How we can help you

By continuously building, and compounding, the necessary skills for your child and decreasing disruptive behaviour, your child will become a member of the family and the community. Our comprehensive programs build skills necessary for all areas of life.

Below are three case studies outlining our successes.

IBI (Intensive Behavioural Intervention)

 

Case Study #1

Alex
Date of Birth: May 15, 2004
Began IBI with The Portia Learning Centre Inc. in November, 2006
Exited services March 2009

Testimonial: Lucie (Mom)

December 1, 2006 (age 2.5 years) after two months of IBI

January 2008 (age 3.5 years) after 13 months IBI

March 18, 2009 (age 4.75 years) After 2.5 years of IBI with Portia, lost diagnosis of ASD in March, 2009. Video of Alex playing with his Dad.

 

Case Study #2

Anthony
Date of Birth: January 5, 2006
Began services with Portia in September, 2008
Exited services October 2010

Testimonial: Angela (Mom) February 26, 2009

October 2008 (age 2.75 years) After two months of IBI

December 2008 (age 3 years) After four months of IBI

July 2009 (age 3.5 years) After ten months of IBI

May 2010 (age 4.5 years) After 18 months of IBI - Having snack with a typical peer, Helena.
(Helena is 9 months older than Anthony)

 

 

Case Study #3

James
Date of birth: October 25, 2004

James' parents sought IBI for their son prior to having a psychological assessment as they had concerns for their son's development.

April 2008 - Psychological Assessment indicated that "James' cognitive skills fell at the 2nd percentile and his adaptive skills at the 1st. He presented behaviours consistent with a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder."

March 2010 - Psychological Assessment states " James has made significant gains in several areas of development. As James no longer meets diagnostic criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder, he does not meet eligibility criteria for IBI services from Autism Intervention Programme - Eastern Ontario."
The following is an excerpt from this assessment: "Cognitive Functioning: "Overall, James' thinking and reasoning abilities fell in the Low Average range at the 16th percentile when compared to typically developing children his age. James' nonverbal and verbal thinking and reasoning skills were generally consistency with his overall score. Within the verbal domain (e.g. verbal problem solving), James' overall performance fell in the Average range at the 30th percentile. That it, compared to 100 children his age, 70 children obtained scores above his and 30 had scores below. Some variability across tasks was evidenced with all but one subset score falling in the average range. James demonstrated age appropriate skills in picture naming and providing word definitions, as well as age appropriate skills on a task on verbal reasoning that required him to describe relationships between characters in pictures and sort and classify objects in categories.... He also demonstrated age appropriate knowledge of quantitative concepts."

James began IBI with The Portia Learning Centre Inc. in November 2007, below is a timeline of his sessions and progress.

View ABLLS-R Overview (shows acquired skills from November 2007 to August 2010)

Brief overview: When James began therapy he was 3 years old and he was non-verbal. His fine and gross motor skills were delayed and he had difficulty understanding instructions. He engaged in ritualistic, repetitive play and did not engage in any social interactions with peers. His self help skills were below average and he was not toilet trained. His diet was limited to cola and apricot baby food. His lack of liquid and food intake was a major concern. He was not able to chew solid food at 3 years of age.
At discharge, James enagaged in pretend imaginative play with peers, ate a variety of solid foods and drank water, juice and milk. He was toilet trained and his expressive and recepitve language was in the average range for children his age.  
His therapy initially addressed the feeding and communication skills deficits. Within the first two years, James was speaking using one to two word utterances and eating solid food and could use the bathroom independently. His play and social skills were addressed in a group 1:1 setting with other children at Portia and a therapist attended a daycare with James 3 mornings per week to pratice social and play skills with neurotypical peers.  James was then transitioned into a classroom model to prepare him for school where he learned to follow classroom routines and group instructions. James entered grade one without support in September 2010.