FOR PARENTS
WE'RE HERE TO HELP
ASM Special Education Services provides private Psychoeducational Evaluations, Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs), Counseling Services, and Applied Behavior Analysis to children, teens, and families. We know that your time is valuable and offer services to better accommodate your busy schedule.
WE KNOW THAT, AS A PARENT, YOU WANT THE BEST FOR YOUR CHILD.
We work in partnership with families to ensure our services and evaluations are guided by your goals and concerns. You are the expert on your child, and our clinicians will work closely with you to ensure we serve your child as a whole person. We currently offer the following services directly to families:
INDEPENDENT EDUCATIONAL EVALUATIONS
WHY IS MY CHILD STRUGGLING? HOW CAN I IMPROVE THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE?
Psychoeducational evaluations assess the underlying mental processes impacting your child’s educational performance through a battery of tests, rating scales, interview, and observations. To understand why a student achieves at a certain level, we need to evaluate your child’s cognitive and processing abilities to understand how your child thinks. Our psychology team includes highly-qualified school psychologists who have extensive experience in schools and who are knowledgeable regarding special education law. Our psychoeducational assessments prioritize the strengths and needs of each student in order to provide evidence-based recommendations to help your child be successful. Evaluations are individualized based on your concerns, and typically assess your child’s functioning in the areas of cognitive processing, academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and adaptive skills. We are able to assess for Dyslexia and Autism if those are areas of particular concern for you.
The ASM Sped collaborative model allows our Agency to efficiently complete a comprehensive, high-quality evaluation. A Lead School Psychologist completes the direct testing with your child, and support team members work remotely to obtain all relevant information. The assessment process includes obtaining information regarding your child’s educational background and health and developmental history, interviews, rating scales, and standardized tests. We obtain input from any outside providers (therapists, tutors, etc.), as well as your child’s teachers to ensure we present a comprehensive picture of your child. Our team develops a detailed psychoeducational report that is presented to you, and that you can share with other clinicians who work with your child. This assessment report provides you with specific recommendations to improve your child’s academic achievement.
COUNSELING
HELP YOUR CHILD THRIVE WITH PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING
It’s important to recognize and accept that children may not always open up to their parents/caregivers about how they are feeling. Sometimes children feel too sad or worried to do so. Sometimes they wish to protect their family by not hurting someone’s feelings or saying something “bad.” Other times, parents might not always know the best ways to respond to their children’s feelings or problems; some concerns can feel very confusing or overwhelming. This doesn’t mean that you can't support your child. It doesn’t mean that your child doesn’t love you. It just means that you may need the extra support counseling can provide. Consider counseling as a way to help take care of you-all of you- in the best ways possible.
ASM Special Education Services mental health clinicians provide culturally-competent, strengths-based mental health services to youth utilizing evidence-based practices. Therapists help children develop emotional regulation skills, provide a safe space to express and process emotions, help in making sense of experiences, and address a variety of emotional and behavioral issues. Our mental health clinicians are experienced in working with children with Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Attention Deficit, and Psychotic Disorders. ASM Special Education Services clinicians also provide Family and Parent Counseling. Parents receive education regarding how to better respond to their child’s struggles, as well as a safe environment to express and process their own emotions. Reach out to see if counseling with ASM Special Education Services may be a good fit for your your child!
BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION
IS YOUR CHILD EXPERIENCING PROBLEM BEHAVIORS THAT GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR LEARNING?
Behavior Intervention aims to improve socially inappropriate behavior by using interventions that are based on Principle of Learning theory. The science of behavior has taught us that behaviors are learned as a result of their consequences. Children are born with individual characteristics such as temperament, frustration tolerance, mood, etc. and individual characteristics may influence how long or intense a problematic behavior may be, but the consequences that follow this behavior are what maintain is, decrease it, or increase it. Behaviors are shaped and learned through repeated exposure to the environment.
Students are not born with “bad behaviors.” Children commonly misbehave because: (1) They don’t know the expectations, (2) They don’t know how to exhibit expected (preferred) behavior, (3) They are unaware that they are engaged in the misbehavior, (4) The misbehavior is providing the student a desired outcome (e.g. obtaining attention from peers, escaping a difficult task, etc.). Research has shows that tudents do not learn when presented with punishment. All behavior has a function, and understanding the reason behind a child’s behavior is imperative when trying to change their behavior.
ASM Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) work with your child to manipulate antecedents and consequences based on the function(s) of your child’s behavior(s), and teach replacement behaviors that serve the same function. Often this involves utilizing a “token economy” to reinforce replacement behaviors and minimizing reinforcement for problem behaviors. If the child is not learning, it is NOT the child’s fault, it is the fault of the team working with your child. ASM RBTs, under the supervision of our Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) have years of experience and are extremely skilled at working with children with behavioral issues.
HOME LEARNING RESOURCES
With classrooms closed and millions of children facing schooling at home, parents are wondering how do we make this work? If you’re asking yourself that question, you’re certainly not alone. ASM Special Education has compiled a list of articles and resources to support parents with at-home learning.
ARTICLES
This professional learning experience will provide parents with an understanding of how executive functioning skills impact homework completion.
It’s important to notice and celebrate when your child has any success with focusing. Even the smallest wins can help kids feel better about themselves at a time when things are difficult.
Here are eight tips to prepare your child for online learning at home.
This brochure provides information about how you can help build your child's reading and language skills during the early years of life.
The basics of becoming a behavior detective. Two key strategies for homework completion. How to develop a meaningful incentive system. How to involve siblings.
All children require support from caregivers during times of stress and uncertainty. Individuals with autism may need additional support to process the news and adapt to the many changes.
Tips to share with parents of students with executive functioning deficits
Parents, you do not need to become teachers, but rather take this time to be present in each other’s lives because simple, daily interactions with your child will make a world of difference.
LESSON IDEAS
