Assessment

Our Board Certified Behavior Analysts conducts skills assessments to understand your child’s specific needs: his or her language development, practical life skills, ability to generalize learning, and more. We also conduct functional behavior assessments and analyses for children with challenging behaviors.

Custom Therapy Plan

With all this data, we draft a custom therapy plan and share our clinical recommendations with parents and caregivers. Therapy plans are developed only after we understand your family’s goals and preferences. We also openly collaborate with your child’s school and other therapists (for example, speech language pathologists or occupational therapists). Consistency and a team approach lead to optimal outcomes.

Skill Building

Acorn Health focuses first on the child’s activities of daily living. We begin with improving communication and social skills. Then, we address activities like mealtime challenges, and intensive toilet training. Where appropriate, we also develop vocational skills.

Family education and training is an integral part of each therapy plan. Consistency helps children acquire skills, then maintain and generalize the learning for new situations.

Behavior Reduction

Children with challenging behaviors benefit from function-based behavior reduction plans. These plans often include eliminating triggers and providing opportunities for the child to demonstrate the replacement behavior.

We have protocols for managing these behaviors and functional alternatives (e.g., asking for a break rather than engaging in problem behavior to achieve that break). Here, too, collaboration matters. Consistency at home, school, and other environments creates lasting progress.