How We Support Behavior

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We see all behavior happening for a reason. Most distressed responses occur as that’s the best way the child currently has to communicate another need such as the need for a break, connection, a preferred item, or a sensory or a physical need.

 We provide families a comprehensive plan for how to prevent and support their child’s behavior and development. We continually monitor and update this plan so it remains a good fit as the child grows. 

We can prevent a lot of distress if we find ways to modify the student's environment and routines so they children can feel and learn better. In addition, after we understand why a distressed response is happening, we can teach the child a better and easier way to communicate or meet that need. 

We support the development of emotional regulation and healthy relationships by:

1.  Providing a warm and responsive relationship 

2. Structuring the environment to make regulation manageable and protect against stressors.

3. Modeling, teaching, and coaching self-regulation skills. 

It's important to us that our students feel supported and that we honour who they really are. We never want to change the autistic person. We want to work with them so they can be their happiest and truest self. We teach advocacy skills so the child can better tell those around them what they want, need, like, and so not like. 

In addition to providing supports, we teach many skills that important to boost each student's resilience, health, safety, and coping abilities in the future. 

We work with other specialists such as doctors, SLPs, and counsellors to help make sure your child's physical and mental health are always supported too. We have a registered clinical counsellor on staff available to support our teams.