Preparing Your Child for a Successful Back-to-School Transition

Winding down from extended breaks can feel challenging due to the drastic change in schedule and routines. Join Justyna Balzar, M.Ed. BCBA LBA (CT), Co-Founder and CEO of The Hangout Spot LLC, to learn a variety of strategies to help your child ease back into a successful school transition while building healthy new routines to ease the stress of the daily normal.  

The Hangout Spot is a behavior analytic social skills development center where we believe that all children have a right to meaningful relationships with others. We strive to eliminate barriers to friendship and empower children to be socially successful across the lifespan using the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis. Everything we do is rooted in research, empirically validated, and proven to work. We conceptualize critical, previously considered “tricky to teach” skills through a scientific framework. In doing so, we achieve socially-significant change for our clients by providing the support they need to develop real connections with other people beyond our walls.

Justyna Balzar has over 15 years experience with learners of varying profiles between the ages of 3 to 18 across multiple settings. She received her Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA) certification in 2014 from Florida Institute of Technology, her Master in Curriculum and Education in Applied Behavior Analysis from Arizona State University, followed by her BCBA certification in 2016. She has authored and co-authored publications in Behavior Science of the 21st Century blog and Autism Parenting Magazine. Driven by a passion for educating others about the wide-reaching applications of ABA, Justyna founded @Behaviorchik, an online persona intended to disseminate behavior analytic resources, and the @Theabaadvocacyproject, an initiative spearheaded by The Hangout Spot founders and a fellow BCBA that unifies the advocacy practices of parents and professionals using ABA.