Learn how to identify your cues
- How to end a conversation

Sessions will include 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.

Get job ready! Job P.R.E.P. is for teens ages 14-17, who are looking to develop skills to help them find and maintain a job.

The 10 session individualized program will work on skills such as, resumes, interview skills, public vs private, managing stress & anxiety, hidden social rules, and much more!

PEERS is a 14-week evidence-based social skills program delivered virtually for students aged 12 – 17. There is a weekly mandatory parent session.

Topics include:
• How to use appropriate conversational skills
• How to find common interests by trading information
• How to appropriately use humour
• How to handle rejection, teasing and bullying
• How to handle rumours and gossip
• How to be a good host during get-togethers
• How to make phone calls to friends
• How to be a good sport
• How to handle arguments and disagreements
• How to change a bad reputation (by investigating one new extracurricular activity)

Triple P - Stepping Stones is a parent education course that is ideal for caregiver’s with children aged 2-12.
Course Content:

Session 1: Positive parenting
This session provides parents with an introduction to positive parenting, causes of challenging behaviour, setting goals for change, and how to keep track of children’s behaviour.

Session 2: Promoting children’s development
During this session, the practitioner discusses how to develop positive relationships with children and how to encourage desirable behaviour.

Session 3: Teaching new skills and behaviours
This session teaches parents a range of techniques to teach their children a range of skills within the domains of communication, problem-solving, self-care, and self-regulation.

Session 4: Managing misbehavior and parenting routines
During this session, the practitioner offers strategies to assist parents with managing challenging behaviour. Parents will also learn to develop parenting routines to encourage children to follow instructions.

Session 5: Planning ahead
This session covers family survival tips, identifying high-risk situations, and developing planning ahead routines to implement over the next few weeks. Parents also schedule and prepare for the telephone or in-person consultations.

Session 6-8: Implementing parenting routines 1-3 (Phone or in-person consultations)
The sessions begin with the practitioner providing assessment feedback to parents and noting progress that has been made. Then the sessions are designed to assist parents in implementing behaviour change strategies in high-risk home and community situations (e.g. traveling on public transport, haircuts, therapy sessions). The practitioner uses the self-regulatory feedback model to help parents identify goals for change and a problem-solving approach is used to assist parents to fine-tune any areas of difficulty.

Session 9: Program close
Parents return for a final group session to review progress, look at ways to maintain changes, problem solve for the future, and to bring closure to the program.

GJCC Skill Building Consultative ABA services (using the techniques and strategies of Applied Behaviour Analysis – ABA) can help individuals learn new skills. Individualized plans will include 1 general ABA Skill Building Goal.

This service can be delivered virtual or in-person at home, daycare or school with consent

Some examples are:
• Improving social skills, taking turns
• Following a schedule with the support of visuals
• Using reinforcement to teach new skills
• Creating social narrative to support a social situation
• Strategies for managing strong emotions

You will guide the process.
Together, we will talk about your needs, goal, and what you and your child/youth need support with. Do not worry; we will help give clinical recommendations if you do not know where to start.
When you have selected the goals, we will observe your child/youth to see his/her current strengths and needs. One of our Behaviour Therapists will create an individualized 8-week plan for your child/youth based on your goals.
Your child/youth will be working 1-1 with a Behavioural Therapist to deliver the plan.
There are also opportunities for caregiver mediated coaching throughout the 8 week sessions.

All services can be delivered virtually or in-person.

This workshop has 2 group sessions across 2 months with 3 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

Consultation sessions: Follow up progress with a BCBA and goal monitoring.

Examples of skills to teach include: Self feeding, dressing/undressing, bathing/showering, morning routine, making lunch, etc.

This group will run for 8 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!

This workshop aims to outline strategies on reducing transition related problem behaviours. We will review how to establish positive rapport, specific steps to cue your child of upcoming changes, ways to prevent and deescalate for deciding when the advance notice is viable with the aim of reducing problem behaviors as a whole.