Integrated Therapy Works! Statements from Staff
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Integrated Therapy Works!
Statements from Staff
Thanks to Rio Rancho Schools Shining Stars Preschool staff Angela McMillan, Occupational Therapist and Linda Stamm, Developmental Preschool Classroom Teacher; Bloomfield Schools Early Childhood Center staff Deb Latta, principal, and Karen Smith, assistant principal; and Moriarty Schools staff Laura Salem, Occupational Therapist, for their contributions to this newsletter article.
An OT’s Perspective on Integrated Therapy
Angela McMillan, Rio Rancho Schools, Shining Stars Preschool
As an occupational therapist (OT) at Shining Stars Preschool, I have the opportunity to experience integrated therapy first hand. The OTs, SLPs, and PTs often work in the classroom, which allows teachers and educational assistants to see how we work with our students. This helps the teachers implement the same therapeutic techniques into the rest of the school week, so the students receive daily support, rather than just when the therapist is in the room. This type of team work allows the children to benefit from interventions that will help them learn to the best of their abilities.
Another key component to integrated therapy on this campus is collaborative consultation. Therapists and staff exchange ideas that we feel are working with each student specifically. When therapists spend time in the students’ classrooms, we are able to see the carryover of skills we are teaching the students. When pull out therapy is the only model used, the teachers do not benefit from seeing the interventions we use, and the therapists do not benefit from seeing how the student performs in the classroom. Integrated therapy brings a good balance to our campus and prepares students for higher independence in the future.
A Teacher’s View
Linda Stam, Rio Rancho Schools, Shining Stars Preschool
In an interview with Linda, teacher in a class comprised of preschool youngsters with autism, she expressed great enthusiasm for having therapists work alongside her in the classroom. She feels her knowledge and comfort in working with her youngsters has increased tremendously, in large part because she can learn new techniques and practice them with the therapists’ support, and maintain a consistent program for her youngsters.
When she talks with families, she noted that she feels more competent than ever before in her abilities to explain to them the programs created for their children and why techniques that are being used were chosen. Her knowledge has given her an ability to more easily respond to their questions, as well.
Although it is a challenge to learn how to work as a team, Linda finds the opportunity to have “other eyes” view and interpret a situation can be very beneficial in problem solving strategies. Through discussions at team meetings, she has become familiar with what therapists in the different fields look for in determining needs of children and in creating programs for them. She has found that the members of the cross-disciplinary team gain respect for each other’s roles as they work together and enjoy sharing the responsibilities in the classroom from changing diapers to helping youngsters with their backpacks and coats.
Even though Linda is a proponent of integrated therapy, she also understands the importance of offering other service models such as pull out therapy to meet some youngsters’ needs.
Thinking Outside the Box When Using Integrated Therapy
Laura Salem, Moriarty Schools, Edgewood Elementary
When I use the integrated therapy model of service in my school, I have ongoing conversations with everyone who comes into contact with that child throughout his day, including the teacher, other therapists with whom the child works, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, school secretary, principal, etc. and involve them in his “therapy”. This is especially important when supporting youngsters who are very bothered by outside stimuli like sounds, visual distractions, and oral sensitivity. Children with these sensory sensitivities work tremendously hard to respond appropriately to stimuli throughout their day and need to be supported in a variety of settings. In my therapy with children with sensory integration needs, I teach them to use the words “challenging or easy” to describe events that they feel can affect them. I use these words rather than “good or bad” as these youngsters already know they interact with the world differently and they don’t need judgment words like that associated with their sensitivities.
One youngster, with whom I work, finds food textures particularly challenging so we review the cafeteria menu ahead of time and he chooses the lunches he is willing to try. I have coached the student to ask for the foods he wants and have advised the kitchen staff that he will choose food he wants and will inform them how he wants it placed on his tray (so foods are not touching one another). Initially, it was harder for the kitchen staff NOT to serve him the green beans than it was for him to boldly say “no thank you”! At this point in the school year he is able to recognize events that can seem to be challenging initially but that become easy when he is helped to break down their components and encouraged to tackle them one at a time. At home, his mother reports his incorporating this technique when trying a challenging pizza topping.
Integrated therapy is a great way to inform school staff about the OT role in supporting them and their students and to teach them more about the diverse needs of their students.
From Two Administrators’ Perspectives
Karen Smith and Deb Latta, Administrators,
Bloomfield Schools, Bloomfield Early Childhood Center
Karen Smith and Deb Latta have been administrators at the early childhood center, which contains most of the district’s developmental preschool programs, for several years and have encouraged the use of the integrated therapy model. Karen explained that she saw many advantages to providing services in this way: therapy activities for youngsters are age appropriate, in part because of the team planning; there is peer support for youngsters receiving therapy; materials used in therapy-related projects are from the classroom and are available every day; and the activities used in therapy become center projects and thus are open to all children.
For some therapists, working with children in the classroom on therapy goals makes them uncomfortable, the administrators noted. They have found, however, that these same staff members typically become advocates of integrated therapy when they notice the progress youngsters typically make when they can practice the strategies used in therapy throughout the whole day. Classroom staff realize the value, too, of working with smaller groups of children when the therapist is working in the room.
It was mentioned that it does take the support of the administration to make this integrated therapy model work effectively as it requires extra time for staff to collaborate.