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PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY & DESCRIPTION

A Circle of Support is based on the philosophy that the children being served have a right to live, learn and leisure in a community setting and that the skills being taught and exercised should be age appropriate and functional to their environment.

Based on a knowledge of the experiences that describe each living environment (ie, domestic, academic, leisure, vocational, community, etc.), the plan of care is designed to meet the individual needs of the child. The content of the plan of care would vary according to the specific needs of the child but would reflect:

  • the child's strengths and weaknesses,

  • the expectations from home, school and the community,

  • what skills are required to teach for a specific environment,

  • the special abilities or physical limitations of the child,

  • the function and age appropriateness of skills to be taught.

For example, inside the home, the domestic environment, it might be appropriate to plan an activity of lunch making. The tasks involved in lunch making vary from locating materials, to opening containers, to spreading, to assembly and packaging. The level of skill varies for each child. Similarly, group outings will have a specific purpose for each child. On a trip to the grocery store, learning to obtain a cart as soon as you enter the store might reflect the goal for one child, while another might be matching the grocery item to a word or picture that cues the identity for selection. Frequent revision of goals and related tasks is necessary to reflect abilities and progress.

The inability to effectively use expressive language is a challenge for individuals who have autism or related disorders. Even for a child who may already have seemingly well developed verbal language, our goal would be to enhance the articulation and functional use of the verbal communication as much as possible. The inability to communicate creates such anxiety and frustration for so many of the children who are in our care and often these children may succumb to physical reactions that are commonly described as behaviour problems. A Circle of Support looks upon total communication as being a vital approach to teaching language skills either through sign language, manual gestures, picture boards, word cards, facilitated communication, and/or any other alternative language system. While we do manage behaviour with specific programs to address the undesirable activity, we also maintain that behaviour is a form of communication and we will work towards a goal of reducing the underlying frustration and anxiety for that child concurrent to the behaviour management program.

Regarding behaviour management, it is our philosophy that in order to enhance and further the child's development and to progress in attaining set goals and skills, the child's behaviour difficulties need to be managed through careful programs designed to decrease and eliminate the undesirable behaviours through positive reinforcement of desirable behaviours. As a program bias, A Circle of Support does not believe in the use of psychotropic drugs or other pharmaceutical interventions for the purpose of changing behaviour. However, where it is the opinion of a qualified psychiatrist that medication may be necessary for the child's protection or would enhance the development potential, such medication would be considered for use in consultation with all involved in the child's care.

Recreational activities such as hiking, skating, bowling, swimming and cycling, help the child gain a better awareness of their surroundings while the community gains a better understanding of the children.

For some children, A Circle of Support sees the need to introduce vocational tasks to eventually equip the child with skills that might lead them into productive work experiences later in their life. Hence, activities such as sorting, collating and packaging would be incorporated into their individualized program plans.