Autism Therapy Charlotte

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Lancaster, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is less than 5 miles from the border and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

• Developing Daily Modulation Plans & Activities Using the Autism/Sensory Survival Kit for Children & Adolescents
  
• Therapeutic Listening

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Rock Hill, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is less than 5 miles from the border and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

●My prayers have been answered in such a marvelous way.  The Karate Program has been instrumental in my son's life by   increasing positive character traits. Each Wednesday, because my son knows that he will attend the Karate Program, there is an exuberant sparkle in his eyes. He has always kept his room clean, but because of his increased independence, he asks to vacuum his room and other rooms in the house on this special day!  Prior to the Program, negative characteristics existed such as anxiety, fear, nervousness, frustration, and a lack of focus.  Currently, the positive character fruit produced within my son is patience, improved body strength, courage, confidence, increased maturity, increased independence, increased responsibility, and joy. I am thankful to God for Amy, Sensei Riaan and for the Karate Program.  The love and compassion given to my son weekly is more than any parent could imagine.  This Program has exceeded my expectations.  It is a blessing. It is a gift from God.”-Mother of a 16-year-old boy diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome

 
For over a year now, our son, who is on the autistic spectrum, has been attending a weekly karate class under the direction and tutelage of Sensei Riaan.  He has never been in a structured group setting like this, and he is thriving more and more after each session.  His confidence level has increased because he feels successful, and is able to be with and keep up with his peers.  We have noticed significant improvement in his balance, motor skills, and coordination, as well as his social and play skills.  One of the particularly commendable aspects of this program is the way it is organized with each child having an outside support person to work along with him and help and guide him, as necessary.  I highly recommend this class to everyone; especially our special people who need extra love and support! -Parent of a Karate Group Participant

Looking for pediatric therapy services near Fort Mill, South Carolina?

Child and Family Development has an office in South Charlotte that is just 13 miles from there and easily accessible from I-77 and the 485 loop.

Our multi-disciplinary clinic has been helping children and families since 1980. The team of experienced therapists can assess and treat a wide range of childhood concerns, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities or special needs.

We participate in many insurance plans.  Also, some of our Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy providers accept South Carolina Medicaid. 

The Contact Us tab on our website will link you to our address and Mapquest. 

My son has greatly benefited from the PT Karate group! His upper body, lower body and core strength are all improving, and his attention span as well as ability to stay on task has increased. I am so glad this class is offered and hope others will be positively impacted by it too. -Mother of a 12-year-old with autism  

Hello!

I am recently a new member to the Occupational Therapy team at Child and Family Development located at the South Charlotte office! I was born and raised in Charleston, SC. Upon graduating from Clemson University with my BS in Health Science, I decided to go back to Charleston to obtain my Masters degree in Occupational Therapy at the Medical University of South Carolina. Following this graduation and passing my boards, I ventured off to the city of Charlotte, NC to begin working as a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. I have prior experience working with children with autism, fine motor delays and handwriting difficulties, developmental delays, sensory processing disorders, cerebral palsy and down syndrome through my clinical rotations during school.  Since joining the C&FD team, I have gained an even wider knowledge of the practice from working and collaborating with the wonderful staff members in their different areas of expertise. I am looking forward to what the future brings at Child and Family Development!
 
Mary Helen Bailey, M.S., OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Child and Family Development

Due to the pervasiveness of autism spectrum disorders, awareness is rising rapidly with media playing a significant role in this awareness. In recent years, there have been many wonderful films portraying the life of those affected by autism. Although every child with autism is unique and has a different story to tell, it is because of such films that many people’s eyes are opened to autism for the very first time. Films like Adam, Temple Grandin and Wretches and Jabberers have captured hearts across America. There is now much anticipation for the upcoming documentary titled The United States of Autism, which is sure to resonate with families across the country affected by the disorder.

This project all began with the vision of one father on a mission to create a voice for the autism community across America. Richard Everts is the father of a child with autism and the founder of The Tommy Foundation, an award winning non-profit organization that works with families affected by autism in the Northeast. With support from The Tommy Foundation team and a grant awarded by the Pepsi Refresh Project, filming was a success! On April 2, 2011, in honor of Autism Awareness month, a glimpse of this success was shared with the world through the movie trailer.

(This post is the 2nd in a series of 2 posts by this therapist addressing sign language)

Teaching signs to a child who has a developmental delay or a language impairment such as autism or childhood apraxia of speech can be helpful for increasing communication and decreasing frustration. After all, using signs to communicate is much more effective than having no way of communicating at all! After the initial speech-language evaluation, a speech therapist may begin teaching a child with limited verbal skills to sign by choosing 1 sign to start with, and adding more signs as the child learns the cause-and-effect of communicating with signs. 

From here, the course of therapy truly depends on the individual child. For many children, the use of signed words helps verbal skills come along. In addition to or in lieu of signs, the therapist may implement an augmentative/alternative communication approach. 

Is signing right for your child? For the short term?  For the long term?  There are many factors that a speech therapist takes into account when deciding whether or not to teach signs to a child. Feel free to contact a speech therapist at either of our Charlotte offices – we’ll be glad to hear your concerns and answer your questions.

She will be based at the South Charlotte office on a full-time basis.  

Jessica is a 2010 graduate of SUNY-Buffalo with special interests in autism and sensory integration. 

Welcome Jessica!

In treating children with Autism practicing Pediatric physical therapy or Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) here at Child and Family Development in Charlotte, NC, I see core difficulties in children with Autism as they try to manage the challenges of daily life.  People with autism have difficulty negotiating an emotional world where so many things are decided by how you feel about a situation.

This week I had a mother come to my therapy room and tell me her son (my client) was down at the car with his sister and wouldn’t come up. She said she thought he was overly tired and hungry. Could I please come help? Sure, I thought. No big deal. The moment he saw me, I knew he would come right up. He loves me and requests me all week long. I got down to the car, and sure enough there he was clinging to the outside of the car crying and saying he wanted to go to McDonalds and get chicken McNuggets. When he saw me, nothing changed. I was flabbergasted. I’ve seen him for almost 10 years and he had never done anything like this. I tried to catch him, pull him, drag him, bribe him with food, and nothing worked. He was crying and wanted to go to McDonald’s and get chicken McNuggets. I wondered since he had never done this before, should we let him go to McDonald’s and just skip PT? What would be the ramifications of this if we did? His mom asked me what we should do. I said more to myself than to his mom, “As soon as I figure out what is the best thing to do, I’ll do it.”

Isn’t life a lot like this? How many times in my life, have I thought, “If I just knew the right thing to do, I’d do it.” I’ve felt this way about friendships, relationships, sibling differences, work outs, medical issues and more. Don’t you just wish life came with a little book that you could look up in the index what the answer is? More times than not, the answer comes down to emotional decisions informed of course by experience, speculation, and your gut feeling about a situation. How do you know when it is time to choose a new friend, a new décor for the living room, a new school or a new behavior management technique for your child? When is it time to let an old friend go? It comes down to advice from all your friends (or maybe despite all the advice from your friends) and your final feelings on the matter. These kinds of choices and conflicts are natural challenges for people on the spectrum.

What happened with the child in the parking lot? The mom commented that her son had been doing this recently at school, lying in the floor crying and getting out of work. That’s all I had to hear, and in my gut, I knew the answer. I “helped” him in the building, and we got to work. 

Emotional choices and challenges task all of us, but are particularly challenging for people with Autism. Relationship Development Intervention targets the core deficits of autism to work on the building blocks of these skills. Call me if I can help you, (704) 332-4834 ext 114.