Intensives

An intensive is a treatment approach that concentrates a burst of energy and focus with individualized therapeutic interventions that create changes over a short period of time, typically 4-8 weeks. This increased frequency of treatment sessions – three or more per week – can form a launchpad for progress in ongoing therapy. Parents are invited to participate in their child’s Intensive, to grow their “tool box” of strategies to assist their child with sensory processing, self-regulation and learning, and to discover enjoyable and interactive parent-child play activities.
Why is our Intensive approach effective?
Our Intensive program was designed with experienced sensory-trained (Ayres Sensory Integration) therapists, under the guidance of Maggie Lesher, the sole occupational therapist in Minnesota who has completed a Level ll Mentorship at the STAR Institute with Dr. Lucy Jane Miller.

Therapists use an interactive relationship-focused play-based approach in a sensory rich setting, working on engagement, arousal regulation/self-regulation, and foundation skills needed for developmental progress. Our clinics meet fidelity requirements for Ayres Sensory Integration treatment. Your child’s type of Sensory Modulation Disorder will be analyzed to identify specific tools and strategies that create change faster than more common general sensory integration pathways. Therapists use evidence-based therapeutic interventions that are supplemented by Floortime strategies and other modalities that are appropriate to your child’s individual needs.

What might these interventions look like?

Playful engagement, themes and activities will foster development of motor, cognitive, language, and social interaction skills, all while your child has fun!  Interventions will also target:

  • Reciprocity – taking turns in play and with gestural/verbal communication
  • Waiting/anticipating
  • Eye contact
  • Joint attention and social referencing
  • Imitation of actions in play
  • Responding to cues to Stop/Go
  • Initiating and sustaining social interaction and play

Most children who have sensory issues also have difficulty with praxis (motor planning) and motor/postural issues that make skill acquisition and developmental progress difficult. Interventions to target these concerns will be incorporated in the Intensive sessions.

Children with auditory processing problems may benefit from an intensive listening therapy home program, Integrated Listening Systems. Children with attention, coordination, and timing deficits may also benefit from a course of Interactive Metronome Training. 

What other services can be added to an Intensive?
Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy are available onsite at our Maplewood location. Speech Therapy is available onsite at our Plymouth location. Schedule permitting, these services can be coordinated with a Sensory Intensive.

 

How do Intensives help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Children with ASD usually have sensory processing issues and motor/praxis deficits that impair their ability to imitate actions for learning, self care, independent play and play with others. Based on research in recent years, specific motor delays are increasingly viewed as an early marker of ASD, and praxis impairment is being considered as a core deficit of ASD.

Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) cannot be used to effectively treat motor and praxis deficits.