Eligibility Criteria
Heartleaf is a center-based, early intervention program for children ages 2-6 on the Autism Spectrum. Use the form below to apply for services.
Our program focuses on building:
- Basic life skills like toileting (potty-training) and feeding
- Functional communication development
- Social skills and group play skills
- Pre-academic skills and classroom prep
- Family training and education
- Behavioral interventions for challenging situations
How Does Center-Based Therapy Work?
Autism therapy can be provided in a few different ways:
- School-Based: Therapy services provided at the child’s school.
- Home-Based: Therapy services provided at the families home.
- Center-Based: Therapy services provided at an Autism center.
Most Autism therapy providers in Maine offer school or home-based services. Heartleaf is the first and only center-based program in the Bangor region.
So, how does center-based care actually work? It’s really simple! Parents work with their child’s clinical team to determine the number of therapy hours their child should receive. Then, they drop their kiddos off at our Center to receive care.
Here’s an example. For a child receiving 40 therapy hours, their parent or guardian would drop them off at 8:00 am and pick them up at 5:00 pm each day, Monday through Friday. During the day, the child is cared for by their therapy team and working towards their goals.
How to Get Started
We like to keep our enrollment process as simple as possible. We have 5 simple steps to enroll in therapy services.
Complete our simple online enrollment request form to provide us with your contact information and some basic details about your family.
Once we have your information, a member of our team will reach out to you to schedule a tour of our center and help you through our enrollment paperwork. Be prepared with a copy of your child’s diagnostic evaluation and a referral from your pediatrician!
After we submit your enrollment paperwork to insurance and receive authorization, we’ll schedule an intake appointment. This appointment will last about 1-2 hours with your BCBA and care team. It allows us to start building a connection with your child, observe their strengths and challenges and understand your family dynamics.
The final step be to review, adjust, and approve the plan for your child’s treatment. We work with you every step of the way to determine goals for treatment and teach you how to use therapy strategies outside of our office.
Finalized treatment plans are submitted to your insurance for approval. Typically, insurance will take a few weeks to review and approve the treatment plan. Once we receive authorization, you’ll get your child’s official start date at Heartleaf!
Covering the Cost of Therapy
The cost of therapy services is largely dependent on the number of care hours your child needs to reach their goals. Families can self pay for services, however, we encourage families to utilize their insurance coverage to support their child’s care. All insurances, including Medicare & Medicaid are required to provide coverage for ABA therapy and most offer at least some additional coverage for diagnostics, speech or occupational therapy.