Weekly Update - March 24, 2023

Just a friendly reminder that we do not follow the calendar of our local schools - so we do NOT have a Spring Break. If your family is planning time off for spring break, please let us know by using the Therapy Schedule Update Form.

For 2023, instead of just sharing our background info, we are going to share some of our team's answers to a recent survey. We asked staff what they enjoy most about their jobs overall, what they like to teach the most, and what they would tell other people considering working here. We'll share answers from a new staff member each week!

This week, we'll hear from Evey, our amazing BCBA in Brighton. First of all, it's pronounced "Evey, like Chevy" if you didn't know that about her already!

What is Evey's favorite skill to teach? "I LOVE teaching functional communication. It is incredible when kids become empowered through their communication!"

What is Evey's favorite part of her job? "It's hard to pin point my favorite part of my job, since I have the best job in the world. I enjoy supporting staff and empowering them to utilize their skills as RBTs to work on enhancing their clients' lives every day. I love seeing the data showing our clients' progress as they work so hard every day. Lastly, I truly love working with our families to help enhance their child's quality of life outside of the clinical setting."

What is your proudest moment at Strive so far? "I take great pride in empowering staff to utilize the principles of ABA. I would have to say my proudest moments revolve around seeing the technicians grow each day and enhance their skills. I also take great pride in helping parents and family members understand the principles of ABA to help them support their children in the home setting. "

Following our Active Shooter Training from Allied Defense, they told us about a service called Smart 911. They recommended that we register each of our locations on this website so that we can provide some more specific information to the dispatchers and officers if we need to use 911.

Upon looking into this service, we discovered it can be used for any address, and it allows you to share as much information as you'd like with any first responders who might come to your home. You can indicate which phone numbers are often at your home, allowing your cell number to be paired with your home address. You can share names and ages of all of the people in your family, and you can also share a variety of health information, including a diagnosis of Autism. This may be very helpful to our families, as another way to ensure that first responders coming to your home will approach your child with Autism with understanding.

If you're interested in using Smart 911 for your home, you can find it here.

One addition to our newsletter this year will be some definitions of terms we use most often in ABA. We know we use a lot of lingo and we want to help families understand it better. All of these terms will also be on our website in a glossary, so you can check them out anytime.

This week, we're going to focus in on one relatively simple term: behavior.

Within the field of behavior analysis, we are very specific about how we use the term behavior.

From the RUBI Autism Network's Parent Training for Disruptive Behavior, behavior is defined as any action that can be observed, counted, or timed.

In our work, we are very specific about how we define individual behaviors, and we use neutral terms - behavior is not "good" or "bad", it is simply behavior. When your BCBA talks to you about your child's behavior, it will not be a discussion about negative things, it will be a talk about all the things your child does.

We'll just keep this link right here, for your convenience. For any absences scheduled in advance, please use this form to report the dates. You may take an entire day or half day, depending on your needs.

Therapy Schedule Update Form

Here are some additional dates that the centers will be closed:

Friday, April 7th - Good Friday

Friday, May 5th - Professional Development Day

If your family is planning a longer absence around one of those dates, or at another time, please let us know as soon as you are able!

Email: info@sc-centers.com
Website: www.sc-centers.com
Location: Burton and Brighton, MI
Phone: 810-344-8082