Developmental Therapy
Developmental Therapy (DT) is designed to increase a child’s coping skills, intellectual capacities, and social skills.
DT promotes: 
- Engagement with parents as first relationship
- Engagement in play with siblings and peers
- The understanding of social cues
- Problem-solving and using imagination
- Attention to directions
- Understanding your child’s behavior
DT supports children by:
- Encouraging strong relationships between the therapist and child that stem from following the child’s interests.
- Promoting strong relationships between the parent and child by providing parent education, coaching, and support.
- Utilizing an interdisciplinary developmental framework.
- Applying research based practices such as DIR®/ Floortime™ and ABA strategies.
- Providing one-on-one therapy sessions.
Some children have difficulty in specific areas of development. These challenges may include attending to a parent’s voice, engaging in play with a sibling, understanding social cues or using imagination. Many of these behaviors are symptoms of an underlying issue in which the child has difficulty taking in the world through his senses and therefore, has difficulty knowing how to respond to the stimuli he receives. This can then interfere with the child’s ability to engage, communicate, socialize, and learn.
In order to strengthen these areas of development our DT’s create individualized goals for each child based on their developmental level, sensory profile, and parent concerns. Goals are then implemented using research based practices such as DIR®/Floortime ™ and ABA strategies in a one-on-one setting or within a social context. We believe that the building blocks to developing communication, social reciprocity, and intelligence is founded within a relationship. Therefore, within client led activities, DT’s continually build emotional reciprocity and engagement between themselves and the client, child/parent interactions, and social opportunities within the center which is a dominant feature that makes DT at Lakeside Center for Autism stand apart from more traditional education therapies.
Additionally, developmental therapists synthesize information from other specialists and parents to develop, implement, and track programs to ensure success. Our developmental therapists can provide individual developmental intervention for individuals with Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Learning disabilities, and learning and social developmental differences.
