About Us

Garden Academy was founded in 2005 in response to a shortage of high-quality educational services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. When Garden Academy first opened its doors, our school served four children in a church basement. Since then, we’ve grown to serve over 35 students from across the state of New Jersey. 

Our educational philosophy is based on the principles of behavior analysis. Serving students aged 3- to 21-years old from across the state of New Jersey, our full-day, year-round program has a one-to-one staff-to-student ratio, and is highly individualized to address the specific needs of each student. 

Students at Garden Academy vary in skill-level and goals. We emphasize life skills that promote independence and community inclusion. Some examples of skills we teach at Garden Academy are communicating, toilet training, and developing vocational skills.

Treatment of Severe Problem Behavior

Finding help for a child that struggles with severe behaviors can be challenging. One aspect of Garden Academy’s program that sets us apart is our staff is highly trained in treating individuals who struggle with severe problem behaviors. Members of our leadership team have years experience from preeminent treatment centers for the treatment of problem behavior, including experience at the Munroe-Meyer Institute and Kennedy Krieger Institute.

Parent Training

One feature of our family-centric program is parent training, which creates opportunities for our student’s parents to work directly with their child’s instructors to help transfer skills learned at school to the student’s home or community environment. Some skills our students have learned during parent training include learning to play independently while Mom cooks dinner, attending religious services, going out to eat at a restaurant, and communicating via a communication device such as Proloquo2Go.