Clinical Insights

With the guidance of Dr. Mark Palmieri, Nichole Collins helped CCSN to launch NeuroCare services for the first time in the Spring of 2021. That’s right! We started this work when the world had its doors largely closed to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Alongside Drs. Felicia Morgan and Kristen Powers, the brainstorming and work began to organize how to be helpful to adults and families wanting supports in the State of CT in the areas of acquired brain injury (ABI) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

When you have a brain injury or autism, you may have a whole team of people willing to speak up for you. Though these team members may have good intentions and/or professional experience, your voice should be heard clearly. This isn’t easy for everyone. Frustration or fear may get in the way making it harder to know what they want. We have a few strategies that may help you to have stronger voice in your person-centered meetings or discussions.

Growing into adulthood often means becoming more independent in different aspects of our lives. Despite, knowing how to do certain skills, some people still fail to take the lead on their own lives and activities. If you are struggling to help someone increase their motivation, here are some things that may help.

CCSN: The Center for Children with Special Needs is excited to announce its expansion into Farmington in the Spring of 2022. CCSN, currently based in Glastonbury, CT, has been providing educational consultation, evaluation, and treatment services supporting individuals with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders, across the lifespan. Opening a new location in Farmington will provide expanded access to patients and families in the Farmington Valley in addition to the families that we currently serve out of our Glastonbury offices.

For many years our families have asked us to consider opening other locations to help ease travel challenges and make high quality services available to those who may not be able to drive to Glastonbury.

Social skills are the gateway to happiness and all of life’s interactions. Work, school, relationships, and even buying food at the grocery store all require social skills. Yes, even the self-check out requires a certain level of social skills. They are everywhere! How do we know what to teach and when?

At CCSN, we are excited to provide a new clinical service for very young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder between the ages of 12 to 48 months using the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). ESDM is a developmental behavioral teaching model that emphasizes integrating the child’s interests into learning sessions based on a developmental curriculum.

We’ve developed a robot to provide efficient and relevant training to improve users’ tolerance to interruptions. We expect users will improve their tolerance for work-related interruptions where, with consistent practice, interruptions will become less disruptive, allowing them to return to their original task more quickly.

HARTFORD (July 8, 2021)—A federal appellate court has ruled that the federal court in Connecticut was correct when it decided last year that special education students have a right to a free, appropriate public education until they reach the age of 22. The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, came today in a lawsuit that had challenged Connecticut’s state law as being in conflict with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that protects the rights of students with disabilities.

Your child’s Individualized Educational Program, or IEP, is one of the most important parts of their education. The IEP provides the specifics of what instruction should include, what will be taught, and how success will be measured. It also includes those accommodations, supports, and modifications that must be provided based on your child’s individual needs in order for him/her to access and benefit from the educational plan that has been developed.