Abbot's Way offers Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Social Skills sessions. The therapists at Abbot's Way work closely with staff, students and parents.
Therapy
/ˈθɛrəpi/
noun
treatment intended to relieve
Our approach to therapy is as holistic and 'blended' as for our knowledge areas.
Our in house team of therapists will work collaboratively and holistically with our learning team to ensure specialist support and maximum progress for our students.
Sessions will utilise different spaces around our Schoolhouse, Walled Garden, Paddocks and on the sports field as appropriate, ensuring that skills acquired are applied to practical situations. Our Georgian rooms provide light, airy and comfortable spaces to move and also gain some rest and quiet. Acoustics are gentle and the ambience is bright, comforting and restful.
Speech and Language Therapists at Abbot's Way work with students on all aspects of both spoken and non-verbal communication, the development of social communication skills, and auditory processing. Their areas of work may include any of the following:
- Receptive language
- Central language processing
- Expressive language
- Phonological processing
- Listening skills
- Thinking skills
- Memory difficulties
- Auditory Processing
Occupational Therapists work with students in the following areas:
- Gross Motor skills
- Fine Motor Skills
- Motor Planning
- Visual Perceptual skills
- Sensory Processing and modulation
- Functional performance
All new students are offered SaLT and OT assessments as part of our induction process. The outcome of the assessments will be discussed with parents/guardians, and consent to treatment sought, before therapy commences. This helps to determine the best way forward and to enable the therapists to learn from parents about the developmental history of the child and any previous therapeutic input / provision previously offered.
Some students join Abbot's Way with the provision of one or both therapies identified in a Educational and Health Care Plan (EHCP)
If this is the case, therapy can begin as soon as the required consent forms from parent/guardian and Local Authority, have been signed. Once therapy is agreed, it is provided on a weekly timetabled basis, which therapists discuss with both parents and staff. Each child is allocated a named therapist and every effort is made to maintain the same therapist throughout their time at Abbot's Way. All therapy incurs an additional termly cost, as outlined in the fees section of the website.
Termly targets are set jointly by each therapist and the student to ensure a good focus to the work which will be done. These are added to the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) and are reviewed each term.
Therapists support our skills-based approach, both within learning sessions across the curriculum and their 1:1 therapy sessions.
Therapists maintain communication with parents and also attend Annual Reviews.
Therapy is an intrinsic part of the holistic Abbot’s Way jigsaw.
All therapists are qualified professionals who are required by law to maintain membership of their relevant professional body, together with professional registration through the Health and Care Professions Council.
Social skills are an obvious focus at Abbot’s Way and the acquisition / development of these are supported both through therapy and through our pastoral provision
We focus on:
- Emotion including empathy
- Communication; verbal and non verbal
Through scaffolded, visual activities with regular feedback such as:
- Role play
- Songs
- Social stories
- Masks
- Games and turn taking
- Play
