About Us

PACT Institute offers a variety of services and programs tailored to meet the needs and interests of children and their families across developmental skills and stages. PACT Institute's founder, Dana Weise-Brown, has extensive clinical and educational experience in the field of pediatric communication disorders and educational psychology; specializing in interventions related to language, pragmatics, social anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders.

The Social Links programs were created in direct response to the needs and priorities families expressed as missing pieces from traditional therapeutic interventions and social skills groups for children with social anxiety and autism spectrum disorders.  These programs have been found to be highly effective for children identified with social language disorders impacting their ability to develop natural social interaction skills and meaningful relationships. 

What is unique about PACT Institute's programming is how it threads each individualized developmental social curriculum throughout a variety of specialized services to enhance the acquisition and functional use of skills related to speech-language, social pragmatics, sensory processing, motor development, cognition, and social interactions. Children's needs vary greatly, therefore, your child's curriculum is customized in order to find an intervention model individually fit to suit and optimize learning. 

The professionals at PACT Institute believe that learning is enhanced for children when they are engaged in interactive play, classroom, and community-based activities with a variety of peers across "real life" situations and meaningful experiences. The Social Links curricula and treatment models reflect this belief and support the acquisition of functional developmental skills in day-to-day situations across functional settings. This unique model is embedded as a fundamental component to all of PACT Institute's services and programs. Our specialized services are constantly modified to fit your child's needs as well as that of your family. Each child's curriculum is individually designed using approaches and techniques supported by innovative practices and empirical research in various areas of child development.

All of our assessments, services, and programs are performed by professionals licensed in the areas of speech-language pathology or occupational therapy. In addition, we have partnerships with local universities, clinics, and professionals in areas of expertise including child behavior, educational psychology, family counseling, and art therapy. We believe children are best served when intervention is directly provided by those professionals who have the knowledge, expertise, and clinical savvy to assist them in navigating their way through the multiple facets of learning and development.

PACT Institute is located at 1014 Mainstreet in the quaint and historic city of Hopkins, just 15 minutes west of downtown Minneapolis.