The Canada-Wide Early Learning and Childcare (CWELCC) system will support quality, accessibility, affordability and inclusivity in early learning licensed childcare serving eligible children.
If you think your child has autism, or you have a new diagnosis for your child, know you aren’t alone. There are supports available for your child, and for your family.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disorder. Autism affects approximately 1 in 100 people, and is more prevalent in males than females. Evidence shows early intervention makes a difference to a child’s development, helping them to develop important skills and encourage independence, the ability to communicate and opportunities for inclusion. We don’t want to ‘fix’ autism; we want to help children overcome the disabling aspects of autism to live their best lives.
Autism is part of a spectrum that is often referred to as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autism affects everyone differently; while some people are able to live relatively typical lives, others may require ongoing specialist support and care.
However, people with autism experience challenges in two main areas:
Social interaction and social communication, including decoding body language and verbal communication, reciprocal conversation, emotional and social reciprocity, and managing structured parts of the day.
Restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviours or interests, including rituals and routines, and experiencing hyper- or hypo-sensitivity to sensory input
If you’re concerned your child isn’t developing typically, it’s important to investigate this with a trusted medical or health professional. If your child does have autism, working towards a diagnosis early will ensure your child and family can access appropriate supports, giving your child the best chance to develop essential life skills and live their best lives.
Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder
ASD can be diagnosed by any trained health professionals who observes an individual for specific behaviours relating to social communication and restricted / repetitive behaviours and interests.
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Most commonly, children are assessed by a paediatrician on referral from a general practitioner (GP). Children can be assessed and diagnosed from a very early age—sometimes even under the age of two. Generally, expected developmental milestones will guide when parents choose to consult with a GP.
No doubt you’ll have many questions, and it can be a daunting task to research the various interventions that are available and decide on the right approach for your family. Call our friendly team on 647-782-7051 if you’d like advice on what your next steps should be if you suspect a diagnosis of autism, to access a plan and funding for your child, or if you would simply like more information about Connecting Dots Foundation.
There is no single known cause for autism. Genetics are thought to play a role, but autism may also occur spontaneously, or due to other causes; all this is yet to be determined.
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If you think your child has autism, or if you suspect they may not be developing typically, it’s important to speak to a trusted medical professional.
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A paediatrician or clinical psychologist can assess and diagnose your child, upon a referral from your general practitioner.
Early intervention is essential and will give your child the best opportunity to develop the skills they need to live their best life. Once you have a diagnosis, you should choose a service provider which can offer your family the support you need. This is an important and personal choice that should consider the individual needs of your child.
At Connecting Dots Foundation, we don’t want to ‘fix’ autism. But after just one year at CDF, over 95% of children saw improvements in their early learning skills, 98.5% improved their overall communication, and 96.9% of children improved their fine motor skills. Studies have shown children who complete the CDF program experience a reduction in autism symptoms. Each child develops new skills and CDF supports every individual with a plan that is based on their unique strengths and needs.
People with autism have difficulties with both verbal and non-verbal language.
People with autism may experience challenges in interpreting:
Some people with autism may have limited speech or be completely non-verbal. Alternative communication techniques, such as sign language or visual symbols, may be a preferred option.
Others will have verbal communication skills, but may need some time to process what has been communicated. At times, they may repeat what the person has just said; this is known as ‘echolalia’. A person with autism may also talk at length about their interests and may not recognize the turn taking nature of conversations or when the other person becomes disinterested.
A person with autism may:
People with autism generally find socialization confronting. They are often unable to identify, express or understand emotions, which can make interaction and ‘fitting in’ difficult.
A person with autism may experience the following social behaviours:
Social imagination allows us to understand and predict the behaviour of other people. It also helps us to make sense of abstract ideas and to imagine situations outside our immediate daily routine. People with autism tend to follow routines rigidly and favour predictability.
Those who experience challenges with social imagination may find it difficult to:
Difficulties with social imagination should not be mistaken for a lack of imagination. Many people with autism are very creative and go on to become accomplished artists, musicians or writers.
People with autism may struggle to process information that comes to them through their senses. Even though the sensory organs themselves are working correctly, the information is not processed in the typical manner in the brain.
A sensory information processing challenge may look like:
At Connecting Dots Foundation, we support children in our centers by using strategies and practices that are shown to be effective through research. As a result, we assist children and their sensory needs as part of our program.
CDF is passionate about helping children with autism live their best lives: yes, your focus is our focus. Across early intervention therapies and specialized childcare, everything the team around each child does is focused on supporting their needs and building on their strengths and skills, and supporting their family too. CDF provides children with a minimum of 15-25 hours of autism-specific therapy and education, but each child often receives up to 30 hours per week of this, including developmentally appropriate and skills-building play.
In a naturalistic early childhood setting much like day-care, we specialize in helping children develop essential life skills to foster inclusion and prepare them for their next phase of learning, including functional communication and behaviour, play and social skills, and self-care and independent skills (such as toileting, mealtime and transition support).
Each day at CDF features early intervention therapies alongside specialized childcare, following the same Early Years Learning Framework as other mainstream childcare centres. Children with autism learn differently to their typically developing peers, so we focus on helping children access pre-academic learning.
Everything we do also has a strong family focus. Each child’s journey is mapped by an individual learning plan and parents receive support to build their own capacity to scaffold their child’s learning, which guides the child’s and family’s goals and supports everyone to best achieve development outcomes.
Our high-quality early intervention therapies and specialized childcare is delivered by a transdisciplinary team of autism specialists, including:
The team around the child all works together to support each child’s individual learning, their early intervention therapies, specialized care and any additional tailored supports.
The team around your child is made up of staff qualified by a range of therapy and education experience. They all share the responsibility of planning, implementing and evaluating your child’s individual learning plan. They work with you as the family to understand each child’s needs and goals, and they understand how to apply the evidence-based strategies of our curriculum in each child’s learning journey.
So, you might connect with our early childhood educators who understand how to support behaviour goals in the classroom, or a behaviour analyst who is supporting a child’s speech goal. No matter which member of the team around the child is supporting their goals, they are always supervised and monitored by an appropriate clinician.
Each CDF team member takes great pride in their work and are equally proud of the children they support. The team at CDF work with children and their families to achieve milestones and individual goals which can take weeks, months and years to realize. When they do, it’s a celebration!
After one year at CDF, our team has seen early intervention for children with autism leading to improved outcomes, with:
Connecting Dots Foundation provides therapeutic, early intervention services for children with autism aged two to twelve years old. Our focus is on helping children to develop essential skills so they can live their best lives, achieve their goals and participate meaningfully in the community.
Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is the process of providing specialized support and services for infants and young children with developmental delays or disabilities, and their families in order to promote development, well-being and community participation.
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Early Childhood Intervention Services (ECIS) support children with a disability or developmental delay from birth to school entry and their families. ECIS provides therapy and/or education, counselling, service planning and coordination, assistance and support to access services such as kindergarten and child care.
Services are tailored to meet the individual needs of the child. Services are focused on supporting the child in their natural environments and in their everyday experiences and activities.
The overall aim of these services is to provide parents and families with the knowledge, skills and support to meet the needs of their child and to optimize the child’s development and ability to participate in family and community life. Services are provided using a family-cantered approach, recognizing the importance of working in partnership with the family.
The Early Intervention team follows a family-cantered approach. This means that everyone who is involved with your child works together to plan and prioritise your child’s intervention.
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This includes:
Working in partnerships gives you choice and control about how to best support your child. Your Early Intervention team can include:
Early Invention Team understands the importance of the input of the family into the services that children receive. Including as many members of a child’s family as possible, and their community is beneficial to positive outcomes. To learn more about the family cantered approach and the way we work with your family, please visit our key worker page.
CDF specialized Transdisciplinary Early Intervention Program teams consists of professional therapists including: Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologist, Speech Pathologists and Educators.
Depending on the needs of your child, family and other factors, you can choose which therapist are included in your transdisciplinary team and the frequency in which you see them.
The Occupational Therapists assist the team around the child (family, carers, early childhood setting and other professionals) to gain information about the child’s movement and sensory skills including:
The Occupational Therapists can then look at the impact of these abilities on the child’s:
This information and support helps teams around the child work towards the goals the family has for their child.
The Occupational Therapists also develop resources and handouts and run parent information sessions on sensory processing, toilet training, drawing, fine motor skills and self care tasks.
The Speech Pathologists assist the team around the child (family, careers, early childhood educators, occupational therapists, support workers and other professionals) to:
Foster a total communication approach through the use of both verbal (e.g. talking and listening) and non-verbal (e.g. facial expression, gesture, alternative and augmentative communication systems) to help children understand language and express themselves. Non-verbal support systems include using:
The Physiotherapist assists the team around the child (family, carers, early childhood setting and other professionals) to:
Therapy programs may include games, exercises and handling techniques to:
Apply their expertise in childhood development, play development, behaviour support and transition to school processes. Our Educators are a valuable addition to the transdisciplinary model by providing a link between your Early Childhood Intervention Team and the community.
Our Educators:
Are an additional team member who can be added to your transdisciplinary model to support you as a parent or carer. You can choose for our family worker to be your Key Worker in the Transdisciplinary model.
Our Family Workers are here to work closely with CDF families to offer support, advocate for the families and provide information and referral support. They also promote social and group opportunities for families.
ABA Therapy takes everyday processes and situations and turns them into small, easy-to-understand steps that can be learned, repeated, and rewarded. These processes and situations are determined based on each child’s unique needs and a customized treatment plan is created.
ABA Therapy, or Applied Behaviour Analysis Therapy, has been widely known as the most effective treatment for individuals living with autism. Learn more about how this therapy can impact the lives of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Creating A Treatment Plan
The first part to ABA Therapy involves creating a unique treatment plan. Before beginning therapy, a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) will meet with you and your child to create a customized treatment plan based on their specific goals and needs.
Implementing The Treatment Plan
Once a plan has been developed, your child will begin working with a Behaviour Technician, who is responsible for implementing the treatment plan developed by your BCBA. This Behaviour Technician will work one-on-one with your child towards their established goals.
Reporting & Analysis
As treatment is underway, your Behaviour Technician and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst will continuously monitor your child’s progress. This allows them to alter treatments and/or introduce new goals throughout the treatment process.
