Team Work Makes The Dream Work

If you have started therapy with any therapist at Family Chatterbox, you have seen our “Release of Information” document (ROI).  When we start therapy with a child, we feel it is important that we start to connect with your child’s “team”.  Each child’s team will be different! We always ask to talk to those people in your child’s life that they interact with on a consistent basis. This could include but is not limited to: other therapists, daycare providers, teachers, pediatricians, or other specialists that they see!

Why do we do this, and why is it beneficial?

One of the consistent questions we have families ask is “why”.  “Why is it beneficial to talk with those professionals?”  This is a great question! There are multiple reasons we like to communicate with others. We see your child in your home and in one setting (one on one).  This is a place that is familiar and comfortable for them and family is with us during sessions. By reaching out and discussing with other providers, it gives us some of the following information:

• Getting an idea of how that child is engaging and interacting in a variety of settings (school/daycare vs home, one-on-one vs group, peers vs adult interactions)
• Find specific areas that a child is successful or having more difficulty in other environments
• Providing “homework” across environments to support generalization of learned skills in therapy
• Consistency with “expectations” of behaviors and goals
• Other areas that we can help support and generalize to home

We truly feel that when the team is on the same page, we can make such a bigger difference in progress and overall goals.  Allowing us to talk with other providers gives a more wholistic picture of your child as well and can help us in how we may structure our sessions and goals to help maximize the time we have with them! This looks different for all of the providers we communicate with! For some, it may be intermittent phone calls or emails.  For some of the kids I see, I send weekly emails to the team to provide both information about how the session went as well as what I gave for homework.  This helps greatly with generalization of skills!

If you have any hesitation about the team communicating, you can ask to be a part of all of those interactions as well! I always loop in my families so they are aware of what is being discussed! Ask us more questions if you have some additional hesitations or want more information about why a specific provider may be a good one to loop in to what they are working on in therapy!

-Amber-