Weekly Update July 21, 2023

The Tree of Possibilities is more than just a logo at Strive Center! We celebrate all the little victories - for every new skill a child learns, we give him a leaf or an apple sticker to put on his very own Tree of Possibilities poster. We keep one poster here at the center, next to his table, and one goes home, so families can celebrate all the little victories too. In June, our learners acquired 312 new skills, our highest monthly total this year! That brings our total for 2023 to 1,128 new skills!

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.

7-28-23

Fireworks Science Experiment - this is a fun activity with oil, water, and food coloring to make "fireworks" in a jar!

Super Hero Day - Wear a super hero shirt or hat, or go all out and dress as your favorite super hero! Capes are welcome :)

8-4-23

Ice Cream in a Bag - we make ice cream in a bag using milk, sugar, and vanilla! Individual permission slips will be sent home. Lots of kids make the ice cream and don't eat it, and that's ok too.

Sports Day - wear a shirt for your favorite sports team or any sport related clothing.

8-11-23

Wheels Day/Wheels Wash - Bring your "wheels" and helmets - we'll get all of ours out too! We'll have a course for riding your wheels and a spot to wash them. Please only send wheels that can get wet.

School Spirit Day - Wear your Strive shirt

8-18-23

What melts in the sun? Science experiment - this is a fun activity where we put lots of different things out in the sun and find out what melts and what doesn't.

All one color day - dress in all one color of your choice - last Fun Friday for the summer!

Tracy has been working at the Strive Center for Autism since we opened our doors in March of 2015. Tracy has an Associate’s Degree in Physiology from Siena Heights University. She received her Professional Coder Certificate from Penn Foster and her Dermatology Coder Certificate from Inga Ellzey Dermatology Institute.

Tracy has worked in the medical field for the past 15 years covering a diversity of Medical offices ranging from Internal Medicine, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Dermatologic Surgery, Holistic Health Care and ABA Therapy. Tracy has covered a variety of positions ranging from Office Manager, Medical Biller and Certified Professional Coder.

Tracy enjoys gardening, making homemade candy, spending time with her grandsons and traveling with her husband.

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 VP-MTS, which stands for Visual Perceptual Skills and Matching to Sample.

VP-MTS is one of the categories on the assessment we talked about last week, the VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program.)

VP-MTS includes skills like visually responding to stimuli (i.e. looking at things.) It can include simpler skills like following an item with your eyes, or just paying attention to a toy or book. It also includes a variety of matching skills, like completing puzzles, matching pictures or objects to identical pictures or objects, and sorting things. These matching skills are important building blocks for other skills, and help increase concentration, memory, and even problem solving.

While we target these skills in a very specific way at our centers, you can do lots of fun things at home to help promote matching skills. Here are some ideas:

• Use a memory game - but lay out 5-10 cards (not the whole set.) Keep the matching cards in a stack, and take turns with your child pulling a card and matching it. It's easy, fun, promotes matching and scanning (looking at all the materials) and turn taking!
• Puzzle hide and seek - use a puzzle with inset pieces (see picture.) Take the pieces out and put them in various locations around the room. Encourage your child to complete the puzzle by moving around the room and finding one piece at a time.
• Get outside - use sidewalk chalk to color several spots on your sidewalk - one green, one yellow, one red, etc. Take your child around the yard to find items that are each color - find a green leaf, and put it on your green circle. Find a yellow flower and put it on your yellow circle.

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, 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