The REAL Center specializes in:

• ABA Therapy
• ADD
• ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Anxiety Disorders
• Asperger's Syndrome and Non-Verbal Learning Disorders
• Educational Evaluations
• Psychological Evaluations
• Speech and Language Evaluations
• Social Skills Programs
• Counseling
• Medication Monitoring
• Behavioral Support

CLINICAL SERVICES

The REAL Center works with families and school districts to provide psychological services to children. Some of the assessments that are conducted are intelligence testing, extensive testing to determine attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and anxiety disorders.

From advice and consultation to extensive evaluations, we will assist you in discovering the best ways to help your child succeed in school and in the community. Children often need short term counseling for many issues including depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorders.

Our clinical staff will provide counseling for students, with follow up advice for parents. The REAL Center consults with school districts to assist them in developing programs for students with Asperger’s Syndrome and other disabilities.

Asperger's Syndrome
Children with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) have multiple difficulties. Two characteristic deficits are for social behavior and social communication skills. These limitations significantly impact a child's ability to demonstrate social and emotional competence. People with AS have been described as perceiving the world differently from everybody else. Social skills training and socialization skills have been recognized as important treatment modalities for children with AS. Recognizing the special needs of this population, the Regional Enrichment and Learning Center (REAL) conducts Social Skills and Socialization groups for children and adolescents with Asperger' s Syndrome.

What do the students learn? The purpose of the group is to help AS individuals understand and more effectively navigate the complex social world in which we live. Individual skills will be assessed to determine if weaknesses are due to acquisition, performance or fluency deficits or various combinations. Skill areas that will be addressed in the group include: Social Conversational Skills, Identification Of Feelings, Problem Solving, Anger Management, Managing Stress, Organization Skills.

Autism
Children with Autism often benefit from ABA Therapy or applied behavior analysis. If your child has been diagnosed with autism, the REAL Center can provide services to your child. Our Behavior Analyst will develop a treatment plan and our ABA therapists will provide therapy for your child. Services can be completed at the REAL Center or the child’s home.  These services DO NOT take the place of services required for a student’s IEP.

The NJ legislature passed a bill last year that requires many insurance companies to pay for ABA therapy. To see if your company participates in the program, please contact us for more information. Social Skills groups for Asperger’s children are also covered under this law.

For other psychological services, REAL does not currently participate with any insurance carriers, we will assist you by supplying the appropriate documents for services provided by our center. Our staff is available to help you with documentation for submission to your individual carrier.

The Regional Enrichment and Learning Center provides you with an “Encounter” ticket at the conclusion of each visit. This document identifies the specific services provided for that session, and includes the following codes, which your carrier will need to process your claim.

DSM-IV and ICD-9 codes are diagnosis codes. These are individual for each person. CPT codes identify the procedure that occurred on the date of service.

Psychological treatment is conducted in a variety of methods and the codes on your encounter ticket will identify what specific service was provided. However, services can be provided 1) Individually; 2) Group; 3) Testing or Evaluation; 4) or a combination of the above.

Psychological therapy benefits vary between insurance carriers. It is important to take the time to become acquainted with the benefits offered by your carrier's policy.

We suggest that you review your benefit booklet and documentation, or call your insurance company directly to learn about your benefits. Be specific in your questions, using terminology like “Psychological or Behavioral services, testing, or therapy.”

Ask about any limitations or “caps” in your insurance policy. These limitations or “caps” are usually in the form of a specific diagnosis and/or certain number of visits per year.

DO I NEED PRE-APPROVAL? Your insurance policy documentation or booklet or representative should be able to give details as to whether a referral or pre-approval is needed for our Psychological services.

If you find that a referral is required for pre-approval, make sure you contact your primary physician and obtain the referral before your child begins service.

It is not uncommon for the insurance company to pre-certify a specific number of sessions over a specific period of time. If they do, you should request the pre-certification letter. Have this letter mailed to you, not REAL, so you may keep track of the number of visits. However, always remember to keep good records.