Communication & Cooperation

At this time, communication & cooperation services are being offered in Kingston and surrounding areas to children 2-6 years old.

Social Communication & Play Skills

Early intervention is a crucial step towards ensuring a healthy and fulfilling life. It is a process of providing support and guidance to children who are at risk of not meeting developmental milestones. Research (Gibson et al., 2021) has shown that early intervention can significantly improve outcomes for children. CWC provides the opportunity to work closely with professionals to ensure that individualized services and caregiver education leads to meaningful skill development.

GOALS

Assessing current skills and potential areas of need
Creating an individualized plan to build communication & play skills
Teaching caregivers to continue to support skill development

TARGETED SKILLS

Expressive Communication
Receptive Communication
Play Skills
Social Skills

PROGRAM STRUCTURE:

Social Communication & Play Skills Programming consists of an assessment followed by 12 weeks of individualized play-based ABA services. in the home. The program is delivered or supervised by an experienced BCBA. Sessions occur in the home 1 to 3 times per week. Caregivers are asked to practice the skills with their child 10 minutes per day between sessions. In order to enhance the overall wellness of both child and caregiver, our primary focus will be on setting goals and developing individualized strategies. These strategies will aim to increase social communication and play skills.

Balance

Young children often engage in challenging behaviour as a form of communication. This can look like uncooperative behaviour such as whining, refusing, crying, swiping, or tantrums especially when they cannot have their way. This can be frustrating for caregivers who are struggling to get their child to cooperate at home with daily tasks and transitions.

The Balance Program, created by Dr. Kelsey Ruppel and Dr. Gregory Hanley, is designed to help caregivers and their children make positive changes in their behaviour. It focuses on striking a balance between caregiver and child-led interactions. The program is designed for caregivers of young children ages 2-6 years old who are newly diagnosed with Autism or are experiencing emerging problem behaviour. It is an approach to teaching young children important communication and coping skills before severe problem behavior has had a chance to become routine.

INITIAL GOALS:

Strengthen trust in the caregiver-child relationship
Allow the child some control of his/her experiences via communication
Teach the child that uncooperative behaviour such as crying, flopping, screaming or tantrums is unnecessary

(Ruppel & Hanley, 2020)

ULTIMATE GOALS:

Create balance between child-led and adult-led interactions
Allow for some shared control of the daily activities and interactions
Teach both caregiver and child to be present and available to each other
Prepare the child for inevitable daily disappointments and ambiguities
Provide the child with hope that all drudgery eventually ends and the understanding that good things follow good behaviour
Develop a repertoire of life skills: play, communication, toleration, cooperation, and persistence

(Ruppel & Hanley, 2020)

In summary, the Balance Program aims to help caregivers understand why problem behaviours occur, teach important new skills to replace those behaviours, promote play, communication, cooperation, and enhance the overall quality of life and wellness at home.

BALANCE PROGRAM STRUCTURE:

Balance is a 12 week program consisting of an assessment followed by 10 caregiver support sessions and 10 caregiver & child coaching sessions to be completed in the home or virtually. The program is delivered by an experienced BCBA. Caregivers are asked to practice the skills with their child 10 minutes per day between weekly sessions. Each week a different goal and individualized strategies will be focused on to assist with increasing overall wellness between child and caregiver by increasing communication & cooperation

How Our Service Works

Filling out our contact us form is the best way to connect with us.

If you would like to speak to someone right away you can also call us. Our office hours are Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.

Discovery Call

We will connect with you within 48 hours to book a FREE discovery call. The discovery call will take between 30 minutes - 1 hour. We will gather information regarding your needs and make a recommendation for modality of service & cost.

Quote

Following our discovery call we will send you a quote for the services we are recommending. We ask that you confirm your interest in receiving our services within 7 calendar days of receiving the quote.

Intake

During the intake meeting we will review the details of the service, complete all the necessary paperwork, book an assessment time and determine a schedule for when we will get started.

Assessment

Assessments will be completed in-person and/or virtually. Assessments will look different for each service provided and for each caregiver & child.

Get Started!

Caregivers will be provided with a manual as well as materials needed to complete the lessons. A weekly schedule will be determined with the caregiver and BCBA for caregiver support and coaching.

How a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst Can Help

A Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) is a graduate level professional that utilizes evidence-based strategies based in behaviour analysis to teach individuals new skills that will improve the quality of their life. All services provided are individualized and goals are established using an evidence-based assessment procedure outlined in the Balance program. Once the assessment has been completed, the BCBA will support the caregiver and child to learn the skills to achieve goals around communication and cooperation. BCBAs take into consideration the caregiver and child's values, culture and any other personal preferences identified to the BCBA. They will outline how everyone will work together, and systematically move closer and closer to achieving "Balance" while teaching fundamental skills around communication and cooperation.

If you would like to read more about what a BCBA is, what they do and what to expect when working together please click here.