We are SO excited to share that we have partnered with Options Northwest to utilize their amazing Rheal's Room (a Snoezelen room located in their centre).

Rheal's family graciously funded a significant amount towards this room as a tribute to his life, for people of all ages in our community to use.

Halle will be able to see current clients at the centre using this room, for no extra fee. We are hoping to have more HAEPI staff trained soon, to see clients here as well!

Halle's current clients can reach out to her about these sessions. She is so excited to see kids in this amazing room!

And just like that... HAEPI SLP participated in our very first golf tournament fundraiser in support of Autism Northwest! We had a blast and were so inspired by @singlehandgolf_ 's story and advocacy (not to mention extremely impressed with his golf skills)!

We can't wait for next year!

Let's talk pronoun reversal in gestalt language processors.

As a parent, you may have wondered why your child always seems to confuse "I" and "you"? As an SLP, you maybe have wondered, how do we target this? When we understand that our GLPs are picking up verbatim utterances from adult models that they have attached meaning to (as their gestalts), it makes a lot of sense!

When we honour and understand these utterances without trying to change them, and instead change how WE model language, that's when we will see a shift happen.

We can expect NOT to see kids began to tease apart these pronouns on their own until stages 3-4, so we don't want to rush it. Instead, focus on modelling from the child's perspective or a joint perspective (e.g., "we are ____"; "let's go _____").

Have questions about pronoun reversal in GLPs? Drop them below!

What happens when you have the evening off while up North providing SLP services?

You go to the Arctic ocean of course!

Miigwech for taking us out!

We could not be more thrilled to now be offering in-person Occupational Therapy (OT) in Thunder Bay!

Occupational Therapy (OT) is a client-centered health profession that focuses on promoting health and well-being through occupation. Occupation refers to the everyday activities that people need, want, or are expected to do. For a paediatric population, treatment areas include:

• Fine motor skills
• Printing/keyboarding skills
• Sensory needs and challenges
• Play skills
• Social participation skills
• Self-care skills (e.g., dressing, sleep, toileting, etc.)
• Life skills (e.g., self advocacy, safety, planning/time management, etc.)
• Emotional regulation
• Executive functioning
• Equipment & strategy recommendations (e.g., OAP Letters of Recommendations, letters of support, etc.)

The primary goal of OT is to enable all individuals to participate in the activities of everyday life!

To learn more about our Occupational Therapy services, check out the new page on our website here.

Our first in-person OT, Angela "Ange" Jewett, has been providing OT services in the District of Thunder Bay for the past 15 years. She believes in client-centred, neurodiversity-affirming, & play based therapy - which we could not be more excited about! (Click here to meet Ange and the rest of our team!)

OT services are often covered by extended healthcare benefits, and can also be accessed with Ontario Autism Program (OAP) funding.

If interested in getting started with OT, please email [email protected]!