When a child first receives an autism diagnosis, their family may not know which steps to take next or where to obtain accurate information. Since 2016, GentleCare Therapy has provided individualized services as well as education on how to help a child have a happy and healthy life regardless of where they stand in their journey. Offering their experienced care through in-home services, at their center and within the community, GentleCare Therapy serves the South Jersey area to provide pediatric developmental care to families where, when and how they are most comfortable.
Regardless of where its services are offered, they are always customized with enrichment, creativity and developmental guidance. Children are encouraged with tenderness, which best leads to motivation, growth and empowerment. The dedicated GentleCare Therapy professionals are cognizant of maintaining a sensory sensitive environment and abiding by Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques. Each child has a whole team rooting for them with GentleCare’s services, including a board-certified behavioral analyst and a behavioral technician.
“We look at each child, and we look at the goals that the family has—milestones and things like that—and we prepare and build programming based on that child. So, it may not look the same for each child. We really just meet them where they are in their journey, and build out the programming to fit their specific needs, family-specific needs and goals,” says Ashley Soskin, director of marketing and community engagement at GentleCare Therapy.
The naturalistic approach focuses on four major areas: increasing communication, promoting socialization, practicing adaptive skills and reducing challenging behaviors. GentleCare Therapy also offers caregiver training to emphasize consistency for the children within their care, furthermore collaborating with other involved professionals with permission. This includes doctors, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers and more.
“Our clinical team is phenomenal, and I could not say enough good things about them, just in the programming that they create, and how they're very on top of research and just what's going on in the world of ABA. We do share anything that we see that could be helpful research or information or resources. We have a newsletter that we send out internally…and so we really try to stay on top of things and then implement it where we see fit,” affirms Soskin.
Helping children with their motor skill, communicative and social development at a young age allows them to both find confidence and create a toolbox of essential mechanisms to carry with them throughout their lives, sooner. Compassion is one of the top attributes a family should look for when seeking services for their child, as positive influence fosters a safe environment to learn and to grow. Similarly, GentleCare Therapy also incorporates fun into their programming and is catered to the desires of each child while still maintaining structure.
“It's really hands-on learning, so adapting skill usage to daily living,” Soskin explains. “If the child wants to go read a book, how do we incorporate that into regulating emotions? If an emotion comes up, how do we deescalate that to where they can move past it? We also do imaginative play, arts and crafts, things like that. It's really just like what you would see in a typical preschool environment where they incorporate a bunch of different skills and ways to learn new things.”
At the certified autism treatment center in Gibbsboro, GentleCare Therapy features a state-of-the-art sensory play gym with swings, an obstacle course, and a play tunnel that provide open play opportunities to the community. This helps children with their motor skills as well as socialization as they build confidence to ask for assistance and play with other children. Other amenities include an art room; quiet, treatment and training rooms; and a library with sensory storytimes that are also brought to the Waterford Township Public Library to reach other children who may benefit from GentleCare Therapy’s programming.
“It's important for me to foster community partnerships and I take great pride in that. For instance, we're partnering with a local pediatric dentist for patients who have special needs, and his wife dresses up as a tooth fairy for storytime,” Soskin illustrates.
GentleCare Therapy reaches the community by providing their services at local schools and daycares. Community workshops include the free monthly Navigating Autism Workshop Series offered in-person and virtually. Other workshops hosted by GentleCare Therapy are geared toward all local families, with topics such as social media safety.
Soskin says that the best time to get started with GentleCare Therapy is whenever the time feels right, with open enrollment year round. Once a parent or guardian makes the call, a care coordinator will provide the necessary information and paperwork.
“I can't say it enough, and I see firsthand how passionate and dedicated our team is when they're providing that one-on-one care. That's really what it is about at the end of the day: Your passion drives you, and it drives us to really create that success for families and the outcomes that they want to see,” Soskin says. “We really like to help the family throughout the entire process and be there with them. We're very hands on, and I think that's really important.”
GentleCare Therapy
Gibbsboro, N.J.
(856) 484-5335
GentleCareTherapy.com
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Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 21, Issue 5 (August 2024)
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