Pride for Kids Family Therapy Center
The Place Where Children & Families SucceedTM
Parents Receiving Intensive Developmental Education
To advance children’s success through developmental activities and parent education while equipping families with the knowledge and skills to advocate for continued success.
The PRIDE program has Expanded!
Previously the PRIDE program was limited to families who have children with special needs between the ages of birth and three. However, thanks in part to a community–partnership grant from the United Way of Columbia-Willamette, it is now able to help families with special needs children between the ages of birth and seven.
“This is an important shift,” said Barbara Loucks, director of the Arc Family Center. “The vision of our Board is to grow the Center into a place where families will come from birth through adults. This is a step forward in doing that.”
Started in the 1970’s by our current board president Kay Parks and Judy Marick the same philosophies that characterized those early years still will play a major part in the new operations
Wondering exactly what PRIDE does, what it stands for or why it is so important? PRIDE is an acronym for Parents Receiving Intensive Developmental Education. One of the key elements is the emphasis on parents. PRIDE strives to teach parents how to incorporate not only physical therapies into their child’s everyday routine but also, if needed, how to incorporate speech therapies as well. Therapists and special education teachers plan specific curriculums for each family in an attempt to help their child thrive in their own environment. PRIDE also stands apart from your common physical or speech therapy clinic by not scheduling appointments back to back throughout the day and thus allowing a more calm and family oriented experience. This additional time of at least 30 minutes between sessions allows therapists to discuss the major challenges the family is facing, plan future appointments and curriculums or answer any additional questions.
”We are thrilled to make this bold move and launch the new program,” said Loucks.“For some time now the PRIDE program motto and major goal has been to ’Be the place where children and families succeed’ and with this expansion we have changed the landscape. We hope that the children and their families can grow leaps and bounds and get the start they need to truly achieve a lifetime of success.”
Services Provided
- Occupational Therapy
- Speech/Language Therapy
- Specialized Instruction
- Parent and Family Education
- Workshops
- Training/Classes
- Specialized instruction in Early Intervention
- Parent Support, Training & Networking
- Feeding and swallowing therapies
- Neuro-Deveopmental Treatment
- Individual sessions and/or small groups
- Specialized classes
- Advocacy and Empowerment
The Pride Staff
Director - Barbara Loucks – barbaral@arcofclarkcounty.org
Administrative Coordinator – Leslie Davies – leslied@arcofclarkcounty.org
Receptionist – Jessica Merchant – jessicam@arcofclarkcounty.org
Medical Billing Specialist – Christine Douglas – christined@arcofclarkcounty.org
Special Education Teacher – Heather Schwartz M.S.Ed – heathers@arcofclarkcounty.org
Physical Therapist – Ryan Jacobson,PT – ryanj@arcofclarkcounty.org
Physical Therapist – Erin Bompiani, PT – erinb@arcofclarkcounty.org
Speech Language Pathologist – Jacque Direcks, SLP – jacqued@arcofclarkcounty.org
Speech Language Pathologist – Mary Kilway, SLP – maryk@arcofclarkcounty.org
Speech Language Pathologist – Angela Paterson, SLP – angelap@arcofclarkcounty.org
Speech Language Pathologist – Lee Moser, SLP – leem@arcofclarkcounty.org
Occupational Therapist – Jeanne Farber, OT – jeannef@arcofclarkcounty.org
Occupational Therapist – Jill Sivinski - jills@arcofclarkcounty.org
Who is Early Childhood Special Education Teacher?
Early Childhood Special Education addresses a child’s overall development in a variety of learning areas. Early childhood special education has an emphasis in cognition, adaptive, and social/emotional development. Cognition can be defined as a child’s thinking and problem solving skills, adaptive focuses on areas such as feeding, dressing, and daily life skills. The social domain of learning focuses on how a child interacts with adults, children and the social world. As early childhood special educators it is our goal to teach parents, siblings, and other caregivers how to implement functional learning strategies in to their daily life so that a child with developmental delays can be successful. Early childhood special educators have a variety of backgrounds in child development from an Associates degree to a Master degree in child development and education. We also hold a state certified license as professional educators.
Who is a Physical Therapist (PT)?
Pediatric Physical Therapy is the treatment of children with physical delays and disabilities by a licensed professional physical therapist who is educated and trained in the diagnosis treatment of children with physical disabilities. The goal of a PT is to improve care and provide a treatment program to obtain or restore the highest level of independence and function in quality of movement, walking, strength and endurance, gross motor skills, posture, positioning for functional skills, coordination, and mobility for the child with a disability.
Who is an Occupational Therapist (OT)?
Pediatric Occupational Therapy is the treatment of children with physical, emotional, and/or intellectual delays and disabilities age birth to 21 by a licensed occupational therapist educated in a variety of diagnoses and therapies for such children. The goal of an OT is to help make learning possible by helping children develop the underlying skills that will lead to independence in personal, social, academic, and vocational activities. This includes remediation of difficulties the child may encounter with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) such as dressing, grooming, feeding, etc.
Who is a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP)?
Speech Therapy addresses the child’s complete communicative needs. This often begins with the development of non-verbal communicative skills such as attending to the speaker and the activity, taking turns, and making appropriate eye contact. It is designed to help with speech disorder, often referred to as articulation and phonological disorders – problems with the way sounds are made or how sounds are sequenced to form words; oral-motor problems resulting in difficulty producing speech sounds; and delays in feeding and/or swallowing skills. A speech-language pathologist is a specialist in the normal development of human communication. The Certificate of Clinical Competency (CCC) assures you that speech-language pathologist has been qualified to provide clinical services by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA).
