Behavioural Therapy

blueballoon Behavioural Therapy provides a variety of behavioural management services for children experiencing behavioural challenges.  Services include functional behavioural analyses, parent/teacher consultation, development and implementation of visual supports to improve behaviour direct behavioural intervention, parent training and transfer to home and community setting. In addition, behavioural therapy provides intensive teaching programs based on principles of ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis). ABA therapists collaborate extensively with other disciplines within blueballoon and consider each child's unique family, sensory, environmental, and learning profile to ensure a comprehensive learning experience.

Social Skills

blueballoon recognizes that children diagnosed with neuro-developmental disorders (Autism Spectrum Disorder, PDD, Asperger’s, Tourette’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FASD), ADD/ADHD, speech-language delays, non-verbal learning disabilities and other developmental delays) are frequently challenged in the area of Social Skills development. In general, this is due to the fact that a great deal of social skills learning is acquired or reinforced through social and observational interaction.  Depending on their learning profile, many students with special needs may have difficulty learning and absorbing new information and skills in this manner. We believe that social skills are an important and critical part of a child’s overall development and therefore a targeted approach to teach social skills is often necessary.

IBI Program

At blueballoon we believe in teaching using strategies and techniques proven effective in today’s research that are most appropriate to the child.  This may mean that for any one child, for any one skill we may utilize a variety of different teaching methods in order to best teach that child to his or her learning needs.  We maintain that people must be motivated by the material and curriculum in order to see true acquired skills.  Therefore, we incorporate reinforcement and motivation into every task while teaching the child real-life expectations.  We are a primarily Verbal Behaviour-based agency, however we will utilize Discrete Trial Training, Relationship Development Intervention, TEACCH, Pivotal Response Training, Precision and Fluency, Floortime DIR and other methods as needed for any particular learner.

Behavioural therapy can be used to:

• Decrease behavioural problems including tantrums and attention seeking
• Increase attention, eye contact, turn-taking, imitation and memory
• Assist in the development of appropriate communication and motor skills
• Facilitate appropriate social skills
• Increase self-help skills
• Develop appropriate strategies to meet the child’s sensory needs

How could a Behaviour Therapist help my child?

Behavioural therapy is beneficial for children with a variety of diagnoses who are experiencing behavioural difficulties that impact their ability to learn or be successful at home and school. An initial assessment includes meeting with the child and family to determine the behavioural challenges and skills for the behavioural program to address. After the assessment, an individualized treatment program is developed to target specific behaviours and skills identified by the family and therapist. The therapist will collect data on the occurrence of behaviours and acquisition of new skills to determine the effectiveness of the program and to develop more challenging programming when the child is ready. Behavioural programs can be implemented at blueballoon or in the child’s natural environment.

Is Behavioural Therapy the same as Applied Behaviour Analysis?

Behavioural programs may or may not include components of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). ABA programs use behavioural strategies to build new skills and generalize these skills to the child’s natural environment. ABA programs are individualized to the child’s needs and proceed as the child masters and builds upon new skills in a structured and systematic manner. There is a wealth of evidence supporting the notion that ABA has been very successful in helping children with Autism learn new skills in a systematic and structured way. However, behavioural programs do not have to include the structure of an ABA program to be successful. Behavioural strategies can be implemented in many ways and are most successful when implemented with an interdisciplinary approach and structure suitable to the child’s needs.

No doctor referral is necessary. Please complete our Self-Referral Form: Click here