Specialized Treatment Services

A very important part of Aspire’s mission statement and philosophy is to provide support that address all or most of the needs each individual child and family experiences. Common specialized interventions that Aspire’s team has expertise in include (but are not limited to): toilet training, feeding interventions, sleeping difficulties, and community challenges (doctor visits, dentist visits, grocery stores, playgrounds, dinner out, etc.). Your child’s BCBA will meet with you to develop a comprehensive and effective intervention that aims to address the unique needs your child and family have, as well as provide training to those who will be involved to ensure continued success. It is important that when we provide any specialized interventions we are thoughtful about any impeding variables and that we consider whether or not other fields of profession may be helpful in resolving specialized needs.

Toilet training interventions include careful consideration of current barriers to success, previous attempts at toilet training, number of environments your child may access a bathroom regularly, your child’s schedule, how frequently your child eliminates currently (diaper checks), fluid intake, and many other readiness indicators. Toilet training isn’t usually something that we address immediately upon beginning ABA treatment, but is something that we commonly provide intervention for. When we begin toilet training we want to make sure that we have thoroughly assessed any challenges surrounding toileting success, have everyone on board and comfortable with the plan and always encourage coordination with your child’s pediatrician. With that in mind, our rate of successful and efficient toileting interventions is impressive! Should your child have a need for toilet training, you will find that Aspire’s expertise and experience in this area improve the overall effectiveness and comfort of the toilet training experience.

Variations of feeding and eating issues are not uncommon challenges for many children that we serve. Aspire has been instrumental for many children in resulting improvement in expanding the types of foods that our children eat, the types of textures that they begin to tolerate or enjoy, their success at feeding themselves, behaviors such as eating with the family at the dining table, and many other challenges that may present. When beginning a feeding or eating intervention an informal assessment is completed to gain information about foods regularly presented or common meals for the family, any fine motor or oral motor challenges that may be present, general success or difficulties sitting for longer periods of time and review of pervious strategies tried. The goal in this area is to alleviate first any immediate challenges to eating or feeding that are occurring and then to work toward continued success in the future to develop independent and healthy eating behaviors.

Sleeping challenges are some of the most impactful difficulties for the family unit. A child with difficulty sleeping (whether that’s falling asleep initially or going back to sleep, sleep routine challenges, or staying asleep) impacts the sleep for many other family members in the house. The resulting outcomes often mean a lack of sleep for parents or other caregivers whom then have to function successfully for many parts of their day. This creates a general strain on a parents ability to respond to more general challenges successfully due to lack of energy. Lack of sleep can also have an impact on overall health as well. For all of these reasons, it is important that sleeping issues are addressed. Aspire’s approach involves behavioral methods that have been helpful at addressing these challenges.

A more common issue for families, that is often left untreated by other providers, is related to success in the community. A common outing such as going to the grocery store becomes a complicated and dreaded tasks and many families have to make special arrangements to not include their child with Autism, in order to get through these situations. Doctors visits are a necessary component to life and the number of parents concerned that their child cannot make it through visits without meltdowns, following doctor directions during the visit, or other struggles is significant. These and other community events represent an area of need for families generally that have children diagnosed with Autism. Aspire is here to help! Our mission is to help your child to become more familiar and comfortable in these situations, to teach coping strategies aiding in handing frustrating situations, and to help support you as a parent to respond to the unique challenges that your child faces in these situations.