Center-Based Programs

What center-based therapy offers

Our center in Cumming is equipped in ways a home visit cannot be. Suspended equipment, climbing structures, gym space, sensory equipment, feeding facilities and treatment rooms give our clinicians options that simply are not available in a living room, and for many goals that equipment is what makes the work possible.

The other advantage is the team. When a child receives speech, occupational and physical therapy in the same building, the clinicians involved talk to each other, often on the same day. A speech-language pathologist working on communication during meals can coordinate directly with the occupational therapist addressing the sensory side of feeding. That coordination is difficult to arrange when services are scattered across three separate providers who have never met.

The other thing a center offers that a living room cannot is other children. Social skills are learned with peers rather than taught in isolation, and a child working on taking turns, sharing attention, or coping with someone else getting there first needs someone else in the room to practice with.

Center-based services run from birth through age 21, which means families are not forced to find a new provider when a child ages out of early intervention at three, and again when they leave the school system’s services. Long relationships let us notice changes early and adjust rather than starting over with a stranger.

Coordinated care in practice

Coordination means goals are written so they reinforce each other. If a child is working on grasp in occupational therapy, their physical therapist knows and supports the positioning that makes grasp achievable. If a behavior technician is working on tolerating transitions, the speech-language pathologist targets the communication that makes a transition less frightening.

It also means one conversation rather than four. Families managing multiple services often spend a great deal of energy relaying information between providers who do not speak to each other. We would rather carry that load ourselves, and with your permission our teams share information directly.

Who center-based helps

Center-based services suit families who:

• Have a child who needs equipment or space that home therapy cannot provide
• Are receiving more than one therapy discipline and want them coordinated
• Are transitioning out of early intervention at age three
• Have a school-age child needing support beyond what school services provide
• Have an older child or young adult continuing therapy toward independence
• Want their child to practice skills outside the home environment

Services available at our Cumming center:

• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech and language therapy
• Oral motor and feeding therapy
• ABA therapy
• Comprehensive evaluations

This list is not exhaustive and nothing on it is a diagnosis. If something here sounds like your child, an evaluation is the way to find out what is actually going on.

What a session looks like

Center-based sessions typically run 30 to 60 minutes. Families receiving multiple disciplines can often schedule them consecutively to reduce the number of trips.

1. Scheduled around your life

   Our administrative team works to group a child’s sessions together where scheduling allows, so families are not making separate trips across the week.

2. Full use of the space

   Sessions use gym, sensory and treatment areas as the goals require, giving clinicians options a home visit cannot offer.

3. Teams that talk

   Clinicians across disciplines coordinate on shared goals, with your permission, rather than working in isolation.

4. Parents included

   You are welcome in sessions and we expect to send you home with something specific to work on, exactly as we would on a home visit.

Credentials

Center-based services are delivered by our full clinical team:

• Licensed physical therapists holding a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree
• Licensed occupational therapists holding the OTR/L
• Licensed speech-language pathologists holding the CCC-SLP
• Board Certified Behavior Analysts and Registered Behavior Technicians
• All clinicians hold current Georgia licensure in their discipline

This page is not a diagnosis and nothing on it is medical advice. If something here sounds like your child, an evaluation is how you find out what is actually going on.