Therapeutic Services

The Collaborative Therapeutic Department provides services in the area of speech, occupational and physical therapy as well as vision.  These services are provided to all Collaborative students as outlined in their IEP’s and are contracted out to member districts of the Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative.

• Physical Therapy – The goal of the Collaborative’s physical therapy department is to maintain and improve all aspects of physical functioning and prevent decline in mobility, to maximize each students' independence and participation in their education.  Wheelchair and orthotics clinics are provided within the classroom environment to assist in obtaining needed bracing and other durable medical equipment. Treatment experience includes: Downs syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Orthopedic Dysfunction, Muscular Dystrophy, metabolic disorders, brain injury, cerebral vascular accident, pulmonary dysfunction, cardiac dysfunction and developmental delay

• Speech and Language Pathology – The Collaborative’s speech and language department provides intensive services to students with a wide range of communication difficulties.  The goal of therapy is to help students achieve their maximum communication potential.  Services include: phonology/articulation, receptive language, semantics/vocabulary, expressive language, grammar/syntax, pragmatics/social language, total communication/sign, augmentative/assistive communication, oral motor function/swallowing/feeding, auditory processing, fluency, and voice.

• Occupational Therapy – The Collaborative’s occupational therapy department provides individual and group services to promote optimal performance to our students within the classroom setting.  Assessment and intervention in performance areas of sensory integration, play, socialization, sensorimotor and fine motor, perceptual, visual motor integration, activities of daily living and functional life skills are provided.  Learning is maximized for our students through intervention strategies, adaptations, modifications and Assistive Technology. 

• Vision – The vision program of the Collaborative is staffed by one full-time itinerant Teacher/Consultant of the Visually Impaired.  This teacher provides consultative and direct vision services to students within the Collaborative and those in its member districts.  The goal of the Collaborative’s vision program is to increase functional vision and to teach compensatory skills and independence.

• Adapted Physical Education – The Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative’s adapted physical education services are provided for member districts as well as the developmental and behavioral programs of the Collaborative.  One full-time and one part-time adapted physical education teacher provide services to students ranging in age from 3 to 22.

Objectives of the Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative’s adapted physical education program include:

• Help students’ correct conditions that can be improved.
• Helping students protect themselves and any conditions that would be aggravated through certain physical activities.
• Provide students with an opportunity to learn and to participate in a number of appropriate recreational and leisure time sports and activities.
• Improve physical fitness for the maximal development of organic and neuromuscular systems.
• Help students make social adjustments and develop a feeling of self-worth.
• Aid each student in developing knowledge and appreciation relative to proper body mechanics
• Help students understand and appreciate a variety of sports so they can enjoy them as a non participant or spectator.

• Orientation and Mobility – Orientation and Mobility is that part of a rehabilitation or education program that teaches an individual who is legally blind how to travel safely and independently.  At the Board of Education and Services for the Blind, the goal of any orientation and mobility program is for the individual to achieve the maximum safety and independence in mobility that is possible according to his needs and capabilities.

   

  The components of Orientation and Mobility instruction may include:

• sensory training – development of the senses of hearing, touch, etc.

• development of good spatial and environmental concepts – building an understanding of the layout of the environment in which the individual travels
• confidence building
• assessment and training of an individual's functional travel vision (if any)
• instruction in self-protection techniques
• instruction in the use of sighted guide technique
• instruction in the use of a white cane for independent travel
• familiarization to specific areas or routes in the individual’s environment
• instruction in the use of available public transportation

Lessons are taught on a one-to-one basis by an orientation and mobility specialist.

 

For more information about the Collaborative's therapeutic services

please contact the Therapy Coordinator - Melissa Manzi