Charlie’s Gift Autism Center > Charlie’s Gift Services

Behavioral/Counseling Services at Charlie’s Gift

Charlie’s Gift’s counseling department offers assessments/evaluations, individual, couples, and family counseling as well as various group therapies such as social skills training, sibling support, and parent support .

Our counselors address issues such as depression, anxiety, grief/loss, trauma, parenting strategies, and behavior issues.

Our clinicians use a variety of intervention techniques including cognitive-behavioral therapy, behavioral management/dealing with challenging behaviors, parenting/teacher training, and play therapy. They have a special interest and expertise in working with children on the Autism Spectrum (and related disorders) and their families.

Mental Health Therapy Groups

Friendship and Fun
Help your child improve their attention and regulation in a special setting which provides opportunities to interact socially with their peers while engaging in a variety of sensory activities. Children will develop and improve their listening skills while increasing their ability to follow more complex directions. Participants will be expected to use their language to interact and play cooperatively with others. Multi-sensory approach is used. This group will be facilitated by a LCPC (licensed clinical professional counselor).

Tag your it! Ages 3-5 and 5-7
Many children with special needs struggle with the subtleties of playing and interacting with other children. Parents are often concerned about going on play dates because they are uncertain about how their child may or may not respond. Let’s Play will focus on enhancing reciprocal play skills to enrich each child’s social development. Our Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor will facilitate positive interactions between each child so that they can practice new skills related to cooperation, following directions, sharing, taking turns, and developing social/emotional language in a safe and supportive environment. Therapy strategies will include the use of interactive games, role playing, modeling and using effective communication strategies and expressing feelings/emotions appropriately.

The Hang Out Club Ages 7-10, 10-13 and 14-17
Being a kid is supposed to be a fun time. Yet, there are challenges as our kids learn all the subtle social rules necessary to have relationships.
Their days are filled with opportunities to practice these skills; however, they struggle to understand them. Our Licensed Professional Counselor will work with the participants on understanding and practicing social interactions such as taking turns, making eye contact, emotional regulation, and conversational skills. Children will practice their skills in the context of fun, age-appropriate activities and life skills. Our goal is for these kids to develop and practice these skills and generalize them to their everyday life.

Occupational Therapy

Does your child misinterpret everyday sensory information from our senses (touch, movement, smell, vision and hearing)? Does your child feel bombarded by sensory information or seek out intense sensory experiences? Does your child take in too much sensory input or not register it at all? If you answered yes to any of these questions then your child would benefit from occupational therapy. Your child will be provided with different sensory experiences to help them process sensory input more effectively.  In addition, children who misinterpret sensory information can also have difficulties with fine/visual motor skills, attention and frustration tolerance.

Occupational Therapy Programs

Handwriting without Tears (All Ages)
This is a group or individual session that is lead by a licensed occupational therapist using a researched based program called Handwriting without Tears.  This program provides a multi-sensory approach for learning to write, offering step-by-step illustration of letter formation and gives clear visual directions. HWT uses different materials from wooden sticks used for creating letters to a smaller blackboard using a methods called wet-dry-try that provides more feedback to the hands and repetitions without boredom. There is music with the program that helps teach proper finger grasp on writing utensils and letter formation (top to bottom). HWT provides support for print and cursive and if your child struggles with printing this program will be very beneficial!

Speech Language Services

Charlie’s Gift’s speech department offers assessments/evaluations and both individual and group therapy. Our Speech Language Pathologists are fully licensed and have formal training and experience in oral motor and feeding/swallowing cases. They are also trained and experienced in language disorders which include but are not limited to the following areas: expressive language, articulation/phonology, motor planning, auditory processing, fluency and pragmatics. Our clinicians use a variety of intervention techniques which include play therapy, games, and a more structured approach. They have a special interest and expertise in working with children on the Autism Spectrum (and related disorders) and their families.

Speech Therapy  Groups

Pragmatics and Play 
In this group, children participate in fun, games, and socializing while our Speech Language Pathologist guides them in developing and improving their peer interaction skills such as turn taking, responding appropriately to others interactions, respecting the feelings of others, and self-regulation. Participants should be able to function independently (without 1:1 adult assistance).  This group is designed for varying developmental levels.

Parent Support Group (monthly meeting)

Parenting a child with special needs or a diagnosis of any kind can be a challenging, frustrating, exciting adventure.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming as well and we have a need for others who are walking the same path to come alongside.  This group is open to all, including extended family members, and hopefully it will provide support, encouragement and education that will help us all as we work to build stronger, healthier families.

Contact 630-810-1200 for more information about services or to register for any of the programs or classes listed above.