The ROOTS Program

Building Relationships from the Ground Up!  

ROOTS is an individual therapy program designed to target the first three developmental levels of the DIR®/Floortime™ Model in the context of a social relationship.  The first three developmental levels consist of attention and regulation, engagement and relating, and back-and-forth communication.  These milestones are important because they are the basis for higher level processes such as theory of mind (thinking about what others are thinking) which is essential for sustaining interactions.

Within the ROOTS program, each child is supported by a one-on-one clinician, who creates and assesses the child’s goals during each session.  The session is then led by the children with the clinicians supporting each child in their interactions with the other peers in the class.  The key is to have the children develop an internally motivating relationship with their peers which creates the desire to learn to share attention, engage, and relate.  This differs from other philosophies that target behavioral social skills such as sharing, turn taking, and greeting others as discrete skills that are difficult to generalize to various social settings.  Our philosophy is founded on the belief that when a child is motivated by the feelings of others, they will seek out peer relationships independently.

Our Philosophy

Our philosophy regarding the ROOTS program is founded on forming a supportive relationship between peers. Research based practices such as principles of DIR®/ Floortime ™ as well as applied behavior analysis (ABA) are some of the techniques we use to target each child’s individual needs.  We believe that the building blocks to developing social intelligence are founded in the continual development of communication, problem solving, and understanding social interactions. Therefore, within child/group led activities, therapists continually build engagement and shared attention between peers which leads to healthy, lasting relationships.

For more information on the interventions used in the ROOTS program, click here.

Information about ROOTS

  • Enrollment in ROOTS will be determined after reviewing your child’s sensory profile and social skills checklist or by a recommendation from one of our therapists.  If your child is not ready for this program, we will suggest other services such as our individual therapy to help strengthen your child’s skills. Or, if your child’s skills are above our ROOTS program, we will suggest starting the TAG! program instead.
  • Each social skills class will have 2-3 children with a therapist for each child.  The therapists’ roles are to foster the expansion of ideas, social reciprocity, and reflective thinking according to each child’s individual needs.
  • Each social skills class will commit to meet once a week for 1 hour.
  • A ROOTS therapist will assess and create goals for your child.  The therapist will then create opportunities for your child to achieve each goal.  Periodically you will receive a progress report regarding the growth of your child including recommendations around continuing with ROOTS.
  • The ROOTS program is billable to insurance.  If you have any questions on coverage, please contact our billing department.

Steps to get into the program

  1. A comprehensive evaluation  at LCA is required before entering the ROOTS program.  If your child has already had an eval at LCA, an additional eval is not needed.  To schedule an eval, please contact Kim at 425- 657-0620 or kim@lakesideautism.com.
  2. Complete and turn in the Sensory Profile and the Social Skills Checklistt packet if not already completed.  Please be as accurate as possible when completing the social skills checklist.
  3. Return the completed packet to Kim or you may email it to kim@lakesideautism.com.
  4. The Social Skills Coordinator will review the packet and determine if your child is ready for ROOTS or if another program is more appropriate.
  5. You will then be contacted by Kim with placement information.

Attendance & Commitment

It is very important for children to attend and be on time as the children count on each other for success and growth.  Please notify us if it becomes difficult to attend ROOTS on time. This is a fantastic opportunity for your child to interact with peers.  Please let us know if you have any questions about goals, sessions, or therapy throughout the program time.

Cancelation Policy

Please notify us one week prior to any cancelations or missed appointments.  We understand that there are times you cannot make it to session, but please let us know ASAP when you need to cancel because there is another child that is affected by this cancelation.  Because of the necessity for a peer to be present, it is crucial that this policy is followed. If your child’s peer is gone, we will offer you an individual session so your child can still receive therapy for that week.  If you wish to discontinue the ROOTS program, you must provide notice one month prior to exiting the program to allow us to find a replacement for your child’s peer.  You can call us at 425-657-0620 or email Kim at:  kim@lakesideautism.com.