First Leaps

Shannon Price, MT ECSE

Shannon is an Early Childhood Special Educator with a Masters of Teaching. She started First Leaps in 2007 in an effort to provide comprehensive educational services that not only supported the child with needs but also the larger family unit and community involved with the child.

Over the years, Shannon has furthered her knowledge of comprehensive assessment, intervention planning and instruction by earning a DIRFLoortime® Certificate of Proficiency; attending advanced trainings; collaborating with professionals from a variety of disciplines; and serving children with a wide range of needs.

Services Offered:

Functional Emotional Assessment

Measures social and emotional functioning for young infants and children 7 months - 4 years of age. Designed to help determine need for further assessment and to guide intervention planning.

Assessment, Planning and Implementation of a DIRFloortime Program

The DIR® (Developmental, Individual-differences, & Relationship-based) Model provides a framework for understanding child development and provides a guide for educational/intervention programs that are tailored to a child's unique challenges and strengths to help them reach their full potential.  The DIR® Model supports children with educational, social-emotional, mental health and/or developmental challenges and is most widely used for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  A DIRFloortime® Program builds social, emotional and intellectual capacities.  If you would like to see more information on this type of program please visit www.icdl.com.

Individual and Small Group Tutoring (ages 2-6)

Instruction provided individually and/or in groups of 2-4 children that may include integrated peer models. Instruction will place emphasis on social emotional development, language development, peer interactions, self-regulatory strategies, positive behavior management and age-appropriate academic areas in preparation for Kindergarten.  Instruction will be provided with adaptions such as sensory integration techniques, assistive communication, visual strategies and positive behavior supports to allow successful access for children with various needs.

Individual and Small Group Tutoring (ages 6+)

Instruction provided individually and in groups of 2-4 children that may integrate peer models.  Instruction will place emphasis on social emotional development, social skills, self -regulatory strategies and positive behavior management.  Instruction will be provided with supports such as sensory integration techniques, assistive communication, visual strategies and positive behavior supports.  The goal of this supplementary instruction is to build capacities and coping strategies to be successful at home, in their main educational setting and in the community.

Locations

Office Hours

Roanoke

Monday:

8:00 am-6:00 pm

Tuesday:

8:00 am-6:00 pm

Wednesday:

8:00 am-6:00 pm

Thursday:

8:00 am-6:00 pm

Friday:

8:00 am-6:00 pm

Saturday:

Closed

Sunday:

Closed

  • ""Before we found Connections, we had tried everything for our son - OT, PT, nutrition, other chiropractors, ST, aquatic therapy . . . we were at our wit's end and ready to resign ourselves to having a son with Asperger's. Dinner time was chaos, he was violent towards me and my daughter, and tantrums were a daily tribulation."
    8yo, Asperger's
  • "Here is what we have seen in Sarah since June 2012:

    Improved balance and coordination – can now walk the entire driveway without holding onto my hand

    Greatly improved vision. Sarah could not match anything accurately before – the items were beside, under, “close by” but never matched right on top. Thanks!"
    18yo, CP and Autism
  • "Aley suffered from constant headaches and focus issues for a year after receiving a concussion in her sporting event. After seeing multiple medical professionals the only options presented to us were medications for the headaches and ADHD medication for the attention and focus issues. We were blessed to casually run into Dr. Jackson. After therapy at Connections Aley is now headache free and has no issues with focusing. Her processing and reaction time have also improved greatly!"
    Teenager, Post Concussion