Weekly Update June 16, 2023

The playground construction is complete in Brighton and the kids (and staff) love it! We have been posting pictures on social media all week. The playground has great opportunities for climbing, two types of swings, musical instruments, and two picnic tables where we can enjoy snacks or art projects outside. We have a number of partners to thank for the fundraising that went into this amazing improvement, and we will be sharing their info shortly. It is so good for the kids to have this time to play outside every day!

We are pleased to be able to offer all of our children an opportunity for Occupational Therapy integrated into their therapy day at Strive. Leigh Harter Speech Services (LHSS), our current speech partner, has expanded and hired an amazing Occupational Therapist, Paige, who is available to visit both centers.

Why should you look into Occupational Therapy (OT)? A child's life is made up occupations, or everyday activities. These occupations include playing, learning, sleeping, and resting, interacting with friends, getting dressed and other daily activities. OT supports children by incorporating the occupations that are important to you and your child into the intervention process. Many children with Autism benefit from this therapy.

OT services can be integrated right into your child's day at ABA, no need to have evening appointments or drive to another location. Your ABA Therapist will take your child to Paige for his session and will resume ABA when the session is finished.

If you are interested in OT, you can let your BCBA know or contact LHSS directly at www.leighharterspeech.com or call (713)-542-8833.

Paige can provide a screening if you're not sure whether OT is right for your child, and she'll share with you the areas she'd expect to work on.

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.

6-23-23

Sink or Float science experiment - this is a fun outdoor activity to find out which common objects sink and which ones float.

Beach Day - dress like you're headed for the beach - bring your sunglasses, and we'll pretend we're there.

6-30-23

Reading Buddies

Red, white and blue Day - just wear any red, white, and blue you've got.

7-7-23

Make your own flag snack - we use graham crackers, frosting or cool whip, and strawberries and blueberries for this festive snack. Please let us know of any allergies or dietary needs that would prevent your child from participating. A lot of the kids will just make the flag, and not eat it - that's ok too!

Hat Day - just wear any hat you like.

7-14-23

Water balloons - we will have a great time tossing water balloons outside! Be sure to send a change of clothes or a bathing suit if you'd rather your child wear it. Sandals or crocs or water shoes are totally appropriate to send for this activity, just make sure we have tennis shoes for the rest of the day.

School Spirit Day - wear your Strive shirt!

7-21-23

Reading Buddies

Mismatch Day - Just wear your most mismatched outfit! Stripes with polka dots, crazy colors, socks that don't match, anything goes!

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 :)

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 Amy, our Executive Director. You see Amy in both centers each week, and she is a BCBA just like Evey and Jessica. Amy tries to fill in when Evey and Jessica are out of the building and just generally likes to try to keep up with all of our kids!

What is your proudest moment at Strive so far? "Being part of opening the centers and still being here 8 years later."

What is Amy's favorite skill to teach? "I love to teach kids to say anything that has special meaning for their family, like teaching I love you mama or even just mama. It just has such a big impact on families to hear those kinds of things."

What is your favorite part of your job? "Changing the lives of entire families because we can see their whole outlook on life change. We have an opportunity to help families experience things they may have thought weren't possible, things that other people might take for granted, like being able to take your child to the grocery store or going on a family vacation."

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 Prompt.

Prompt – a prompt is stimulus that increases the likelihood of a particular response, like a hint, or a cue.

We use a lot of different prompts to help our children succeed. Some types of prompts we can use include:

• Verbal - some sort of word or phrase to remind a child of what to do - like when you ask "What do you say?" in order to get a child to say "please."
• Gestural - making some sort of gesture like pointing toward where you want a child to sit.
• Physical - this might be using hand over hand to help a child do something that's hard for them, like helping to pull a zipper.

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, 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