In-person.  Distance learning.  Hybrid.  Homeschool.  Whatever your back-to-school looks like, Pine Tree Society’s Home and Community Support BHPs are here to help. Courtney Strout, the BHP Supervisor, explains how.

Q: What is Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support, who is eligible, and what kind of services does it provide?

A: Any child up to age 21 who has a developmental disability that impacts their everyday functioning is eligible for our services. Our behavioral professionals are trained to support your child in achieving the goals that are set for them by their team. Our BHP’s support with skill-building and activities of daily living and with behavior management.

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support assist children with distances learning or homeschooling?

A: If children are home during this distanced-learning time, our staff can come in and help work with behaviors that might be inhibiting them from being able to complete their school work. If your child is homeschooling, they may still have some behaviors that are occurring that are inhibiting them from getting their school work done and our staff can help teach replacement behaviors that will allow them to be able to focus more readily for their school work.

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support encourage community engagement and help children in making friends?

A: We have a lot supports around working with children for community safety, from things like learning how to play appropriately with their peers to learning about stranger danger. We spend a lot of time out in the community with children teaching them the appropriate skills to be happy, healthy members of society.

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support help to assure that children are still receiving necessary services if distance learning or homeschooling is occurring?

A: Some of those services might be online and we can help the child to be able to learn skills to attend to those online sessions. Some of those might be things that our staff can help carry over from the sessions that they learn in school and carry that over so that they have consistency when they’re in the home as well.

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support support children in making friends?

A: We do teach a lot of social skills as well. We teach kids how to interact with their peers appropriately, how to make friends, how to handle conflict among their friends and all sorts of things like that.

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support assist with online therapies?

A: With online therapies, we can help children to learn the skills necessary to be able to attend to those lessons. We can also do things before and after the lessons to help to prepare your child to be able to attend to those lessons

Q: How can Pine Tree Society’s In-Home Community Support help children who are experiencing regression and/or anxiety?

A: We have a lot of children who have a variety of different concerns and behaviors that might inhibit them from doing certain things from regression, to anxiety, to ADHD.  With every child, we meet them where they’re at and we teach them new skills necessary to help them manage their behaviors that are currently inhibiting them from accomplishing the things that they want to do