Areas to Support: Therapeutic Support
Therapeutic support for learning disabled and emotionally disturbed children is key to their opportunities for success. The kind of comprehensive and intensive services they require are extremely difficult to obtain in an outpatient setting with an array of unassociated professionals. The boys accepted for admission to Little Keswick School (LKS) typically face multiple long-term challenges. Each student is supported in their efforts by a qualified and experienced clinical team which provides individual, group, and family psychotherapies, as well as consultation to academic and residential staff. The entire team communicates continuously to deliver interventions that empower boys to make life-altering social, emotional and behavioral changes. Individual outcomes illustrate that the only real antidote to a history of struggles and failures is the experience of sustained self success.
Communication Skills and Speech Therapy
A Communication Skills Program should teach students how to be effective and appropriate communicators. Through direct instruction, role-playing, observation and discussion, students can learn how and why specific social language guidelines can improve interpersonal relationships in all aspects of life. Competent social language skills are as important as reading skills for success in today’s world. Most children develop adequate social language skills as part of natural maturation through imitation, trial and error, and general recognition of what makes the world work well for them, yet some students need direct instruction and supportive training to acquire effective social language skills. Approximately 75% of learning disabled children has social skill deficits. In order to address this population, the therapist develops a comprehensive curriculum that empowers students to use appropriate verbal styles during conversations with peers and adults as well as the appropriate body language. In therapy students learn how to obtain attention appropriately and interpret the nonverbal signals of the listener. Upon entering Little Keswick School, students are screened and evaluated to determine if an expressive and/or receptive language skill disorder is present. If a student is found eligible for therapy, a comprehensive report and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are written.
Art Therapy
Art therapy provides a means in which special-needs students may explore feelings, increase awareness of self and others, enhance cognitive abilities, and enjoy the pleasure of making art in non verbal and socially acceptable forms. Images become a metaphor for the child’s understanding of their own situation/reality. The process of creating art acts as a mechanism to discharge feelings, conflicts, fears, and concerns, and allow for dialogue at a symbolic level. Art becomes an extension of the child; which can be used to support, to value, to empower, and to give the child a voice. Art Therapists look at both the process of creating art and reflecting on the completed product in a non-judgmental and accepting way.
Art therapy allows students to design a world in which they can explore inner conflict, fears, strengths, and emotions in a symbolic form and in a safe and accepting environment. Students do not have to be artistically inclined to benefit from the art therapy. The program has been instrumental in helping students who have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. The students enjoy sharing their art with family members, their peers as well as staff members.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy is one-on-one therapy that promotes “skills for the job of living”. An experienced therapist works individually with a student to improve the performance of their unique set of body systems. Many learning disabled and emotionally disturbed children demonstrate impaired fine motor skills, gross motor function, sensory integration problems and sequencing difficulties. As we function in our daily lives, our brain and corresponding systems work together cohesively to perform the various tasks of life. Special-needs children do not have that advantage and need intensive therapy to enable them to thrive in life. Specific examples of skills addressed by a therapist illustrate the vital nature of ongoing therapeutic sessions for students. Try to imagine achieving success in life if your body and corresponding systems operate at a deficit. Sensory integration and a variety of occupational therapy techniques are used to promote a neurological foundation for the development of these basic life skills. At Little Keswick School, a Stress Management and Relaxation group session is offered which teaches techniques that enable students to practice on their own level of attention, emotion and stress and provides them with tools to manage in everyday life. Occupational Therapy is intricately linked into the other therapies and programs at the school.
