Occupational Therapy
Focuses on helping individuals develop, recover, or maintain the skills needed for daily living and working. It aims to improve fine motor skills, sensory processing, visual perception, and overall independence in various activities.
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Balance, Coordination, Strength, & Endurance
- Fine Motor & Handwriting
- Visual-Motor Integration
- Play & Social Skills
- Feeding & Oral Motor Skills
- Self-Care
- Academic & Cognitive Skills
- Behavioral Difficulties
- Developmental Delays
Speech Therapy
Speech therapy is a specialized service that helps individuals improve their communication skills. This can include working on speech sounds, language development, fluency, voice quality, and more.
Speech therapy can be incredibly beneficial for students who may have difficulty expressing themselves verbally, articulating words clearly, following directions, or engaging in conversations. By working with a speech therapist, students can improve their communication skills, boost their confidence, and enhance their overall academic performance.
- Expressive & Receptive Language
- Speech & Language Developmental Milestones
- Articulation/Intelligibility
- Speech Fluency
- Pragmatics & Social Sills
- Literacy & Vocabulary
- Apraxia of Speech
- Augmentative & Alternative
- Communication
- Feeding & Oral Motor
Feeding Therapy
Feeding therapy is a specialized type of therapy that helps children with difficulties related to eating, drinking, or swallowing. It is designed to address a wide range of issues, including picky eating, food aversions, sensory sensitivities, and oral motor difficulties.
Feeding therapy can help by providing strategies and techniques to improve a child's overall relationship with food, increase their acceptance of a wider variety of foods, and develop necessary skills for safe and efficient eating and swallowing. It can also address underlying issues that may be impacting a child's ability to eat or drink comfortably.
- Food Aversions
- Food Refusal
- Picky Eating
- Avoidance of Certain Textures
- Gagging & Vomiting
- Oral Motor/Chewing Difficulties
- Limited Diet/Food Repertoire
Sensory Integration
Sensory integration refers to the process of the brain organizing and interpreting information received through our senses to help us interact effectively with our environment. This is crucial for our students, as it can impact their learning, behavior, and overall well-being.
By understanding sensory integration and how it affects our students, we can create environments and activities that support their sensory needs. This, in turn, can help improve their focus, attention, and overall participation in classroom activities.
- Autism & ADHD
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Poor Tolerance of Sensory Stimuli from the Environment
- Meltdowns & Tantrums
- Poor Balance/Body Awareness
- Poor Attention & Concentration
- Poor Self- Regulation
- Behavior & Social Difficulties
- Poor Motor Coordination & Motor Planning
- Aggression, Frustration or Avoidance Behaviors
Applied Behavioral Analysis
Referred to as ABA therapy. Many individuals on the autism spectrum require assistance in learning specific skills or behaviors that are positive and functional, aiming to replace challenging behaviors like tantrums or aggression. ABA Therapy has proven to be highly effective in teaching skills in various common areas such as social interaction, play skills, functional communication, leisure activities, self-help and adaptive skills, gross and fine motor play, as well as daily living activities.
At our school, we implement Natural Environment Teaching (NET) as part of our ABA therapy approach. NET is a method that utilizes play to teach skills in environments that are familiar to the child or in settings that the child enjoys. This individualized teaching method can be utilized by ABA therapists, parents, and other caregivers to facilitate skill development effectively.
Did you know that a pivotal study in the 1960s fundamentally changed how we view the importance of private therapy for children?
The Case of Dibs
1964
In 1964, renowned child psychologist Virginia Axline published her groundbreaking book "Dibs in Search of Self," which detailed her work with a young boy named Dibs through private therapy sessions. Axline used play therapy, a form of private therapy where children use play to express their feelings and experiences, to help Dibs, who was initially diagnosed with severe emotional disturbances and developmental delays.
Axline's work with Dibs demonstrated the profound impact of play therapy in helping children process complex emotions and experiences.
And most importantly, the importance of personalized, one-on-one therapeutic interventions for children.