Autism

Our Approach

At Shoreline, we take a neurodiversity affirming approach to working with Autistic people. We use evidence informed strategies to highlight their strengths and encourage and teach language naturally. We use the child’s interests and natural reinforcements to support the learning of new skills. All goals are incorporated into play or natural activities.

Families are included in treatment so that the therapist can gain a stronger sense of the Autistic person’s skills in all settings. Family involvement also allows the therapist to coach and provide strategies to the family so these skills can be practiced at home, in the child’s most comfortable environment, and with their favourite people. By including the family, practice can be expanded and incorporated throughout the child’s day, rather than just limited to the therapy session.

Our work with Autistic children is informed by research in natural language acquisition (NLA) and gestalt language processing (GLP). To learn more about NLA and GLP, please refer to the Resources section below. We also offer options for augmentative communication to support communication, whether as the child's primary preferred mode of expressing themselves or in combination with verbal language.

Based on our policy of taking a neurodiversity affirming approach and research that has emerged over recent years, we do not provide the following: Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) (if a new client came to us using PECS, we would support transition to a better augmentative communication system and/or natural language acquisition approach), 'behavioural' interventions (e.g., those that involve coercive techniques and masking), and any approach that involves hand-over-hand prompting.