Services

Individual & Family Therapy

Comprehensive Evaluations and Understandable Reports

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

What is PRT?

PRT is one of the most widely researched, evidence-based practices for the treatment of autism.  By focusing on family support and on the education of children with autism in community environments and classrooms with their typically developing peers, PRT teaches parents to be the best therapist for their child. Because the techniques are based on using naturally-occurring learning opportunities to increase the child with autism's motivation to interact and communicate, generalization of skills occurs quickly.  Because parents are vital and primary members of the child's therapy team, parent stress has been shown to decrease as a result of PRT, as parents experience their role in bringing about their child's recovery.

Growing from the body of literature from applied behavior analysis (ABA), PRT is an evidence-based treatment for children with autism that has resulted in outcome data reflecting that approximately 90% of children who were nonverbal at age 3, learned to speak by age 5. 

PRT differs from other versions of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatments that focus on discrete trial training. PRT focuses on using naturally-occurring objects and activities that the child finds enjoyable to teach motivation, language skills, and improve behavior.

PRT differs from other play-based treatments because it is grounded in well-designed clinical research that has been conducted over the past 20 years showing PRT to be effective.  It is recognized by the National Academy of Sciences as one of the most effective, scientifically-based, empirically-supported treatments for children with autism. 

The Chicago Children’s Clinic was chosen by the University of California, Santa Barbara to be a PRT Replication Site. Dr. Daniels collaborates regularly with researchers and clinicians at UCSB to continually improve the quality of the treatment services we provide.  Dr. Daniels personally oversees the treatment of every child with autism in our practice.  To our knowledge, we are the only practice in Illinois certified in the provision of PRT and the training of parents and other clinicians in how to provide PRT to their children or clients.

To see PRT in practice, click on this link: http://www.brookespublishing.com/autism/prt/video.htm

Consultation Services

At the Chicago Children's Clinic, we provide consultation to parents, therapists, physicians, and public and private schools in the city and suburbs to help design education and treatment plans for youth who have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders, and other neurobehavioral disorders. We attend school meetings to ensure that children with special needs receive all of the accommodations and services to which they are entitled.

When children are receiving care from other treatment providers, our team is often consulted to provide an independent assessment of the child's progress in treatment, and to provide recommendations for where treatment should focus in the future. Often children are receiving care from a large team of school-based and private treatment providers.  Parents often ask our clinicians to "play quarterback" and help manage their child's treatment to ensure that everyone is working together in a manner that complements one another's strengths.

Services include:

Classroom Observations

Coming Soon