Sensory & motor
Sensory integration, motor planning, coordination. Occupational therapy in a sensory gym built for the work.
Pediatric day-treatment · Palm Beach Gardens, FL
One team. One place. One plan.
Everything your child needs, under one roof. Autism, developmental delays, anxiety, mood, and co-occurring conditions. Evidence-based. With one coordinated team and one care plan.
At NorthStar, your child's whole team is under one roof.
Your child's care is delivered by a multidisciplinary team: occupational therapy, speech therapy, family therapy, education, case management, and psychiatry. They work in the same building, see each other in the hallway, and communicate daily about your child's progress. Formal team meetings keep everyone aligned on one unified picture and one plan.
Instead of coordinating your child's care, you get to be their parents.
Who we serve
Children ages 5–12, and rarely just one thing.
Most of the children in our program have more than one reason they were referred. We treat the whole child, not one diagnosis at a time.
ADHD
Attention, executive function, and the behavioral patterns that come with them.
Developmental delays
Speech, motor, cognitive. The foundational skills everything else is built on.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Communication, flexible thinking, regulation. Therapy, OT, and speech working from one plan.
Anxiety & mood
Childhood anxiety, OCD, depression. Diagnoses that show up younger than people expect.
Trauma & emotional regulation
Acute, developmental, complex trauma. The meltdowns, the shutdowns, and the recovery afterwards.
Autism + anxiety. ADHD + trauma. The whole picture.
Most pediatric programs are built around a single diagnosis. Ours is built for the reality that children rarely come in with just one. Our team holds the whole presentation, and the plan reflects it.
Our approach
Built for the families we serve.
High Level Care
Our clinical model is anchored by Licensed Psychologists, Doctoral-Level staff and Board-Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists who work only with children. The team also includes certified and licensed speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists, with a certified teacher on site each day.
Whole-child, whole-family care
We treat the child in front of us, the family around them, and the home they go back to at the end of the day.
Evidence-based and integrated
We draw on CBT, DBT-informed skills, Floortime, family systems therapy, motivational interviewing, social skills training, and expressive arts. One team, one plan, one roof.
Trauma-informed and sensory-aware
The environment regulates before we ask the child to. Low-stim rooms mean soft, indirect circadian lighting instead of overhead fluorescents, low-contrast wall colors, minimal wall decor, and no competing background noise. Gentle transitions, predictable structure.
Family-centered, by design
Parent training and family therapy are built into the program, not bolted on. You leave with skills, not just notes.
Every kind of care, under one roofOne building. One team.
One building. One team.
Eight disciplines, one care plan.
Delivered on-site by clinicians who sit in the same weekly team meeting about your child. One team, one plan, and one shared picture of how your child is doing.
- 01
Individual, group & family therapy
The clinical core: CBT, DBT-informed skills, Floortime and family systems, in the mix each child needs.
- 02
Occupational Therapy
Sensory integration, motor planning, daily-living skills.
- 03
Speech-Language Therapy
Expressive and receptive language, articulation, social communication.
- 04
Psychiatric care
On-site medication management with the psychiatric team.
- 05
Pediatric nutrition
Family nutrition and growth support, coordinated with OT and behavior.
- 06
Expressive arts
Creative, expression-based sessions: a way in when words are hard to find.
- 07
Case management
A single point of contact for schools, prior auths, outside providers.
- 08
Educational support
Academic continuity so progress here travels back to the classroom.
Levels of care
Day Treatment and Intensive Outpatient, on one care plan, in the same building.
Two intensities of programming, matched to what your child needs right now. Your child can step down (or up) without changing programs, buildings, or care plans.
Day Treatment
For children needing intensive, structured daily programming.
A full-day program for children whose needs aren't safely met by weekly outpatient care. Therapeutic, educational, and developmental work woven into a predictable day with a small, consistent team.
- Mon–Fri · 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
- Small, consistent groups
- Weekly
Intensive Outpatient Program
For children stepping down from Day Treatment, or whose needs are lower-acuity.
Afternoons after school, so your child stays in school. Often used as a step-down from Day Treatment, or as the right starting point for children whose needs don't require a full-day program.
- Mon–Fri · 3:30 – 6:30 p.m.
- Small, consistent groups
- Weekly
Small, consistent groupings. Not large cohorts. Schedules are individualized: your child's care plan dictates which therapies happen when, not the other way around.
The space
Purpose-built for neurodivergent children.
Every design choice in the building reduces sensory overwhelm and supports regulation. Soft acoustics, low-glare lighting, dedicated low-stim rooms, and an outdoor nature space the children help tend.
Leadership
Clinicians leading clinicians.
Our directors set the standard of care, and sit in the team meetings about your child.
Brandi Rials, PsyD
Co-founder of NorthStar Day. Leads the program's clinical vision, treatment planning, and quality of care.
Full bio
What progress looks like
We don't promise miracles. We track real outcomes.
01
Developmental gains
Communication, regulation, social skills, attention, play. The capacities everything else is built on.
02
Real-world functional outcomes
Transitions handled, classroom demands met, family routines that hold together, community outings that work.
03
Family empowerment
Parents leave with skills, confidence, and routines that work at home.
04
Successful step-down
Children transition to less-intensive care, school, or mainstream settings when the team and family agree they're ready.
Insurance
Coverage, sorted before day one.
We work with most major insurance plans. Call us and we'll verify your benefits the same day.
Private pay is also accepted. Our admissions specialists handle prior authorization and can talk you through coverage before your first visit.
Commercial plansMost major insurers
Private payAccepted
Benefits checkSame day
Prior authorizationWe handle it
For referring providers
Referring a patient? Reach out and we'll take it from there.
Our admissions specialists can walk you through clinical fit, levels of care, and next steps, usually the same day. We work with pediatricians, developmental pediatricians, psychologists, and school clinicians.
Common questions
What parents ask first.
There is no fixed length. Your child's care plan is reviewed with your family, so you always know where things stand and what would have to be true for the next step. When the team and the family agree your child is ready, we step down gradually, moving from the Day Program to after-school IOP and from IOP to outpatient care.
Mornings start with regulation, not demands: an unhurried arrival, a movement meeting, then short focused learning blocks and therapy groups with a sensory snack between. Mid-day brings social lunch, time in the gym and outdoors, and social skills work. Afternoons are hands-on skill-building in executive function and expressive arts, matched to your child's plan.
We work with most major insurance plans. Call us and we'll verify your benefits the same day. Private pay is also accepted. Our admissions specialists handle prior authorization before your child starts, so you're not on hold with insurance instead of being a parent.
Our model is relational and developmental rather than one built on behavioral compliance. The work starts with connection and regulation, and skills are built from there, with a multidisciplinary team coordinating one care plan instead of a single modality working alone. If ABA is specifically what your family is looking for, tell us on the intake call and we'll share referrals to providers in the community.
Start the conversationWe'll walk you through
We'll walk you through
every step.
You don't need a diagnosis to call us. Tell us what's going on. We'll listen first, then walk you through what comes next.