Treatment Services Offered at Exceptional Childrens Center:
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy is a form of intervention in which the therapist and child work to develop or improve the necessary skills for daily living through activity. Therapy can target skills needed for coordination, school readiness and performance, self help such as feeding, dressing and grooming, focus and attention, play/social interaction, eye-hand coordination, calming, regulatory behaviors and more. We use a variety of treatment approaches, one of which is sensory integration. Sensory Integration is the ability of the brain and body to take incoming sensory information and create an efficient motor output. Your therapist will develop appropriate home programming and family education in addition to direct treatment of your child.
Speech Therapy
Generally speaking, pediatric Speech Therapy is the evaluation/assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of children with communication difficulty. Speech disorders refer to difficulty with the actual production of sounds where as language disorders refer to difficulty understanding what others are communicating or difficulty putting words together and/or expressing ones own thoughts/ideas/wants/needs, etc.
Co-Treatments
A co-treatment consists of an Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist who will treat your child together. The Occupational Therapist will provide Sensory input which stimulates language learning. During the therapy session the needed sensory component can be provided during or directly before a speech/language task. The collaboration of both professionals provides children with the best possible intervention.
Integrated Listening System (iLs)
Based on clinically proven outcomes, iLs programs strengthen existing pathways and create new neural connections/pathways in the brain (“neuroplasticity”). As these neurological connections grow stronger, language skills and emotional/psychological functions, such as self-confidence and regulation, also tend to improve.
The improvements in brain function are based on the premise that our higher brain functions – the “cortical functions” such as language, cognitive skills, socialization – rely and depend upon how well sensory input is received and processed as it enters the central nervous system and is relayed to the upper brain. iLs improves processing at both the sub-cortical and cortical levels.
Who Can Benefit:
iLs has a global effect on the brain and central nervous system, influencing the following systems: balance, visual, auditory, motor, coordination, behavior and emotional regulation. As a result, it is successfully implemented for a wide variety of conditions:
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Learning difficulties, reading, auditory processing
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Attention & regulation
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Sensory Processing
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Speech & Language
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Autism and other neuro-developmental difficulties
For more information please visit the iLs website
Therapeutic Listening
Therapeutic Listening (TL) is a sound therapy program designed especially for your child. It uses music and sounds to exercise the muscles and nerves in the ears. It also stimulates the areas of the brain used in listening and processing sensory information. Therapeutic Listening helps the brain develop and can help improve listening, movement, and communication skills.
During Therapeutic Listening, children listen to compact discs (CDs) that are chosen to meet their individual needs. The CDs may contain children’s songs, classical music, or nature sounds, which have been electronically altered
Who can benefit?
Therapeutic listening, used along with occupational therapy, may decrease the time needed to reach your child’s treatment and educational goals in areas such as:
• attention and focus
• balance and motor planning
• self regulation and sensory sensitivity
• communication and social skills
• visual motor coordination and writing
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