Thank you to Alyssa and Lindsay for sharing their pets with us.

We are moving our form for scheduled absences to an online form. You will use this form in place of the old paper one for any absence you have planned more than one day in advance, including appointments or vacations. The link is available here, and will be shared with all families via Remind as well.

For unexpected absences, such as illness, we ask that you continue to call our attendance line at 810-344-8082, ext. 1 for Brighton, ext. 2 for Burton. We understand that parents have emailed or messaged individual staff members for these absences in the past, but we ask that you call this number, as it informs ALL relevant staff members at one time, ensuring your message doesn't get lost if one staff member is out of the office that day.

Again, use the online form for scheduled absences.

Call the attendance line for unexpected absences at 810-344-8082, ext. 1 for Brighton, ext. 2 for Burton.

Melody has worked at the Strive Center for Autism since July 2020. She has a Bachelor’s of Social Work at Central Michigan University.

Melody previously worked as a Social Worker and a Parent Educator for Foster Care.

Melody enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She likes to take walks and go camping. Melody has a rescue dog name Abu.

Taylor has worked at the Strive Center since December 2021. She previously worked at Centria Healthcare. She was also a Lab Manager and T.A. for an Internal Medicine doctor.

Taylor graduated from Alma College. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science and honors in psychology.

Taylor enjoys learning more about psychology and research. She also enjoys crafting, crocheting, reading, video games and playing the guitar.

Spring is (sort of!) here, and we are planning our regular 3 month therapist switch in April.

For some families, your child will be working with someone you may not have worked with before, for some, it will be a return to an old friend. Please keep in mind that switching therapists is important for your children for several reasons:

• It allows generalization of skills, to ensure that your child can respond to any teacher

• It helps to reinforce flexibility and a positive response to changes

• It gives your child a fun and different perspective, with a new person to play with

As parents, the most important thing you can do is say positive things about your child's therapist in front of him - "Look - it's Jill! You're going to have so much fun with her this morning!" or "It sounds like you had a great time with Sue this afternoon!"

We will continue to add profiles of our therapists to the newsletters and to our Facebook page, in the hopes that you'll feel like you're getting to know our therapists a little better. You can also pull up those profiles and pictures to show your child who he's going to work with on a given day, or talk about what he did with her earlier that day.

Switching therapists is an important step in preparing your child for school and other settings, and we thank you for your support.