Weekly Update - May 19, 2023

Summer is right around the corner! We sent home some summer updates for you this week, with details on what to expect this summer, but one important thing to point out is that we do not take a summer break. We will have Memorial Day off, we'll be closed July 3rd and 4th, and we have a Professional Development day on August 25th. Other than that, we'll be here.

If your family is planning a vacation, please let us know as soon as you can so that we can adjust our staffing. When your family takes vacation, that's a good time for one of our staff members to take a vacation, so the sooner you tell us the better!

Each Friday in the summer, we plan for an extra fun activity and a dress up day. All the dress up days are designed to be simple ones you can do with things you have at home, please don’t feel obligated to buy anything to make these happen. Staff and children will both participate in dressing up! We'll send home a calendar with all of the dates for the summer, or you can check here for weekly details.

One of our recurring dress up days is School Spirit Day, where we all wear Strive shirts. We will provide Strive shirts for each of the children to wear.

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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 Keirsten, our Lead Therapist in Brighton.

What is your proudest moment at Strive so far? "Seeing kiddos that I have worked with over the year make such strides and earn so many leaves!"

What is Keirsten's favorite skill to teach? "Peer play. I love helping the children learn new ways to better interact with their peers. Its especially important when they leave strive and head to school!"

What would you want to tell people that are considering Strive for employment? "Strive is a wonderful workplace. Everyone is caring and the continuing education, helps not only increase your knowledge but increase your confidence when working with children. There is also a great work/life balance. I feel like I am appreciated and can spend the time I need with my own family."

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's term is Pairing.

Pairing is a process where a previously neutral item or activity is presented with another item to change the value of the neutral item.

That sounds like kind of a mouthful, but the way that we use pairing at our centers is to present ourselves with things our children really love, like bubbles, favorite toys, favorite songs, or favorite activities. Over time, the previously neutral item (our therapists) come to be valued as reinforcers too, just through being paired with those reinforcers.

While we use this process of pairing in order to build a good relationship with your child and make learning fun, it's important to recognize that the process is at work all the time, even if we don't intend it to be. For example, any time that you say "Wow - that song/smell/thing always reminds me of ..." that's pairing at work in your everyday life.

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:

Monday, May 29th - Memorial Day

Monday, July 3rd and Tuesday, July 4th - Independence Day

Friday, August 25th - 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