Submitted by: Chelsea Silva, QASP

We are so thankful to have the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with our incredible parents as part of our client’s treatment team. We only see your children for a portion of time each week so it is vital that we work together to create a plan that is deeply rooted in the science of Applied Behavior Analysis and fits naturally into our family’s everyday lives. In order to see change across the board we greatly appreciate active participation from our families!

But what does active participation mean? Active participation includes working together side by side with your child’s therapist during parent training sessions or when meeting to discuss the treatment plan, completing assignments such as recording behavior, obtaining information from your physician, making changes in home and routine as needed, and effectively communicating successes and challenges. In order to help our families feel comfortable and confidant in their participation we put an emphasis on systematic parent training. We strive to give our parents the tools to not only implement individualized protocols utilized to increase or decrease behaviors, but also to help generalize those increases and decreases to different places, different people, or during changes to routine (such as vacations).  During training we use what is called behavioral skills training to provide clear instructions, guided demonstration, opportunities for practice, and immediate feedback. We strive to break down each skill in such a way that it is easily understood followed by demonstrating the protocols or teaching procedures so that our parents have ample opportunities to ask questions throughout the demonstration. After initial instructions and demonstrations we provide opportunities to practice with us during role play activities to ensure you are comfortable and confidant before trying to do things independently with your child. Throughout the process we will be giving you immediate feedback with both spoken feedback and at times collecting data on progress so you can visually see how you’re doing!

Through this systematic teaching process we hope to help our parents to feel ready to tackle problem behavior independently, ready to teach using new strategies, and ready to implement across environments! We always strive to set our clients up for success, and we want our parents to feel the same level of support so they may be successful as well! We thank you again for your continued support and active participation, we love to work together with you and be on your team!

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Reaching Milestones- St. Marys Center held a Halloween party for all clients Wednesday, October 31 from 4:00-5:00pm. We had a jam-packed hour filled with trick-or-treating, games and arts-n-crafts. Clients arrived in their n Halloween costumes to join in the festivities. We had all kinds of characters show up– from Batman and Super Girl to Mario and Luigi. Clients participated in making a healthy and edible monster mouth art project made from apples, peanut butter and almonds.  Our younger clients really utilized their fine motor skills as they tried spreading peanut butter with a knife and picking up small almonds to stick to the apples. It was a yummy snack for all! Clients immediately got the opportunity to practice their social skills while going door to door trick-or treating throughout the office. They practiced using good manners, appropriate turn taking and waiting, and picked up some handfuls of candy from staff along the way. The fun really started when the piñata came out! Clients took turns taking a swing at our candy filled witch piñata and had a blast playing the” guess how many candy corn are in the jar” game. Our very own Jake took the crown and guessed the amount of candy corn in the jar and won it as a prize. He was beaming when he found out that he won and very willingly shared his winnings with his fellow peers.  All clients engaged in social play with their peers – they were even “caught in the act” playing board games together, sharing toys, and engaging in imaginary play while in costume.  Overall, the party was a success and everyone who participated had a blast.  Thanks to all who came out for the fun and who helped put this event together.

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