Located at 3202 E. Mountain View Road in Phoenix, the Young Mind Community Center exists to create an opportunity for every person — despite any challenges — to reach their potential. Melding the best of two worlds — clinical expertise in autism and excellence in early childhood education — the Young Mind Community center aims to provide a comprehensive, transdisciplinary approach that delivers the best possible outcomes.
The Community Center’s approach is based on achieving optimal results through various methods including an inclusive community, transdisciplinary approach, positive mind framework, continuum of supports, exceptional education, and family capacity-building. Each of these approaches comes together to serve the complete purpose.
The Community Center believes that belonging gives purpose and meaning to every life and that it benefits all people by providing support, trust and mutual respect. The Center’s programs are intended to promote positive relationships among children and adults alike as well as encourage a sense of individual worth, being part of a community and also to foster the ability to contribute as a responsible member of the community.
The YMCC’s Transdisciplinary Approach encompasses a team that has expertise in a wide range of various disciplines that work together to optimize resources, redefine problems outside normal boundaries, limit service fragmentation, emphasize the centrality of the family, efficiently integrate knowledge across teams, and innovate to reach new solutions and optimize results. Their programs focus on developmentally appropriate practices that provide an optimal balance of adult-guided and child-guide experiences, complexity and challenge of activities, learning formats and contexts, and indoor and outdoor learning time.
The YMCC’s partner organization the Young Mind Center provides intervention specific to needs of children with autism in an inclusive setting, evaluations for language, attention, learning and behavior, as well as clinical services including behavioral therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy and more. Assessments are specific for each evaluation. For example, an autism evaluation can include parent or caregiver interviews, developmental or cognitive assessments, adaptive behavior interview, child observation in a naturalistic setting (such as school, daycare or a community location) and more. The Young Mind Center’s team of psychologists, behavior analysts, speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists can provide a wide range of services specific to the individual needs of every child.
The YMCC model also extends to its inclusive preschool that aims to provide a solid foundation to set the stage for future academic and personal achievement. The preschool is geared for children between the ages of 18 months and five years — and is inclusive to children with and without autism. The preschool allows students to benefit from the practices that encourage young children’s optimal learning and development. For more information about services and preschool, visit www.youngmindcommunity.org.
