CATS Early Intervention Program
Pre-school age children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who receive intensive treatment based on Applied Behavior Analysis principles progress better with regard to language skills and intellectual functioning than do children who receive treatment at a later age. Studies have shown that such early intervention significantly reduces the symptoms of ASD.
The CATS Early Intervention Program has been created in order to help reduce the symptoms of ASD. Designed to be either an alternative to, or in addition to, preschool, this program is appropriate for children age 18 months-5 years, who are demonstrating any developmental delays, including speech, motor, sensory, self-help, or social skills.
About The CATS Early Intervention Program:
- Dr. Laura O’Sullivan, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Developmental Psychologist, and Certified Autism Specialist, is the Clinical Director of CATS. She has designed the Early Intervention Program to specifically target the development of skills that your child needs in order to achieve greater success in school, at home, and in play settings.
- All skills are taught employing Applied Behavior Analysis based techniques, which use a special set of instructional tools that are particularly helpful in teaching children with ASD.
- Skills that will be addressed that are not typically targeted in a regular educational setting include:
- Eye Contact
- Imitation
- Gross Motor
- Fine Motor
- Oral Motor
- Verbal
- Joint Attention
- Appropriate Sitting Behaviors
- Eating Skills
- Potty Training
- Other Skills to be taught include:
- Communication Skills
- Appropriate Use of Yes and No
- Indicating Basic Wants and Needs
- Sentence Building
- Social Skills
- Conversational Abilities
- Social Questions
- Understanding Emotions (Own and Others’)
- Play Skills
- Turn Taking
- Sharing
- Appropriate Toy Play
- Parallel Play
- Cooperative and Fantasy Play
- Sensory Integration
- Motor Development
- Fine Motor
- Gross Motor
- Oral Motor
- Appropriate Behaviors for Different Settings
- Developmentally Appropriate School Readiness Skills
- Color and Shape Recognition
- Number and Letter Recognition
- Coloring Skills
- Pre-Handwriting Skills
- Phoneme Recognition
- Sight Word Reading
- Counting and Early Mathematics Skills
- The Early Intervention Program features a low therapist-to-child ratio (3:1), allowing for maximum interaction and instruction between the children and the Behavior Therapist.
- In order to provide parents with the skills they need to support their child’s successful development, parent-training sessions are available but must be arranged for a week in advance.
- Short homework exercises will be sent home each week, which will require parent participation. These exercises are designed to provide practice with the skills currently being learned and will help the child to maintain and generalize these skills for use in daily life. It is critical that the parent help the child with the assignments each week.
- Costs of the program:
- All sessions run from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The cost of each session or any part thereof is $75.00.
- Parent training sessions run for one hour and the cost of each session or any part thereof is $100.00.
If you are interested in having your child participate in the Early Intervention Program, please contact us to arrange for a free ½ hour information/question/answer session, during which you will receive the necessary paperwork to enroll your child.
