Special Needs Resource Group

I cannot thank SNRG enough for how much they helped my son. I absolutely loved them, and the best part was — so did my son! So i am highly recommended this for all people.

I was referred to Special Needs Resource Group by a friend of mine, whose child goes to school with my son. They had a very successful run with a one-​on-​one behaviorist from SNRG, but I wanted my son to get ahead in Kindergarten and learn how to better interact with his peers. I had one meeting with Barbara and could tell right off the bat that she knew what she was talking about — she was referencing research and, although I did not know it at the time, was predicting a lot of my son’s behaviors. He improved tremendously thanks to SNRG.
He started when he was 4 in the Kindergarten Readiness program. He loved coming to group, loved his friends there, and I could see why after sitting in on one session. There are two adults in the classroom — one a sweet special education teacher and the other a soft-​spoken behaviorist. There were anywhere from 3 to 6 kids in the classroom at one time, so my son was always getting the attention he deserved (and needed). They played games that got him caught up with learning the alphabet, sequencing, and coloring, fine motor skills, etc.
Barbara had mentioned to me that services may last anywhere from 6 — 18 months, depending on the severity of the behaviors, etc. She said that my son would probably be ready to graduate in 6 months to a school year (10 months), which was very exciting for us, but he ended up graduating in a full year. However, I’m happy he stayed there as long as he did. I really felt he was ready for Kindergarten on is final day with SNRG.
I cannot thank SNRG enough for how much they helped my son. I absolutely loved them, and the best part was — so did my son!

I should start by apologizing. I should have posted this review a year ago. My experience with Barbara Joffe and her assessment of my son was not a happy one. I am actually keeping this review short and am leaving a lot out as I want to stick to the hardest facts.
Barbara was recommended to us by our Pre-​school. We liked her after our first conversations and she was very attentive. But we had problems:
1. After assessing my son, Barbara told me she got approval from our insurance for her 1:1 support in school. This was not true. I later found out from my insurance (after a denial) that she called to check basic benefits (the day she told me we were approved) and was given another number to give them more details for specialist pre-​approval. Our insurance say she NEVER made the pre-​approval call. Her invoices were denied. A record would have been created with just a phone call from her.
2. Barbara wrote a report and «diagnosed» my son as having anxiety and recommended a child psychologist who made this diagnosis official. (Barbara is not qualified to make an official diagnosis) We started a very slow process of play observation in her office. Barbara was to provide the 1:1 shadow for him in school. She said this would take 1 – 2 or more years to understand, was very complex and that he needed a 1:1 in the meantime for his anxiety.
3. We had continually unaddressed problems with our 1:1 shadow setup that caused us to fire Barbara after around a month.
4. We were also unsure of the child psychologist strongly recommended to us by Barbara as a «genius» and «one of the best in the country». Sessions were basically observation of his play, waiting to see if he acted out or gave evidence of some trauma that would reveal more, and help release his anxiety. It was questionable to me, but I was dealing with the unknown and Barbara was the recommended expert here. I did what Barbara asked when I was reviewing this recommendation with her, which was «just trust me».
We gave it a month and saw no value or future in this kind of therapy for our son. All It did was give a diagnosis that we could use as an umbrella for Barbara’s 1:1 shadow support at school which had it’s own problems! We later found out that child psychologists are usually recommended (and proven effective) if there is a clear emotional trauma for a child, like loss of a parent, sibling etc. Our son had no such trauma in his history.
5. We moved on and had our son assessed by a developmental pediatrician who was very skeptical of the observation based anxiety diagnosis. She tested my son, discovered that he had specific sensory and developmental issues and recommended Occupational Therapy (OT), behavioral therapy and social skills classes. These sensory/​developmental issues were what lead to him feeling anxious. We also found out that my son tested very highly in some areas and low in others. The whole profile the developmental pediatrician built up made so much sense to us. If we hadn’t quit with Barbara we probably would not have discovered his true issues and may have been paying out-​of-​pocket for months or years of Barbara’s 1:1 school shadow and the child psychologist.
After just a few weeks on this new plan we saw significant improvements. A year later and our lives are so much better, my son is thriving and doing so well. Sensory issue are no longer apparent after the OT and behavioral therapy. He plays so well with peers after learning how in social skills class. He is so much easier and more fun to be with and is so much happier. I can’t imagine where we would be now if we had continued with Barbara.
One thing — We did get almost $ 400 of the $ 1400 we paid up for for unused 1:1 sessions after we ended our agreement with Barbara. Barbara retained money for — «a great deal of time communicating with the insurance company, collaborating with the psychologist and the school»
P. S. If you happen to link to this, Barbara — I have kept audio copies of the voicemails from you re: insurance approval, psychologist recommendation, 1:1 problems. I also have documentation from United Healthcare and our emails. I think I have been very fair in this review, however, please let me know if you feel anything is inaccurate. I would be happy to address this with you and amend my review if necessary. My intention is to provide an accurate review of our interaction and of the services you provided and recommended.