Programs & Services by Service Provider

The early years are especially crucial for verbal children on the autism spectrum because they still face special communication challenges. Often, these children find it difficult to:
- Have conversations with others
- Play with children their own age
- Talk about things that interest someone else
- Change a routine without becoming frustrated

If you’ve noticed more than one of these difficulties in your child, the TalkAbility Program can help. Specifically designed for parents of verbal children ages 3-7 years and up with social communication difficulties, the TalkAbility Program teaches parents practical ways to help their child learn people skills.

By “people skills”, we mean the ability to “tune in” to the thoughts and feelings of others by paying attention to non-verbal cues such as body language, facial expressions, eye gaze, and tone of voice. The ability to consider other points of view and to have empathy for others is essential for successful conversations and for making friends. Children with social communication difficulties require extra help to develop these skills.

When you take the TalkAbility Program, you’ll learn:
- How your child carries on conversation and the next steps to take to help him have back-and-forth conversations
- How to encourage your child to pay attention to the social messages people send non-verbally
- How to talk so your child can tune in to what others are thinking ; help them appreciate another person<s feelings and point of view
- How to help your child tell stories and play imaginatively
- How to help your child make friends

Program Components
- Informative and personal classes for small groups of parents
- A Hanen Certified speech-language pathologist who leads the program and has received special training from The Hanen Centre
- A pre-program consultation for you and your child with your speech-language pathologist
- Individual video feedback sessions of you interacting with your child, so you can “see” what is helping and what else you can do
- Individual video feedback of your child playing with another child so you can “see” how you help their interaction

The More Than Words Program was designed for parents of children on the autism spectrum and with other social communication difficulties. Addressing the unique needs of these children, the program provides parents with the tools, strategies and support they need to help their children reach their full communication potential.

More Than Words does this by empowering parents to help your child reach the following three goals:
1. Improved social communication and back-and-forth interactions
2. Improved play skills
3. Improved imitation skills

As a parent and/or caregiver, here are some of the valuable things that are learned when attending the More Than Words Program:
-What motivates your child to communicate
-How to use your knowledge about your child to set appropriate and realistic goals
-How to make interactions with your child last longer
-Tips for using pictures and print to help your child’s understanding
-Strategies for how to talk so that your child understands you
-Strategies for developing your child’s play skills
-Ways to help your child make friends

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 behaviours and deciding when the advance notice is viable with the aim of reducing problem behaviours as a whole.

This series is recommended for families who have recently received a diagnosis for their child. In the midst of receiving a diagnosis, families will navigate through a lot of information and make decisions about next steps. This series offers 3 workshops, along with 3, 1:1, 30-minute consultations with a BCBA-D. Workshop 1 will provide an overview of various services recommended to families with a child with ASD. Workshop 2 will provide an overview of Autism and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and why ABA is well suited to address ASD. If seeking ABA based services, this information is key for knowing what to look for in providers and how caregiver involvement is key to helping children reach their full potential. Workshop 3 will review things to do as you wait for service that will aid in developing skills and routines in the home to maximize learning from the get-go. The initial consultation is aimed at gathering information that will be pertinent to focusing the workshops on the audience attending, with follow up consultations occurring after Workshop 3 which will focus on implementing ABA strategies in the home with coaching from a BCBA-D.

This group will run for 6 sessions with two BCBAs as facilitators, mediating the discussions on various topics. The aims include youths socializing, learning about how to identify friends and skills to maintain friendships while providing a platform to build social skills, and using technology to do it!

Toileting is an essential milestone for all individuals to acquire and 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 to toileting
• Collecting and interpreting data
• Reinforcement and troubleshooting

Les transitions peuvent être difficiles pour les enfants et les jeunes atteints de TSA, mais elles ne devraient pas l'être. Les parents recevront les outils, l'éducation et les connaissances nécessaires pour défendre efficacement leurs intérêts et naviguer dans les systèmes de façon harmonieuse afin d'aider leur enfant à vivre des transitions en toute simplicité. Les secteurs inclus peuvent être entre les années d'études et/ou entre les milieux scolaires, secondaires et postsecondaires ou pour le secteur adulte, la main-d'œuvre et les milieux communautaires. Ces consultations individuelles seront spécifiques à l'enfant/au jeune en réponse à ses forces personnelles, à ses besoins et aux besoins spécifiques de la famille.

Individualized targeted 3 session consultation to work on a specific goal. These may include: functional skills such as toileting, eating, hygiene; communication goals (i.e., functional communication); identifying alternatives to disruptive behaviour, etc.

Coping Cat is for children ages 9-12 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and separation anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and/or related anxiety disorders.
The program focuses on 4 key components:
• Recognizing and understanding emotional and physical reactions to anxiety
• Clarifying thoughts and feelings in anxious situations
• Developing plans for effecting coping (for example, changing anxious self-talk to coping self-talk, or determining what coping strategies might be effective).
• Evaluating performance and giving self-reinforcement (How well are they doing with the skills learned in the program) and administering self-reinforcement).

Each child will be provided with a workbook.
One STIC (Show That I Can) assignment to be completed weekly.
Parents/caregivers are required to meet in session 4 & 9, and as needed for exposure tasks.

Transitions can be difficult for children and youth with ASD, but they don’t have to be. Parents will be provided with the tools, education and knowledge for advocacy skills and navigating systems seamlessly in order to support their child to experience smooth transitions. Sectors included can be between years of study and/or between school settings, secondary and post-secondary or for the adult sector, work force and community settings. These individual consultations will be child/youth specific in response to their personal strengths, needs and specific needs of the family.

A social skills group aimed at improving social communication and providing youth with a meaningful opportunity to engage in and develop relationships with peers. This group will practice conversation skills, sharing experiences, perspective taking and empathy.

A social skills group aimed at improving social communication and providing youth with a meaningful opportunity to engage in and develop relationships with peers. This group will practice conversation skills, sharing experiences, perspective taking and empathy.

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.

GJCC Focused Consultative ABA services (using the techniques and strategies of Applied Behaviour Analysis – ABA) can help individuals learn new skills, cope with, and tolerate different situations, and decrease challenging behaviours. Individualized plans may include 1-2 goals, which are then broken into smaller steps through teaching strategies. Some examples are:

• Improving social skills, taking turns
• Managing strong emotions
• Following instructions, transitioning between activities, following a schedule
• Learning to care for personal needs, like: getting dressed, teeth brushing
• Communication

You will guide the process. Together, we will talk about your needs, goals, 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 and assess your child/youth to see his/her current strengths and needs. Our clinical team will create an individualized 10-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 with the Clinical Supervision of the BCBA. There are also opportunities for caregiver mediated coaching throughout the 8 week sessions. All services can be delivered virtually or in-person, as determined in collaboration with your child/youth’s Behaviour Clinician (BCBA).

The Next Step (8-12 year olds) will review emotions and zones and focus on the identification of moving through the zones. Strategies to increase ability to self-calm, increase alertness, and increase awareness of potential triggers.

Beginner Zones will focus on identifying emotions and the Zones of Regulation®. Flexible thinking, inner coaching, and calming strategies will be explored virtually.

The Resilience Builder Program (Alvord, Zucker, & Grados, 2011) is designed to support children, aged 9 to 12 years, to bounce back from stress by developing resilience and protective factors, such as selfawareness, self-regulation, flexible thinking, and social competence.

This virtual caregiver group intends to provide program material and psychoeducation regarding the above topics for caregivers to didactically support the needs of their child(ren) at home.

All materials will be provided.

We are happy to offer virtual, 1-hour consultation sessions for caregivers. The consultation sessions are intended for caregivers to receive support in navigating, planning, and coordinating services for their child or youth. Available in French or English. All materials will be provided.

This is an early social play group for children aged 0 to 3 aimed at developing early social communication skills. Two BCBA facilitators will run this group for 6 weeks. The group will be play based and will also include a parent training component for the last 30 minutes of each session. Parents will be invited to join the group at the end of each session to learn and implement ABA principles that can be utilized in their day to day interactions with their child.

We are happy to offer drop-in clinics specifically designed for caregivers to address questions regarding their child’s 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 as a caregiver, your child(dren), and your family, prognosis and planning for the future, intervention options, attachment and relationship building, and the importance of self-care.

Part of each session will be dedicated to Q&A to support families with issues specific to wherever they are in their journey. Resources are included and will be emailed to participants.

This virtual information and Q&A session is intended for parents and caregivers of children or adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder who are interested in learning about anxiety and how it presents in individuals who are on the spectrum.

The workshop will focus on increasing knowledge about anxiety and how it impacts one’s life, the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and how to identify maladaptive and unhelpful thoughts, reduce avoidance of anxiety provoking situations, and improve coping skills.

All sessions aim to teach practical skills for caregivers to use in everyday life to better support their child(ren) with anxiety.

This is a consultative service for parents/caregivers who are looking for support with 1-2 specific goals with their child. The following are examples of suitable areas of need to be addressed via this consultative model:

- Sleeping
- Toileting
- Picky Eating
- Daily Living Skills (e.g., dressing, brushing teeth, taking a bath or shower etc.)
- Increasing Basic Communication (e.g., pointing/gestures, eye contact, joint attention, word approximation, sentence expansion, persistence in communication etc.)
- Augmentative Communication Systems
- Pre-Vocational/Vocational Skills
- Emotional regulation
- Social Skills
- Executive Functioning Skills

*in some cases, the clinician might find it beneficial to work with the child/youth directly for part or all of the session depending on the goal. This will be determined during intake and discussed with families.

This session is for siblings of children with autism to gain a deeper understanding of autism. We will discuss: what is autism, interacting with their sibling, and how to explain autism to others.

Parents of children with ASD or other social communication difficulties will use tools and strategies to strengthen their child’s foundation for communication development. These include building back-and-forth interactions, strengthening imitation skills and expanding play skills.

Parents of children with ASD or other social communication difficulties will use tools and strategies to strengthen their child’s foundation for communication development. These include building back-and-forth interactions, strengthening imitation skills and expanding play skills.