Best Pals services

BEST PALS is set up to deliver their services in a "natural" environment - meaning that all environments and learning events will be utilized, as well as designing learning situations to meet the child's and family's needs. Services are based in the home and in the community to address goals in the areas of social, behavioral, educational, sensory, parenting and life skills.

BEST PALS staff are trained and educated to recommend and teach activities individually with the family or in a group setting, if peer or social activity is a targeted goal. Depending on a child's needs, and goals, the staff will set up a necessary training ratio - usually one-to-one.

Parent training is essential to functional skills training and parent involvement is an important and required element. Ongoing participation in this service is always based on the parents ability to show progress with goals enabling them to maintain and generalize behaviors across environments.

Parents begin to work with their child as soon as they enter the program. Parents may be trained in several areas depending on personal needs and targeted objectives. New skills and behaviors are more readily utilized, effectively generalized, and maintained over time with parent education.

Perhaps the most important key to the success of the program is the foundation of the team approach. This involves collaboration of all agencies involved with the child and the family which will then encourage a continuity of services, the maintenance of desired outcomes beyond the completion of the program, and avoid the duplication of targeted behaviors.

At the end of a child's time in the BEST PALS program, the following criteria will have been met:

1. Targeted behaviors are brought to developmentally appropriate levels and are maintained.
2. The child will demonstrate the ability to maintain the targeted behaviors.
3. Family/client chooses to discontinue services.
4. Agency funding ceases.
5. Repeated cancellation on the part of the family.
6. Child is referred to another agency for continuation of services.

BEST PALS services are provided 12 months a year to ensure continuance of care, respecting national and regional center observed holidays. Service hours will be Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm with expanded hours determined on an individual basis. We may make an after- hours appointment with a parent who cannot otherwise participate directly. The actual weekly schedule for the services are designed to meet the needs of the family and will vary accordingly, from staff to staff and family to family.

We are excited to begin this program, and continue to work with all of our families to extend the best and most appropriate services to each child.