Our Story
When the Autism Program at the local Child Development Centre closed, our Behaviour Consultant and several of the BIs were concerned that the children in the program were not going to get the help they needed. Thus Reach the Peak was born. Since it began in 2020, Reach the Peak has helped hundreds of children grow and learn.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help kids meet their full potential despite the developmental challenges they face. We believe that by building meaningful relationships and tapping into children’s motivation in a safe, caring and inclusive space, all kids can learn new skills and reach their peak!
Our Clients
At Reach the Peak we offer services to children with diverse needs. Research has shown that our methods are effective in helping children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Angelman’s syndrome, Down Syndrome, Global Developmental Delay and other needs.
Our Methods
Our intervention starts with building strong relationships with the children. Our programs are based on Naturalistic Developmental Behavioural techniques similar to well-researched programs such as the Denver Model, Pivotal Response Treatment and JASPER (Joint Attention Symbolic Play Emotion Regulation). Some key features are:
- Strong focus on building foundational skills such as social engagement, imitation, the ability to be on someone else’s agenda, increasing flexibility, functional communication and reciprocal back and forth interactions
- Positive and proactive measures are used to make learning fun and successful and to address challenging behaviours
- Complex skills are broken down into teachable steps
- Goals are measurable and observable. Data is collected on all goals to ensure optimal progress
- Prompting is used to ensure a high rate of success and prompts are then faded systematically to promote independence
- We incorporate goals from your child’s Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapist and Physio Therapist and other professionals
- We collaborate with school teams to help smooth the transition into school and to support goals that would help your child succeed at school
Our Philosophy
- All children can learn. If a child is not learning, we need to change how we are teaching.
- The most effective interventions focus on pivotal skills such as engagement, initiation, imitation, communicative intent and joint attention.
- Use positive and pro-active strategies to solve behaviour challenges.
- Learning needs to be fun. We use play and highly motivating activities to help children meet social-emotional milestones.
- A positive relationship between a child and his/her behaviour interventionists is the foundation for good treatment outcomes.
- Family input and participation is essential when developing and implementing intervention plans.
- It is vital to give the tools that we know work for children to the people in a child’s life so that positive learning occurs throughout the day and across environments.
For more information, www.interactingwithautism.com has descriptions of several intervention methods.