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Spokane Parenting Advice, Early Intervention, and Therapy for
Children with Challenges
from Washington State (WA) and Idaho (ID)
What is Year For Change Treatment and Therapy?
Year For Change in Spokane provides parenting advice, parent education, Early Intervention, child counseling, and other therapies for challenging children and their parents, families, and educators.
Services focus on kids who have difficulty with social, emotional, or behavioral skills, children with disabilities such as Autism, parent-child relationships, and even typically developing “tweens” or teens who may resist taking responsibility for homework, chores and their lives.
Year For Change specializes in helping kids learn “people skills” and “emotion skills,” gain purpose and self-confidence, and strengthen their relationships with others.
Types of Child Treatment and Therapy
(For children birth to age 12. Limited services for ages 13-17).
- Early Intervention Help – intensive interventions for children with Autism and other disabilities. Includes help and support for parents and families.
- Child Counseling (Child Therapy) – for children with anxiety, self-esteem, social, emotional, behavioral, school performance, or parent-child relationship issues, and similar challenges.
- Parenting “Advice” and Parent Education – for subjects such as typical child development, disabilities, and parent-child relationships. Often part of above services.
- Consultation – for parents and educators. Includes home services, school assistance, and short-term help.
Early Intervention help is provided for children with Autism, PDD, Asperger’s, other disabilities, social skills challenges, behavioral challenges, emotional challenges, and their parents, families and educators. General goals include maximizing the child’s potential in areas important to the family and where possible, helping the child experience a more functional and meaningful childhood. A high degree of urgency is assumed, since windows of opportunity are thought to be open only for brief periods in early childhood.
Typical Early Intervention Help:
- Planning and implementing intensive Early Interventions for Autism, PDD, Asperger’s, ADHD, Tourette Syndrome, Oppositional Defiance, and other challenges.
- Understanding therapy options and resources for children with disabilities.
- Understanding child behaviors and parenting issues for families with children on Autism gluten-free casein-free (GFCF) diets or who are going through Defeat Autism Now! (Autism Biomedical) processes.
- Setting up and running interventions at home and with parents/families.
- Finding, interviewing, hiring, and training students or support persons.
- Working with schools, educators, and related professionals.
- Negotiating Individualized Education Plans (I.E.P.’s), Individual Family Service Plans (I.F.S.P.’s) and 504 plans.
- Utilizing various types of paid, free or low-cost therapies.
- Finding and efficiently using resources and funding.
- Parenting and family issues which accompany this journey.
Child Counseling (Child Therapy)
Weekly or bi-weekly therapy is provided directly to children with disabilities, behavioral, emotional, or social skills challenges. Additional challenges such as bullying, school problems, refusal to do homework, and parent-child conflicts may also be included. Parents and families bring real-life issues, participate in many sessions, and practice skills at home with their child. Everyone is encouraged to make positive changes of their own as we progress.
Typical Goals of Child Counseling are to Help Children:
- Become more aware, purposeful and focused.
- Become appropriately social, emotionally expressive and communicative.
- Solve problems constructively.
- Become more positive and less anxious.
- Choose to become more responsible for their own feelings, reactions, relationships and home expectations such as chores and homework.
- Manage aggression, anger, anxiety, and becoming too easily upset or angry.
- Explore withdrawal, outbursts or other trouble at school.
- Reduce negative self-talk and low self confidence.
- Learn friendship skills, social skills and how to handle bullying.
Parenting “Advice” and Parent Education (Parenting Education)
Parenting “advice” and parent education includes direct help to parents, or help during therapy with their children, to provide parents with new tools and techniques to parent more effectively, strengthen their relationship with their child, and understand this role and time in their lives. Although parents often begin by wanting “parenting advice,” a “parenting guide,” or a “parent coach,” sessions typically become more collaborative as you clarify your goals, discover your parenting style, and choose techniques that fit your family and child.
Typical goals of Spokane “Parenting Advice” and Parent Education:
- Gain a greater understanding of children’s behaviors and needs.
- Learn tools for each child’s unique challenges.
- Reduce daily disruption and stress, especially during transitions and daily routines.
- Create stronger personal interactions and more positive family relationships.
- Gain a greater sense of direction and meaning.
- Become a more effective parent, grandparent, or caregiver.
- Improve each child’s specific skills such as relationship or play skills.
- Handle each family’s unique parenting challenges with less guilt, stress, and hopelessness.
- Examine family interaction patterns which may support positive or negative child behaviors, and replace parenting patterns which no longer work.
- Encourage child responsibility for completing chores and schoolwork.
- Minimize sibling rivalry and family bickering.
- Work cooperatively with your child’s school.
- Learn when and how to negotiate, set limits, and enforce rules.
- Feel better about yourself as a parent.
- Find resources and additional help.
Consultation for parents or educators is provided for needs which do not fall into the above categories.
Typical Types of Consultation:
- Brief meetings to discuss a child’s program and some general direction.
- Meetings at schools to discuss I.E.P.’s, I.F.S.P.’s or behavior plans.
- Home visits to observe behaviors of concern or provide at-home support.
- Teacher or educator meetings to provide insight into classroom dynamics or the behavior of a particular child in school.
- Discussion of family questions outside of therapy sessions.
Ready For Help?
For questions or to arrange an appointment, see the contact information below.Need more help? Call (509) 448-1506 or Click to Email
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