Home-based Services​

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Research shows that functional skills emerge and develop in the child's natural environment first and enable the child to generalize to other situations and cope with a range of changing environmental demands (Bricker & Cripe, 1992; Hart & risky, 1995). The home can be an ideal setting for therapy, as young children typically thrive when they are in familiar surroundings and surrounded by the people and objects that are the most meaningful to them.

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Our service 

As part of our ESDM and ABA services, our highly-specialized therapists will observe your child and provide therapy services in his or her home environment. Research shows that functional skills emerge and develop in the child's natural environment first and enable the child to generalize to other situations and cope with a range of changing environmental demands (Bricker & Cripe, 1992; Hart & risky, 1995). Additionally, we have found that children learn best when they can practice new skills within the activities they would naturally use those skills. Essentially, the learning opportunities would not need to be arbitrarily contrived.

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Many routines within the child's typical day can serve as development enhancing opportunities, which increases the number of learning opportunities throughout the day and promotes more functional application of skills. Research has shown that these opportunities optimize learning. (Bronfenbrenner, 1992; Dunst, 2001; Cipani &Spooner, 1997).

 

Lastly, home-based services provide opportunities for parents to be involved in the session by observing the therapy and learning interventions which they can carry out when the therapists are not present.

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ESDM Evaluations 

A comprehensive evaluation using the Early Start Denver Model Curriculum Checklist to help identify your child’s strengths and areas of focus. This directly informs our intervention as we prepare for treatment planning and services recommendations. The evaluation is conducted by trained Early Start Denver Model therapists. The evaluation will consist of direct testing/observation and a parent report, lasting 1 hour-1.5 hours. Parents will be provided with a comprehensive written assessment of skills, treatment plan and goals as well as service recommendations.

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Standard Evaluations

Standard evaluations are discipline-specific, and may be conducted by one of our specialists if one particular domain of development requires further testing. Standard evaluations may be required by your insurance company. Standard evaluations include but are not limited to the administration of the following:

• Developmental Assessment of Young Children-2nd Edition (DAYC-2)

• Preschool Language Scale-5th Edition (PLS-5)

• Sensory Profile

• Peabody Developmental Motor Scale-2nd Edition

• Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-3rd Edition (GFTA-3)

• Verbal Behavior Milestones and Placements Program (VB-MAPP)

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Treatment Coordination

This is a service provided to families following initial evaluation and in conjunction with or following completion of the Parent Empowerment Program. This service is designed for families who live outside of Blue Stars Therapy's travel zone or who cannot afford ongoing intensive ESDM Services in person but wish to implement strategies and track data and progress with the guidance of an ESDM Therapist and Parent Coach. This option has also been utilized by families with an outside agency provider or babysitter/nanny in place.

 

Treatment Coordination is individualized to meet you and your family’s needs, and may include:

• In-person or online weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly consultative sessions.

• Weekly or monthly review of data by your therapist and development of goals and teaching strategies for you to use with your child.

• Access to an online data tracking application so you can take data on goals and your therapist can monitor progress and treatment plan.     

• Consultation and collaboration with your child's current therapy providers, teachers, and/or other caregivers.

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Consultation

This includes but is not limited to: time spent in communication with you, teachers, or other caregivers regarding your child. This includes in-person, via virtual platform, phone, text, and/or email, communication outside of your child's direct therapy session or separate from another service (ex: Educational Setting Observation, Treatment Coordination, and Formal Parent Trainings). This is an important service as it ensures team members and families are consistent with the expectations and strategies being implemented for your child. This service is also available to families not in the immediate St. Louis community.

• Direct Communication: text, email, phone, virtual platform

• Attendance at Meetings: There may be times that a team meeting is warranted to ensure continuity across all team members and/or parents/caregivers regarding service delivery, intervention methods, progress, and modifications to your child's treatment plans. This is a separate fee for therapist attendance and time.

• Administrative Tasks: writing additional letters, reports, funding applications, making visual materials or schedules, creating social stories, visual schedules, behavior intervention plans, etc.

• Virtual Playroom Design and Organization: Therapist will provide guidance regarding layout, design, organization, and specific toy recommendations to create a space ideal for play-based ESDM Therapy to enhance your child’s learning.​