Every Monarch Essentials program is a focused, 12-session clinical stream led one-on-one by a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) or Registered Behaviour Analyst (RBA). We break each 60-minute session into five distinct segments:

• Check-In (10 mins): We review home practice, progress, and any daily factors affecting your child.
• Caregiver Coaching (20 mins): Your clinician demonstrates specific strategies and guides you through practicing them.
• Direct Skill Work (20 mins): Focused, hands-on clinical intervention directly with your child.
• Caregiver Debrief (10 mins): We model key strategies, connect them to your home routine, and answer your questions.
• Data & Planning (10 mins): We record progress data and give you updated home practice tools before you leave.

Because we use a Total Communication approach, we honour all modalities - whether your child uses speech, picture symbols, signs, or a digital speech app.

Essentials programs are intentionally engineered as short-term, high-impact streams rather than open-ended therapy. Twelve sessions provide enough structured practice to achieve measurable breakthroughs on targeted skills (like requesting items or expressing refusal) while keeping the commitment manageable and empowering families without long waitlists.

Getting started is a straightforward, three-step process:

1. 1. Intake & Referral Review: Reach out to our intake team. We gather background details, review any existing reports (such as Speech-Language Pathology or Diagnostic assessments), and confirm that Essentials is the right clinical fit for your goals.
   2. Tier Placement & Goal Setting: Your clinician conducts an initial baseline assessment in Session 1 to confirm your child's tier placement (Tier 1: Foundational, Tier 2: Building, or Tier 3: Expanding) and sets 1–2 specific SMART goals.
   3. Schedule Selection: You choose between the Standard (1x/week) or Intensive (2x/week) format based on availability and clinic openings, and your 12-session block is locked in.

• Active Caregiver Participation is Required: Because 30 minutes of every session are dedicated to coaching and debriefing, a parent or primary caregiver must attend every in-person or virtual session. The program’s success relies on generalizing clinical skills into your daily home routines.
• Sequential Focus: Essentials programs run sequentially, not concurrently. To ensure your child isn't overwhelmed, they will focus on one stream (such as Functional Communication) at a time rather than enrolling in multiple Essentials modules simultaneously.
• Inter-Disciplinary Alignment: If your child already works with an outside Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) or Occupational Therapist (OT), our clinicians coordinate directly with them to align goals rather than duplicating efforts. If no SLP is involved, an internal referral is initiated at intake for early-tier communication programs.

Clinically, the exact opposite is true. Extensive speech-language research demonstrates that AAC systems actually accelerate vocal speech production. By lowering the physical frustration of communication, AAC encourages vocal attempts.

Hand-leading is a common pre-linguistic communication behaviour, but it limits independence. Our clinicians teach you how to intercept the hand-lead and gently use it as a teaching moment, requiring a simple visual point, sign, or vocal sound.

This is called echolalia, a common verbal profile in neurodivergence. While your child can physically produce the speech sounds, they are struggling with functional, generative language. Our program specializes in pivoting these echoing strengths into functional, meaningful communication.