FAQ

Kara Dodds & Associates, Pediatric therapy center has 3 locations to meet your family’s needs with extended hours Monday through Friday with Saturday therapy options also available.

Our centers are clean, easy to find, have comfortable waiting rooms with toys for siblings, lots natural light, plenty of free parking, and easy access for our disabled clients, families and guests.

We are open on:

Monday – Thursday 7:30-6:30
Friday 7:30-5:00
Saturday appts by request between 8:00 – 1:00pm

We accept a variety of plans to cover your child’s therapy needs.  We bill and work with insurances directly taking the hassle out of it for families.

We will take the lead on determining coverage and finding the best options available with your plan.

• Tricare (Health Net Federal Services)
• Kaiser
• Easter Seals of Southern California
• San Diego Regional Center (in home or center based)
• PPO plans including:
  • Anthem Blue Cross
  • UHC
  • Blue Shield
  • Coventry, and more.

As a courtesy and to help you navigate your insurance benefits, Kara Dodds & Associates will contact your insurance company to check coverage before you schedule your first session or evaluation and inform you of those benefits so you can make an informed decision regarding any out-of-pocket expenses prior to your first evaluation or session.

Kara Dodds & Associates offers free screenings.  Please Contact Us to schedule an evaluation.

The purpose of an evaluation is to gather information using a standardized test, observation in play, medical history information, and parent report to determine your child’s strengths and challenges. It is the tool used to identify if therapy would warranted and be beneficial for the child if treatment is necessary.

Parents may request an evaluation or children may be referred by a pediatrician, teacher, or after a developmental screening. While it may vary across settings, the following is a general outline of what you can expect from a formal speech and language evaluation.

• Background and History of Developmental Information will be gathered
• Caregiver interview
• Assessment and Observation of the child
• Evaluation Report with recommendations

Yes. You will receive via email Kara Dodds and Associates new client paperwork to complete prior to the assessment.  It includes a case history, background information, financial policy agreements, and allows for you to submit any past reports you would like considered or any other information you would like to share regarding your child.

Kara Dodds & Associates accepts all major credit cards, check, or cash.

Yes. Kara Dodds & Associates’ mission is to Create Positive Change That Results in Milestone Moments.  This means we care about all areas of a child and their therapy plan.  Our clinicians strive to support each child to have the quality of life experiences they deserve and because we believe in kindness and patience in all interactions, we maintain the highest ethical and clinical standards for our children, families, and partner organizations.

Our team work in a collaborative and multidisciplinary model to help achieve results and to support families through the process.  Not all therapy centers provide the same level of treatment experience for children with autism.  We have committed also to providing our staff with extended continuing education and ongoing training opportunities related to autism treatment and working with children with autism and their families one of our specialties.

Yes. Parents are a very important part of treatment at Kara Dodds & Associates and often invited into therapy to observe, learn, communicate with therapists and engage with their child in a therapeutic way to generalize skills.  If though, situation is inappropriate parent education will be provided as a part of every therapy session as each session is designed for clinician-parent consultation and demonstration.  Our team will also provide home programs to increase generalization and carryover of learned skills to help children reach their goals.  We also support collaboration and welcome in other providers including teachers, day care providers, ABA therapist or anyone else involved in your child’s programs.

Kara Dodds & Associates is always looking for excellent speech, occupational, and physical therapists who are licensed and certified to join our team to help service our clients, their families and our community.

If you are dynamic, love children, love being a clinician then we want to hear from you!

We are here to help your child. We love helping children live their best life.  We love advocating for the children we see.  We love being a trusted hub for children and their families.

From your initial contact with our patient care advocate, to our front desk admin team, to our authorizations team, to our clinic director, to our therapist team, to the insurance billing department, together our owner (and therapist), Kara have created an environment that allows us to work in collaborative and multidisciplinary model that only sets your child and family up for success.

We just love what we get to do and we love kids!

At Kara Dodds & Associates, we welcome parent involvement as a part of our values system as we believe that parent involvement is an important part of a successful therapy program.  Our main goal of therapy is to give you education and ideas you can use at home along with guiding your child’s developmental success.  Studies have shown children are more successful when their parents and therapists work together so at our center you can expect to be a part of our team to help your child succeed!

At your first visit to Kara Dodds & Associates, our clinical team will conduct an assessment where your therapist will make a plan with you for how often your child will need to receive skilled Speech, Occupational, or Physical therapy services.

Considerations may include your child’s ability to participate and benefit from therapy, diagnosis, age, motivation, and parents ability to follow through with home activities/recommendations.  Consistency of attendance of the plan though is the key element for gains toward goals.

A timeframe will be set for the number of weeks your child will receive services.  At the end of that time, a re-assessment will be conducted to assess progress and a new plan will be established.  At this time, if warranted, new goals will be determined.

Changes in therapy frequency and/or ending therapy services are to be expected as your child will go through different life phases that may require more, less, or no skilled therapy.

Children work toward their goals at different timeframes.  Sometimes, there are clinical gains toward goals, and sometimes we are making gains through creating milestone moments.  Each should and are celebrated at Kara Dodds & Associates!  Your therapist will discuss your child’s progress at each therapy session and discuss the plan for discharge.  Discharge from therapy occurs when:

• Goals are met and expected outcomes are achieved
• Family decides skilled therapy services are no longer needed
• Therapy no longer results in functional changes or measurable outcomes per re-assessment testing

Your therapist will work with you on your therapy plan post discharge.