About Movement Therapy
Club Aviva has many exciting opportunities for children with special needs, the primary offering being our Empowering Steps Movement Therapy. A highly specialized therapy program, Empowering Steps Movement Therapy, which typically consists of private one-to-one weekly therapy sessions. A more in depth description of this program is outlined below.
About Empowering Steps Movement Therapy (ESMT)
Movement Therapy is an innovative approach towards the treatment of Autism and other motor impairments such as cerebral palsy. It was designed by Vivien Symington (BA/BPHE Queen's University) who, through her work with a number of non-verbal, low functioning autistic children, recognized a connection between motor skill development and readiness for acquisition of other skills. She uses elements of Sensory Integration, Occupational therapy, ABA and DIR in a gym setting and draws inspiration from work on learning styles (Kolb learning styles), Brain Highways, Brain Gym and the work of Glenn and Janet Doman (Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential) to work on balance, bilateral integration, strength, motor development and planning, and self esteem.
What Does ESMT Target
Vivien and her team of therapists focus on each area of sensory processing by providing an environment rich in all sensory experiences - but pay particular attention to the vestibular and proprioceptive senses. We target gross motor development through a progressive seven stage curriculum which has a quantitative research based scale for measuring improvement. This scale is an active area of research, for more information see our Research page. The program also targets behavioral disorders, communication, relationship development, self regulation and attention.
Who Is It For
Austism Spectrum Disorder
Cerebral Palsy
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Global Developmental Delays
Developmental Delays
Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Seizure Disorder
How Do I Get Started
Each child has an initial assessment which is performed by a minimum of two therapists. The purpose of the assessment is to evaluate gross motor functioning and observe key areas of difficulty such as behavior, communication, cooperativeness, and relationship development. A secondary purpose is to identify activities that can act as reinforcers to promote participation for each child. Once these have been identified, a program is developed for each child which outlines their specific behavioural and motor development needs. Each target is broken down into its constituent parts and the team uses repetition and positive reinforcers to assess the effectiveness of the prescribed intervention. We use a system of visual communication to provide a pictorial representation of the treatment and to allow children the choice over the activity used for positive reinforcement when they are non-verbal. We recommend that children attend two 1/2 hour sessions per week for a minimum of twelve months.
About The Sessions
Each child is assigned a therapist who implements the program prescribed by Vivien and monitors the child's success on a daily basis. A log book for each child is established for daily note taking and an assessment is done every five months to monitor progress and revise the child's program as necessary. These reports may be done more frequently dependent on the success of the program. If there are behavioral issues or the child is finding the program to easy, more frequent adjustments will be made.
What Does ESMT Accomplish
This should be a summary with a link to the Benefits
The goal is to guide children from closed, disordered and inappropriate behavior into functional activity and social and communicative changes. Every child has a specialized program that is delivered either one-to-one or in small groups to allow both individual attention and opportunities for social interaction. Movement Therapy is similar to both Floortime and the Son-Rise Program in this respect as the student and therapist interact in an environment that is fun, showing the child that our world is beautiful and exciting, and using the child's natural excitement and enthusiasm to foster social interaction. Vivien reinforces and works with other professionals to encourage the child towards reading, writing, number concepts, symbolic play and meaningful inclusion within typical environments outside of the gym setting.
ESMT Results
Over the past ten years every child in this program has shown improvements. In our pilot data study done in 2011, every child in the research cohort improved in skills and 100% of the parents felt that the program benefited their child and that the effects of the program were beneficial outside of the gym. An even more powerful finding was that 80% of the parents surveyed felt that the program benefited their home life. The improvements range from an increase in motor skill development shown in Occupational Therapist reports to complete integration into typical class environments. In fact, most recently, a student who began the program as non-verbal with extensive behavioral challenges is now verbal and integrated into a pre-competitive gymnastics class.