ABA/IBI
​ABA stands for Applied Behaviour Analysis which is a scientific process to identify the functional relations between observable behaviour and environmental context.  ABA uses this information to design interventions to enhance social and personal well being.  ABA is based on objective evaluation and empirically based interventions to achieve meaningful, generalizable and enduring behaviours.(Condensed from ONTABA Standards of Practice)

IBI stands for Intensive Behavioural Intervention which refers to the application of principles of ABA in an intensive setting (minimum 25 hours per week) to result in behaviour change and improvement.

Alert Program
“How Does Your Engine Run?”® The Alert Program® for Self-Regulation was developed by two Occupational Therapists in the United States and is now taught and used internationally! This program teaches children that their engines can run in high, low and just right and that all speeds are good but sometimes we need to be in a certain speed to get the job done. The Alert Program® provides children with the language and concepts to start the process of self-regulation. It teaches them strategies to help the change their engine speed so they can listen, learn and participate.

Anat Baniel Method
The Anat Baniel Method is a science-based, breakthrough approach that focuses on the child’s brain and its remarkable abilities to change and learn. NeuroMovement® is a holistic approach to human functioning and action, based in the understanding that movement is the language of the brain. Movement provides information the brain needs to grow and organize itself. And, in return, the brain organizes all movement, thought, feelings, and action.
As the brain goes, so goes the body, and as the body goes, so goes the brain.
Movement includes not only movement of the body in space—the movement of the skeleton and muscles—but also the movement of thinking, emotion, and feelings. All action involves movement in all aspects of the self.
Movement Is the Language of the Brain
With NeuroMovement, the person is seen as an integrated, highly complex system, where movement is the language of the brain and the mechanism through which we live, survive, and thrive.
The idea that the body and the mind are one has been advocated now for quite some time. Yet most people still think of “the body,” or “physical movement” as separate, different, and independent from “mental” activity such as thinking, emotions, beliefs, feelings, and social behaviors.
Many people find it hard to comprehend how physical movement can help form and enhance thinking and vice versa. In actual practice, many interventions, such as different therapies and fitness programs, approach the physical as a separate entity from the mental.
It is only after we have learned how to move and to think, and interact socially, that we can forget the intimate relationship and the oneness of mind and body.
You take away movement, there is no thinking; you take away thinking, there is no movement. And if you take away feeling, there is no action. It all works as one highly complex system

Astronaut Therapy
It is a sensory integrative protocol that is designed to stimulate and integrate the vestibular, visual, and auditory systems.  The protocol should only be implemented by a trained occupational therapist with fundamental understanding in sensory integration.
Children with vestibular processing dysfunction have poor motor coordination skills, may be have poor balance, be fearful of movement, awkward, clumsy, fall and bump into things.

Conductive Education
Teaches children and adults with physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, dyspraxia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, stroke and head injury how to overcome their movement difficulties. Conductive Education is a systematic and holistic approach to develop problem- solving skills through an educational program for people with cerebral palsy and motor disorders. It is not a therapy, but a multidisciplinary system that enhances the child’s physical, cognitive, social skills and emotional wellbeing.

Constraint Therapy
Constraint therapy aims to improve the hand and arm use of children with hemiplegia. It involves physical constraint of the uninvolved or less affected arm to increase the use of the more involved or affected arm. This type of therapy has been successful in children with hemiplegia (or asymmetric upper extremity motor difficulties). Constraint therapy is also sometimes referred to as constraint induced movement therapy (CIMT) and constraint induced therapy (CIT) in the literature

Craniosacral Therapy
CST theory and practice is based on understanding the continuous subtle movements of the cranial bones, which result in a rhythm of approximately six to twelve cycles per minute. This rhythm is understood as a response to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) fluctuations within the spinal cord and brain environment. The subtle movement extends outward to the entire body, in response to the fluid pressure changes around the CNS.

Cuevas Medek Exercises
Cuevas MEDEK Exercises (CME) is a pediatric physiotherapy technique which was developed by Ramon Cuevas. It is used to stimulate postural and dynamic motor control in children who have, or are at risk for, developmental abnormalities or delays. Among the children who may benefit are premature babies, children with cerebral palsy, hypotonia, motor delays caused by any non-degenerative disease and children with global developmental delay or with a brain injury.
By gradually exposing the child to gravity via specific exercises, CME tries to provoke the absent but normally automatic motor responses. Treatment may start as young as three months of age to many years after birth.
Depending on the type of distal and full body holds the CME  therapist needs to use, this therapy may be limited by the child’s size and weight.
The child’s cooperation and motivation are not requisites in CME physical therapy. Muscles are trained in postural and functional tasks rather than in isolation, and tight muscles are stretched in dynamic situations.

Feldenkrais
The Feldenkrais Method® uses a unique combination of gentle exercises and body awareness training to actually improve communication between the brain and the body to restore efficiency and pleasure in movement.

Floortime/DIR
The Floortime Approach (DIR) is a highly effective treatment approach that focuses on the interactive process with the child.  There is an emphasis on the interaction between the child and the parent/caregiver, with the goal being directed toward developing attention and regulation, mutual engagement, purposeful interaction with gestures and problem solving, elaboration of ideas and building bridges between ideas.  The Floortime (DIR) approach is appropriate for children who have difficulties in all or some of these areas of development; it is also wonderful as a philosophy of interaction with all children.  This approach recognizes that a child’s functional emotional capacities and individual difference influence development through the medium of the child-caregiver relationship.  The child brings his individual differences into the interaction patterns in order to negotiate and hopefully master each of the core functional developmental capacities. 

​Handwriting Without Tears​Developmentally based handwriting program

​Hanen program
The It Takes Two to Talk Program is designed specifically for parents of young children (birth to 5 years of age) who have been identified as having a language delay. In a small, personalized group setting, parents learn practical strategies to help their children learn language naturally throughout their day together.

Hippotherapy/ Therapeutic Riding
Hippotherapy / therapeutic riding is a physical and social activity that teaches cooperation with people and animals. It provides an opportunity to share experiences with both disabled and able-bodied riders. Riding is mentally and physically stimulating, enhances alertness and the ability to concentrate, and helps to increase self-awareness and self-confidence. The rhythmic three-dimensional movement of horseback riding benefits the rider by promoting general physical fitness, normalizing muscle tone, improving balance, reactions and strengthening muscles. 

Hippotherapy – is treatment by an OT or PT while the client is on the horse.  (There are very few therapists qualified to do this in Ontario)
Therapeutic Riding – is the sport of horseback riding with adaptions for the disabled (The overseeing agency for this is the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association (CanTra)).
Equine Facilitated Wellness – is the use of horses for psychosocial treatment.

Kinesiotaping
Kinesiotape holds a joint in optimal position to help an overstretched or overworked muscle to rest and return to its most efficient length.
It Keeps a body part in better alignment helps the muscles contract and work in a less stressful fashion during daily activities.
It is also used to increase input to the skin around a specific muscle or joint. With this new proprioceptive input, more awareness of that body part leads to more strength. Sometimes it is used to help relax an overused muscle which helps reduce pain and swelling and to improve lymphatic flow and reduce edema and bruising, allowing for accelerated healing

​M.O.R.E
MORE is an acronym for Motor components, Oral organization, Respiratory demands, and Eye contact and control; elements of toys and items that can be used to facilitate integration of the mouth with sensory and postural development, as well as self-regulation and attention.

Neurodevelopmental Therapy (NDT)
NDT is a holistic and interdisciplinary clinical practice model informed by current and evolving research that emphasizes individualized therapeutic handling based on movement analysis for habilitation and rehabilitation of individuals with neurological pathophysiology. Using the ICF model, the therapist applies a problem-solving approach to assess activity and participation to identify and prioritize relevant integrities and impairments as a basis for the establishment of achievable outcomes with clients and caregivers. An in-depth understanding of typical and atypical development, and expertise in analysis of postural control, movement, activity, and participation throughout the lifespan, form the basis for examination, evaluation, and intervention. Therapeutic handling, used during evaluation and intervention, consists of a dynamic reciprocal interaction between the client and therapist for activation of optimal sensorimotor processing, task performance, and skill acquisition for achievement of participation in meaningful activities.​

PROMPT Therapy
PROMPT is an acronym for Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets. The technique is a tactile-kinesthetic approach that uses touch cues to a patient’s articulators (jaw, tongue, lips) to manually guide them through a targeted word, phrase or sentence. The technique develops motor control and the development of proper oral muscular movements, while eliminating unnecessary muscle movements, such as jaw sliding and inadequate lip rounding.

Osteopathy
Osteopathy is a form of drug-free non-invasive manual medicine that focuses on total body health by treating and strengthening the musculoskeletal framework, which includes the joints, muscles and spine. Its aim is to positively affect the body’s nervous, circulatory and lymphatic systems.

This therapy is a unique holistic (whole body) approach to health care. Osteopaths do not simply concentrate on treating the problem area, but use manual techniques to balance all the systems of the body, to provide overall good health and wellbeing.

Rhythmic Movement
 Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) explores the role of babies’ natural developmental movements during various stages of development:
Before birth
The first six months after birth
As they get up on their hands and knees
As they learn to walk
These movements are crucial for laying down the foundations of neural network pathway growth and myelination in the brain. They are also important for establishing head control, muscle tone and posture, the basis of our ability to move through life with ease and choice.
RMT works with integrating the retained, or underdeveloped, infant reflexes (also called primitive reflexes or neo-natal reflexes) that are involved in learning challenges such as ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, writing problems, focussing and comprehension challenges, co-ordination difficulties and Asperger’s Syndrome.

​Sensory Integration Therapy
​A form of occupational therapy in which special exercises are used to strengthen the patient’s sense of touch (tactile), sense of balance (vestibular), and sense of where the body and its parts are in space (proprioceptive). It appears to be effective for helping patients with movement disorders or severe under- or over-sensitivity to sensory input.

SOS Feeding Approach
The SOS Approach focuses on increasing a child’s comfort level by exploring and learning about the different properties of food and allows a child to interact with food in a playful, non-stressful way, beginning with the ability to tolerate the food in the room and in front of him/her; then moving on to touching, kissing, and eventually tasting and eating foods.

SPIRAL PRAXIS SOMATIC RE-EDUCATION
Spiral Praxis is a natural, holistic somatic intervention that is designed to help children recover or improve their motor potential through experiential motor activities. Developed by former dancers Stephanie Gottlob and YujiOka, Spiral Praxis places emphasis on starting the motor learning process based on a child’s individual learning styles. The original interventions consists of 3 main areas of activity 1. manual bodywork and stretching; 2. developmental movement activities; 3. Creative movement exploration. Many of the interventions incorporate contemporary bodymind techniques to help children accelerate the process of learning through both conscious and unconscious assimilation. In private sessions children are presented with a highly individualized learning environment where they can revisit the developmental milestones of infancy; group sessions, children are also taught pre-academic skills to help them work with their peers and understand basic rule structures that will be needed in the classroom. Spiral praxis for children has been used successfully for children with a wide range of conditions including sever disabilities, autism, ADHD, developmental delays, Down Syndrome, cerebral Palsy and emotional/behavioral challenges.

​Suit Therapy
Intensive suit therapy provides a child proper posture, muscle tone and patterns of movement impaired by disability. It’s a complex intervention made of an orthotic suit that has strategically-placed bungee cords adjusted in a manner to affect typical flexor and extensor muscle groups. The entire suit acts as a soft exoskeleton that corrects abnormal muscle tone and re-trains a person’s brain to recognize correct muscle movements. Intensive suit therapy focuses on repetition of movement – involving progressive resistance exercises – and developmental skills to train and retrain the brain, allowing movement to become both normalized and automatic. It can accelerate children’s progress in sensory processing and motor skills through strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, coordination, vestibular, and enhanced functional skill training. Children who undergo intensive therapy acquire skills like rolling, crawling, sitting, standing and walking, which they may not be able to achieve with traditional therapy or would take many months or years to achieve.

Therapeutic Listening
​Therapeutic listening is an evidence-based auditory intervention intended to support individuals who experience challenges with sensory processing dysfunction, listening, attention and communication. The children who truly need this kind of therapy are those who lack the ability to respond, understand and process sounds. These “listening difficulties” are connected to a variety of other potential problems, as well: undeveloped motor skills, attention/perceptual deficits, learning disabilities, etc. (if motor skills are a primary concern, this course on training the athletic brain takes a unique approach through brain science and skill acquisition).

Theratogs
TheraTogs are orthotic garment systems designed to provide gentle, prolonged muscle stretch and alignment guidance that replicates the manual positioning and supervised therapy that the rehab clinician offers in a typical session.

Wilbarger protocol
The Wilbarger Protocol is a therapy program designed to reduce sensory or tactile defensiveness. Children who exhibit symptoms of tactile defensiveness are extremely sensitive to touch.