Therapists in School and What to Expect
- jennydavis8
- Nov 3, 2022
- 5 min read
Therapy availability for students with ASCs
Most children with ASC’s have an education healthcare plan. This advises on everything related to the assistance and development of the child, ensuring focus on their specific requirements. The EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) contains advice from a host of different professionals, listed below, that may be involved in supporting your child.
Many parents are disappointed with the amount of contact their child has with therapists in general, most complaints seem to stem from the amount of time their child has with the occupational and speech and language therapists. The misconception is that the therapists are supposed to spend X number of hours per week with the child directly, however, often therapists provide support by making an assessment of the child, training teachers and other professionals on how to properly interact with the child and monitoring the progress of any support programmes provided. This is where the hours are truly made up. Teachers and learning support assistants put the programmes in place within the classroom and ensure that it’s integrated into the child’s day. Support and guidance are also provided to parents to make sure that the child practices skills outside of school as well as inside school. Sometimes it is difficult to implement advice at home as the environment is less structured and parents are busy. However, if you can manage it, you and your child will reap the rewards.
Often therapy is carried out in a way that may not be obvious. These are most commonly seen in play time and lunchtime activities such as “Snack Time”. Snack time is an interactive way of incorporating support for language and physical independence. Using visual support, similar to the image seen below, can encourage the child to ask for things they want from an adult in a polite manner. This helps the child learn not only how to ask for something but improves vocabulary too. Independence skills can be encouraged at this time e.g. unwrapping things, pouring drinks, peeling fruit etc. This supports their fine motor skills and language in a real-life situation.
Making the best use of therapists Below are 5 key tips to ensure you get the most out of your therapists:
1. Have your questions ready for your meeting, as time is always limited.
2. Be prepared to work with them on one or two things at a time – Rome wasn’t built in a day!
3. Continue to practice activities with your child, even if you forget it for a day. The more you practice, the easier it gets.
4. Try to incorporate activities into your daily routine – take any opportunity to continue development, e.g. if the activity is talking, make bath time into talk time.
5. Don’t be scared to talk to the therapists openly, honesty is key to correctly assisting your child.
Professionals and what they do
1) Specialist Teachers
Specialist Teachers are found in most schools throughout the UK. In mainstream schools, where the majority of students with ASC’s reside, these specialists are called the “SENCO” (special educational needs co-ordinator). On the contrary, in special schools most of the teachers would be specialists already, trained in adapting learning requirements based on student needs.
These teachers are responsible for the learning programmes for students with special educational requirements. They generally have a good knowledge and understanding of the students they work with and have access to further specialist advice from the professionals listed below.
2) Educational Psychologist
Educational Psychologists are a mythical creature who exist on paper but are seldom found in the wild. Jokes aside, educational psychologists are experts in understanding how people develop/learn and what mental/physical barriers may prevent learning. For example, they can assess students to identify their disability, such as if they’re dyslexic, they will then offer advice to teachers and parents about how to overcome or minimise associated difficulties. Most boroughs and local educational authorities should have at least 1 Education Phycologist, in practice many posts remain unfilled.
3) Speech and Language Therapists
Speech and language therapists aren’t employed by the educational authority but by the health authority. They observe children and consult with carers to create a plan including activities to support progress in spoken language, social communication and listening/attention skills amongst other things.
S+L Therapists advise upon developing communication, this may not necessarily be solely verbal communications and may include body language, facial expressions, listening skills and the social use of language.
Many special schools have in house speech and language therapists, you may also find speech and language therapists assigned to mainstream schools, however, they visit in rotations around these schools, roughly a few times a year.
4) Occupational Therapist
Occupational Therapists advise on a large host of things, more specifically: physical independence, emotional regulation, gross motor skills (for example, riding a bicycle, kick a football), fine motor skills (such as, painting, writing, eating) and toilet training.
Like the Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapists are employed by the health authority and go into schools to advise on programmes to support the above. Many special schools will have an in-house OT.
5) Clinical Psychologists (sometimes)
Clinical Psychologists are for more specific cases pertaining to anxieties/mental health issues. Some special schools have an in-house clinical psychologist, however, most mainstream schools do not. The GP would be able to refer you to a clinical psychologist if required.
Clinical psychologists are not always specifically for the worst of the mental health conditions and can be used to assist in OCD type behaviours amongst other things.
In Practice
Advice and therapies are usually carried out by the teaching team responsible for your child and by parents at home, not always the therapist. Although your child may be entitled to speech and language therapy (for example), this will not necessarily be carried out by the speech and language therapists themselves. Instead, it will be built into their school day and lessons which accommodates progress in a wider range of environments than just working in a one to one situation.
Therapists start by identifying the students’ strengths and requirements. From such they plan an outcome, e.g. if the child has a poor attention span their outcome may be to try and get the child to pay attention to an adult for 10 minutes. In order to achieve this, the therapist may formulate a method to ease the child, for example: carefully grading small steps which can be achieved using a now next board can help break instructions/tasks into smaller steps. For more information please see our blog on Now Next boards here: BLOG TO COME
Therapists ensure staff are trained sufficiently via various methods and strategies and through regular visits to the classroom They model activities for the teachers to use with the children, this is then built into the child’s learning plan going forward until a new skill has been learned or an outcome achieved.
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