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ACCESS Opens New Evaluation and Resource Center Offices (8/19/2009)

ACCESS Group Inc. opens its new ACCESS Evaluation and Resource Center offices this week, coinciding with the organization’s 15^th anniversary.

 

The AERC, which opened in Little Rock in June 2005, offers psychological and psycho-educational evaluations and testing to children and youths from a five-state area. It comprises a clinical psychologist, the ACCESS Therapy program director, an academic therapist, a technology coordinator, a speech-language pathologist, a physical therapist and an occupational therapist.

 

“The increasing demand for our services compelled us to expand the ACCESS Evaluation and Resource Center area on our campus,” said Cheri Stevenson, M.S., CCC-SLP, ACCESS Therapy director. Stevenson directs the AERC team.

 

“Since the center opened, we have enjoyed tremendous word-of-mouth among families with special needs children,” said Stevenson. To date, the AERC has seen outpatient clients from not only Arkansas, but also Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.

 

“We offer comprehensive service, a relatively quick admissions process, thorough testing and help navigating medical service funding processes,” said Stevenson.

 

The AERC use specialized evaluations and tests that aren’t available in many areas of Arkansas and other states, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale for children and Autism Diagnostic Interview for parents, as well as psycho-educational testing designed to determine learning styles, weaknesses and/or disabilities. The AERC may also diagnose ADHD; dyslexia; reading, written expression and math disorders; mental retardation; and anxiety, depression and other disorders that fall outside the typical emotional health domain. The center provides family therapy and behavior management therapy through Dr. Sabine Falls, Ph.D., clinical psychologist.

 

The AERC team includes:

 

Cheri Stevenson, M.S., CCC-SLP, Therapy Director

Stevenson, a speech-language pathologist, has worked at ACCESS since 1998 and has more than 20 years of experience in testing, including team assessments.

 

Dr. Sabine Falls, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Falls has worked at ACCESS since 2007 and has more than 17 years experience in pediatric mental health. She is experienced in testing, diagnosing and therapeutic intervention.

 

Janice Edmonson, M.S., CCC-SLP, Technology and Resource Center Coordinator

Edmonson, a speech-language pathologist, has worked at ACCESS since 1999 and specializes in educational technology, remediation of reading and written expression difficulties, and curriculum development.

 

Susan Lockhart, M.Ed., Academic Therapist

Lockhart has worked at ACCESS for three years, using multisensory approaches to remediate problems with reading, spelling, comprehension and/or written expression.

 

Annabel Johnson, M.S., CCC-SLP, Speech-Language Pathologist

Johnson has worked with ACCESS since 2001 and has more than eight years of speech-language therapy experience.

 

Krysta Rupp, M.S., OTR/L, Occupational Therapist

Rupp has worked at ACCESS since 2002 and specializes in assessing visual impairments that impact learning and treatments for sensory integration dysfunction.

 

Renee Bennett, Physical Therapist

Bennett has worked at ACCESS since 1997 and specializes in bracing. She is also certified in The DuBard Association Method.

 

Evaluations and testing begin with a structured diagnostic interview, which is used to determine diagnosis rule-outs and needed tests. Depending on the tests needed, testing may take place in one session or across multiple sessions. Parents are then given a post-evaluation consultation to discuss diagnostic impressions and recommendations, followed by a written report.

 

“It’s important that parents have the opportunity to spend an adequate amount of time with the individuals assessing their children,” said Stevenson. “We spend a good amount of time with families, interviewing parents and children, as well as taking the time to explain diagnostic impressions with parents and pointing them in the right direction for services and funding of those services.”

 

A one-hour software technology consultation is included with each psychological and psycho-educational evaluation. The AERC is a demonstration site for several software companies that specialize in software for people with learning disabilities. Assessing a child’s school and home environment as well as his or her family’s computer capabilities and computing knowledge, ACCESS makes appropriate recommendations for software programs that may help compensate for a specific disability.

 

“We’re thrilled to be able to grow our evaluation and resource services,” said Tammy Simmons, ACCESS Group Inc. chief executive officer. “Our goal is to get children with learning disabilities the help they need as soon as possible so they have as many successes in life as they can.”