The Black Mountain Academy

The Importance of Family in the Treatment Process

At the age of three, I immigrated to the United States with my parents and my younger sister from our hometown of Mexico City. As my family established our new life in Grand Haven, Michigan we learned to appreciate the cultural differences. There is a term used to describe children who find themselves straddling an […]

Just Start: Words of Encouragement for a New Year

We’ve all heard this before.  It’s so simple: just start… but starting can almost seem impossible.  With the New Year here, loud and proud, most of us are looking for ways to improve the coming year – A New Year’s Resolution.  Losing weight, eating healthier, being more creative, etc. And they tend to start out […]

Do -> Feel -> Learn: Why our students learn most effectively through doing

We have all had memorable academic experiences in our lives. Some of those experiences may be very positive while others perhaps a bit more difficult. As I think about my own storied academic past, the most valuable of those memories were ones in which the teacher engaged me actively in the class. As an adult, […]

Schedules, Routines, and Habits…OH MY!

“Dude, why do you love schedules so much?” It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m taking a handful of our students who struggle with executive functioning deficits to the local grocery store, to pick up their weekly work schedules. From the back seat of our school van, I hear one of the students ask this question to […]

Immersive Journey

International migration is happening on a scale larger than ever, with 224 million people living in a country other than where they were born, according to the United Nations Population Division. More than 19% of all international migrants – roughly 42 million people – live in the United States. If all migrants were considered one […]

The Strengths & Limitations of Level 1 Autism

By: Brandon Moffitt, MA, LPC As I reflect upon the last year and a half of developing and opening Black Mountain Academy, I have been struck with how much we continue to learn about autism. Research, personal memoirs, and popular media continue to expand what is an ever increasing understanding of a complex neurodevelopmental disorder […]

The Loving Push: An Interview with Temple Grandin

Aaron McGinley, program director at Black Mountain Academy, recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Temple Grandin and Dr. Debra Moore about their new book, “The Loving Push: How Parents and Professionals Can Help Spectrum Kids Become Successful Adults (2016).” We find the book’s message about the importance of compassionately guiding students on the Spectrum to […]

A New Year and a New Opportunity to Serve Others

By: Brandon Moffitt, MA, LPC With the holiday season firmly behind us, and a new year of possibility ahead, all of us at Black Mountain Academy have recently spent time reflecting upon how we are contributing as citizens in both our local and global communities. In an effort to embody our core value of citizenship, […]

TEDX video from Our Program Director, Aaron McGinley, M.A.

We are excited to present a TEDX video from Our Program Director, Aaron McGinley, M.A., on the topic of Autism, Technology, and Social Skills! Aaron’s career has been filled with highlights exploring the relationship between Autism and Technology. Past accomplishments in this area have included webinars on Cyberbullying, multiple workshops and presentations on Video Game […]

Community Based Social Skills Training

Students at Black Mountain Academy

Community-Based Social Skill Training An adolescent client of mine once discovered and read a social skill training manual in my office waiting room while I was meeting with his parents.   By the time I was done with the one-hour session, this young man who happened to have Autism, was prepared to enlighten me on […]