An open letter to the world..on behalf of "My parents"

Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist

Dear parents everywhere,

Let me first state that I am not yet a parent. More specifically, I am not a parent of child with special needs and/or interfering behaviors. That being said, I have gained significant experience in counselling, educating, and collaborating with parents who raise children with a range of diagnoses including Autism and PDD-NOS ("my parents"). I give credit to my amazing coworkers who I continue to learn from every day, the strong and loving parents who share with us their most vulnerable states and rawest emotions regarding raising a child with special needs/interfering behaviors, and most of all, I accredit the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (it's science! it works!)

 I can't even begin to describe the strength and perseverance I see in so many of my parents. I assure you that my parents come from ALL walks of life. I assure you that despite socioeconomic, cultural, and religious differences-- my parents have MANY things in common. The obvious commonality is the fact that they are parents of children with special needs. More importantly, they all love their children deeply and enter into Early Intervention for that very reason-- to try and find the best and most effective way to help their children.

What's the Point of Center-Based Intervention?

Posted by Ashley, Special Educator

In the field of Early Intervention, the majority of services are provided within a child's home.  This is a widely accepted model and there are many advantages to home-based instruction.  One primary strength is that the child is being taught in his/her home environment, hopefully making the instruction  age-appropriate, natural, and meaningful.  This allows therapists the wonderful opportunity to integrate instruction into the child's already existing daily routines (e.g. making lunch, brushing teeth, getting the mail, etc.)!  It is also beneficial because it makes parent involvement a little easier.  When therapy is provided in the home, parents are more likely to be included and to be treated as collaborative partners, which is hugely important!  It also allows regular opportunities for the therapists and caretakers to observe one another and offer support.  So, with all of these great benefits to home-based instruction, what's the point of center-based intervention? (Hint: there are many benefits, so keep reading!)

A Peek into the World of Sensory Integration

Posted by Nicole, Occupational Therapist

Learning the language of Sensory Integration can be an overwhelming task without previous knowledge of what sensory processing actually means. As an Occupational Therapist who provides treatment to children recently diagnosed with Autism and PDD who also have sensory processing deficits; I receive lots of feedback from parents having trouble understanding what Sensory Integration and what the different terms mean.

What's this "PDD" thing all about?

Posted by Peri, Licensed Psychologist, Board Certified Behavior Analyst

As the psychologist of this group, I feel very strongly about addressing the role of a child’s diagnosis in early intervention, what it all means, and how if effects our families.  In my beginning stages of working in Early Intervention, I spent a significant amount of time doing evaluations for young children; the purpose usually being to diagnose or rule-out Autism.  Now as the director of the ABA center-based program, I rarely conduct evaluations because my current role is to provide clinical and administrative support for the program.  Part of this role involves doing tours and intakes with families; and what I’ve found during this process has made me petrified for families beginning the evaluation process for early intervention.  It frequently boggles my mind with the inappropriate (or mostly complete lack of) information that is provided to parents when their child receives a psychological evaluation.  More times than not, parents walk into my school for a tour and say, “My child has PDD.  What’s that?”

Let's Get Related!

Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist


Hello everyone and thanks for reading my second blog post! The goal of my blogs is to inform the reader but keep it social so that everyone can enjoy it :)  A significant number of kiddos that I work with are missing the pre-linguistic skills of communication (pre-linguistic = before speaking).  Relatedness is a prerequisite to functional communication. What is relatedness?

I'm just an SLP livin in an ABA world... :)

Posted by Dani, Speech-Language Pathologist

Hello everyone! This is my first time blogging so hang in there! I am a part of a dynamic team of amazingly intelligent and passionate women who kick some major butt at their jobs (to quote Heather from Real Housewives of New York City- "HOLLAA!!") and I represent the "Speechie" of the group.

Like many speechies, I was groomed against ABA (applied behavior analysis) during my undergrad and graduate years (I more specifically remember my grad school childhood language professor emphasizing the unnaturalness of using ABA for language development). All in all- I was taught that ABA is this terrible old school way of teaching children.