Reviewing Our Program


It is best to thoroughly read this website, especially the overview, and glance at my private practice website (http://www.bgalephd.com) to gain a sense of how we organize and run the program. The intial portion of the assessment starts with a telephone consult, generally lasting between 10-20 minutes. If you feel satisfied that this program is likely to meet the needs of your child and I feel there is a good chance they can benefit from participating, we proceed to arranging for an in-office meeting.

Referral Process


Families are typically referred by the Regional Center, their medical doctor or therapist, or sometimes by a family or friend who has heard of our program. We also occasionally receive referrals from local school districts.

Your child must be able to demonstrate the following:

  1. Cognitive level must be above the level of impairment, so they can understand and follow program activiites; (or case by case determination by Dr. Gale)
  2. Reading skills must be at a second grade level or higher;
  3. Must be able to remain seated for at least short periods of time (e.g., 5-10 minutes)
  4. Can read and understand pedestrian signs and signals
  5. No active psychosis or substance abuse
  6. No violent behavior at school within the past six months

①

Phone Contact

It's helpful to speak with parents to review the kinds of areas they wish to have the program address. This also includes a review of the exclusion criteria, above. Once it appears that the child and program appear to be a good match, families contact our office to review financial elements and to set up for our online interview via Rapid Screener and for an in-office meeting.

③

Office Meeting

Kids usually like visiting a psychologist’s office about as much as they enjoy seeing the dentist, however this is a pretty painless meeting. The main goal is for your child (and you) to view the office setup, which is uniquely designed to support the group program and to provide me with an opportunity to meet your child and informally assess basic language and attention skills.

②

Rapid Screener

Rapid Screener is an online interview that reviews common behaviors associated with school and academic success plus interfering behaviors. The latter provides us with a detailed parent view of those areas to target during sessions, allows us to conduct behavior analysis at the group level, and serves as a baseline for further data collection.