Special Education Services
The School Psychologist supports the emotional and social
development of all children as well as those children who need extra
attention inside the classroom.
Direct Work with Children and Families
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Supporting children’s social, emotional, and behavioral health.
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Screening, identifying and addressing developmental, learning and behavior challenges that interfere with success at school.
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Determining eligibility for special education evaluation and services and make appropriate referrals.
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Coordinating support services.
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Supporting families through the process of Early Intervention and Individualized Education Plans (IEP) at their local public schools.
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Teaching parenting skills and facilitate the home–school connection.
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Collaboration and Consultation with Teaching Staff, Directors, and Therapists
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Providing screening, reading support, resources (including referrals) and practical strategies for children who need extra attention inside the classroom. Suggestions and classroom modifications are made according to the individual needs of children.
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Identifying and resolving emotional, academic and social barriers to learning.
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Designing and implementing child progress monitoring systems.
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Designing and implementing academic and behavioral interventions.
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Enhancing understanding and acceptance of children’s diverse needs and supporting effective individualized instruction.
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Creating positive classroom environments.
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Supporting strategies that motivate all children to engage in playing and learning.
The Occupational Therapist supports children’s sensory development and handwriting skills through (1) direct work with all children and (2) collaboration and consultation with Gan teaching staff, directors, and therapists in providing screening, resources and practical strategies for children who need extra attention and support.
Sensory Development
The Occupational Therapist works inside the classroom in small groups and one on one to offer sensory support to all children and to those children who may be either under-sensitive or over-sensitive to their environment. The Gan covers the cost of any initial consultation (including screening). The Occupational Therapist will provide a discount to any Gan family who elects private services.
Handwriting Support
The Occupational Therapist leads our Fine Motor/Visual Motor Activities Program for handwriting whose goal is that each child will be as ready as they can be for future learning. This program addresses body awareness, directionality, dexterity, grasp, scissor skills and visual motor. When children enter Kindergarten there are a variety of expectations depending on the program. Some children may already know how to write all their letters and numbers, and some can even write small sentences. It is our goal to make the process easy and fun. There may be some children with poor or weak grip, which impacts how they use there little hands. Some may even reverse their letters. We want to build on what they know and make the changes we need to now to avoid difficulties later on. At the beginning of the school year our pre-K children are screened to identify those whose fine motor and visual motor skills need further age specific development. Every two weeks children ages two and older will participate in a variety of activities that will strengthen their handwriting skills (e.g. morning sign-in). These skills will follow a developmental sequence to make the learning age appropriate and fun. Children who need more assistance will participate in these activities for longer amounts of time or more days per week depending on the classroom. The therapist and teachers work together to make sure each child is meeting their fullest potential.
