These classes are designed to provide infants ages 10-16 months and 16-24 months with an opportunity to learn how to participate in group activities with the support of their caregivers. The goal is to maximize learning through observation, build friendships and encourage sensory exploration and problem solving.

Note: Class for both typically developing and nontypically developing children.

Specifics

Cost: 4 consecutive sessions for $35. No make ups allowed. At least 8 families needed for class initiation. Paypal, cash or check accepted.
All caregivers welcome (mom, dad, grandma, nanny).
Date/Time: Visit our Facebook page for current dates and times.
Length: 45min-1hour
Location: 4880 Market St. Ventura, CA 93003
Contact: Nicolette Gonzalez
Phone: (805) 644-STAR (7827)

Activities include (some will remain constant while other will change):

Children are encouraged to participate in the group as their developmental age allows. Those not participating can enjoy free play away from the group.
~ Time will be left for caregivers to connect before leaving ~

Blooming STAR provides evidenced based intervention for children exhibiting a) communication b) social, c) cognitive delays d) motor delays e) feeding/sensory difficulties and/or e) behavioral challenges.

At Blooming STAR we strive to:

1. Provide families with the tools necessary to provide them a sense of confidence and competence about their child's current and future learning through providing systematic goal-based parent education for parents of children exhibiting delays or challenges and providing parent education on accessing resources to sustain their child's progress.
2. Increase the efficiency of effective, quality early intervention by providing evidenced based intervention through a team of experts in the fields of Early Intervention, Communication, Occupational Health, Special Education and Risk Studies and Behavior Management.
3. Help parents and their children to participate in community outings at a rate equal to families without children with disabilities and,
4. Enhance the transition process by providing data based information to other providers on child progress and developmental level as well as on parent participation and progress if child is found eligible for special education.

Blooming STAR also provides comprehensive developmental assessments to determine eligibility.

1. Help you to identify naturally occurring opportunities to teach communication skills, social skills, cognitive skills, motor skills and adaptive living skills.
2. We will teach you ways to manage your child's temper tantrums and/or other challenging behaviors.
3. We will teach you how to advocate for your child by representing their strengths and needs and teaching others in your child's life to implement the strategies you learn to ensure consistency across settings.
4. We will teach you to access resources in their community in order to sustain your child's progress after exiting from the program.

What types of skills does Blooming STAR target?

Communication Skills. This includes learning to talk, building vocabulary, responding to directions and augmentative communication skills if needed.

Social Skills. This includes learning to respond to joint attention (a behavior highly correlated with language development), learning to play with other children and to respond, initiate and take turns with them. This also includes learning to imitate which is an important skill necessary for all learning.

Self Regulation. This includes learning to transition without becoming upset, learning to be apart from a parent without becoming upset, learning to wait for desired items and learning to communicate "help" or "stop" instead of becoming upset.

Adaptive Living Skills. This includes learning feeding skills, dressing skills, self-care skills (e.g. tooth brushing). It also includes learning to clean up after playing, learning to play independently for an appropriate amount of time and potty training.

Gross Motor Skills. This includes learning to walk, climb, use stairs, ride a tricycle, kick, throw and catch a ball.

Fine motor Skills. This includes learning to use a spoon/fork, learning to hold and scribble with a crayon or other writing utensil, learning to pick up and/open small objects, manipulate toys, and string beads.

Cognitive/Play Skills. This includes learning to play appropriately with toys, attend to a story or activity identify concepts in books, sort and match items by category and copy lines and eventually shapes.

Sensory Sensitivities: This includes learning to tolerate different textures and sounds and introducing new foods into the child's diet.

Extremely successful and evidence-based Behavioral Intervention Procedures are utilized to target all of the aforementioned skills.