COVID-19 Note: Children and adolescents with typical academic functioning may be experiencing emotional and behavioral difficulties due to the stress related to COVID-19. Their academic lives have been turned upside down as they have switched to online learning. Their home environments have likely changed significantly, as parents may be trying to work from home as well. Children may need extra parental support with online learning, while parents may not be able to provide it as they are struggling to complete their work online as well. Parents may have lost their jobs, which increases stress levels in the home.
Furthermore, children's and teen's social relationships have been altered as they can no longer see their friends in person. The information children may see on television, as well as the information they gather through altered family interactions, represent an increased sense of uncertainty for the foreseeable future. All these simultaneous changes in the home environment may cause new forms of stress. Children and teens may react by regressing to earlier stages of development or by exhibiting increased emotional and behavioral difficulties. StepStone is available to offer therapy to help individuals and their families during this time via a HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing platform. Also, please see StepStone's BLOG for COVID- 19 information and age-appropriate ways to talk to your children.
In addition to therapeutic services related to COVID-19, many children or teens who are assessed with learning or attention difficulties at StepStone continue with recommended individual therapy to decrease emotional and/or behavioral difficulties that may be related to their area of difficulty.
Students with learning difficulties acquire strategies to decrease anxious and/or depressive thoughts and increase behavioral regulation, while students with attention difficulties learn skills to help decrease problematic behaviors. StepStone follows best-practice guidelines to provide Cognitive Behavioral and Solution Focused therapies along with executive functioning training to help increase emotional well-being and ability to focus, plan and organize student’s environment and acquire life skills necessary for academic and personal success.
During therapy sessions, students interact with the clinician to complete various activities. Many activities may seem to be play-based to the student, yet they are designed to encourage the student to talk. Other activities are more structured to further develop areas of weakness and/or difficulty. A private waiting room is available for parents/siblings during therapy sessions.
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