Fredericksburg Parent

www.FredericksburgParent.NET 15 Join us for the live conversation on Sponsored Material Stay tuned to the Fredericksburg Parent & Family YouTube and Face- book channels this month for a video interview featuring Compass Counseling Services. Facebook: @fredericksburgparent • Instagram: @fredparentmagazine a sk t h e e x p e rt day, when we may see them at home or in a daycare—ensures we are getting them at a time that their brain is most ready to take in new information. There is also a benefit to parents. Fitting in our in-home services can be difficult and require time off from work. With the clinic, parents can drop off their children from 9 am to 2 pm. We still bring them in to teach them strategies for use at home, and we also may combine our clinic services with in-home services, but this makes it a little easier on parents to help their children get the services they need. Q: Who is this service for? Alisha Gordon: Our clinic services are a good fit for children who have not yet entered traditional school, so the preschool age group. The program may also be a fit for some children who have flexible school schedules, or who are home schooled. We are running our clinic from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays. Q: Where is it held? Alisha Gordon: We have created what looks like a mini preschool at our offices at 10715 Spotsylvania Avenue in Fredericksburg. We have created more of that classroom feel. Children will be in a space with one other peer, and we can pull them in to bigger social groups on occasion, so that there's opportunity to practice skills, but they won't be overwhelmed by peers at all times. There's a place for snacks and breaks, and children will get to play with toys that are different from what they may have at home—another opportunity to reinforce the transition from home to other settings. We have bathroom stalls that mimic what children may find in a school, and this really helps with potty training to have everything right there in close reach. Right now we have three clinic rooms that can hold two children each, and one bigger playroom area that they can bounce back and forth from. We also have a larger room for gross motor play where we have trikes, slides and gym mats for rolling. All our staff have received the RBT 40-Hour Training, which is higher than the standard Medicaid requires. Q: How are parents involved? Alisha Gordon: Just like with our in-home servic- es, we spend time helping parents to generalize the skills we are teaching. In clinic, we are work- ing on setting up observation rooms where we can see what is going on and talk with parents about strategies for transitioning the work to the home setting. We also continue to work with parents as we help our patients transition into mainstream schools. We can attend IEP meetings and help share strategies that have been working. Because we have been providing these services in homes and in community settings such as daycares for so many years, we have the flexibil- ity to customize a plan that works for each fam- ily, with a mix of clinic and in-home services. To learn more, or to get in touch, visit compassva.com. Compass Counseling Services is a Medicaid-funded provider serving individuals in the Fredericksburg area, including Culpeper, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline and King George counties and the city of Fredericksburg. Alisha Gordon, BCBA Clinic Director, Compass Counseling Services Compass Counseling Services is looking for individuals who want to make a diff erence in the lives of children with disabilities and their families. For more information, visit: compassva.com/careers or email: agordon@compassnova.com.

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