John will enter S.T.A.R.T.

S.T.A.R.T. stands for Specialized Team for Autism Related Therapies

There is an opening for John in the Casa Colina START program beginning in September!

The program is one-on-one therapy through all areas of development. It concentrates on building social, sensory-motor, play, communication, adaption, and cognitive skills.

He will go through an in home evaluation in all areas to determine his Individualized therapy plan in each area.

There will be 4 kids in the class with 4 therapists -- they have some group activities like circle time, snack time, and project, but then each kid rotates through speech therapy, occupational therapy, imaginary play, etc. He will receive the Occupation Therapy/SI through this program, although he is still schedule at the end of the month to have an OT screening through Foothill Presbyterian Hospital.

This will replace the Early START program he is in now, which is the "mommy and me" preschool. It has a similar format, but is more structured with less kids, one-on-one, and no parent participation in the class. Parents watch in the observation room. He will attend, I believe two times a week. We are awaiting Regional Center's approvals to go through.