Therapy Services
Speech Therapy
Our speech-language pathologists evaluate and treat children with a wide range of communication challenges, including speech sound disorders, language disorders, deficits in social skills, fluency issues, and voice disorders. Our goal is to decrease the negative impact that these challenges have on a child’s academic success and social interaction through functional activities performed in pull-out sessions, as well as inclusion therapy. Speech-language pathologists play an integral role in education and are essential members of school staff. They understand that they must determine whether a student’s communication disorder has an impact on that student’s education. Our speech-language pathologists therefore may address personal, social/emotional, academic, and vocational needs that have an impact on the student’s ability to achieve their educational goals. Speech-language pathologists, like all educators, are accountable for student outcomes; thus they gather and interpret data on individual students to guide their decision-making.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapists at Kerr Connect evaluate and provide therapy for children who have difficulties with fine-motor skills (including handwriting), visual-motor deficits, and sensory integration disorder. Our occupational therapists use their unique expertise to help children prepare for and perform important educational activities in order to access their general curriculum. Our occupational therapists support both academic and non-academic outcomes, including: social skills, math, reading, writing, behavior management, recess, participation in sports, self-help skills, and prevocational/vocational skills. They are adept at observing a student engaging in an activity and providing strategies to the educational team in order to facilitate the student’s full participation in the general curriculum, as well as to reduce barriers that limit that student’s participation in the school environment.
Physical Therapy
Our physical therapists evaluate and treat gross-motor deficits that negatively impact the child’s ability to access the educational environment. These deficits may be due to congenital abnormalities, developmental delays, neuromuscular, skeletal, and acquired disorders, as well as issues with motor skills, balance, endurance, strength, and coordination. Using their expertise in movement and function, especially as it relates to the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems, our physical therapists promote motor development to facilitate the student’s participation in everyday routines and activities that are part of the educational program. The physical therapist performs therapeutic interventions, including compensation, remediation and prevention strategies and adaptations, which focus on functional mobility and safe, efficient access and participation in activities and routines in the child’s educational environment.
Vision Therapy
Our specialists working with visually-impaired students deliver both direct instruction and consultative services within a student’s assigned school. These specialists can provide individual education programs related to vision loss, evaluate and train visually-impaired students in keyboarding and assistive technology, perform functional vision assessments and train students in the use of prescribed low-vision devices. They also can provide assistance for school administrators in locating appropriate textbooks and materials, as well as provide consultation and support services for parents, teachers and school staff.
Therapy for the Hearing Impaired
Kerr Connect also provides therapy for students with hearing impairments. These specialists provide training for teachers on how to best instruct children with hearing loss, utilizing an auditory verbal approach within the classroom setting, and strategies for using FM systems to maximize auditory information received from teachers throughout the school day. They are familiar with cochlear implants and how to develop spoken language when severe to profound impairment exists, as well as educating teachers on how to best instruct students with cochlear implants. These specialists also teach strategies to facilitate vocabulary, audition, articulation and language in students with hearing impairments.
