Speech and Language Therapy

The Communication Skills/Speech Therapy Program at Keswick School teaches students how to be effective and appropriate communicators. Through direct instruction, role-playing, observation, and discussion, students learn how and why specific social language guidelines can improve interpersonal relationships in all aspects of life. Competent social language skills are necessary for success in today’s world. Most students develop adequate social language skills as part of natural maturation through imitation, trial and error, and general recognition of what makes the world work well for them. Other students need direct instruction and supportive training to acquire effective social language skills.

The Communication Skills Curriculum teaches students to:

• Use appropriate nonverbal body language during conversations with peers and adults.
• Use appropriate verbal styles during conversations with peers and adults.
• Use appropriate turn-taking skills during conversations with peers and adults.
• Interpret nonverbal signals of the listener.
• Get attention appropriately.
• Give and receive compliments.
• Use appropriate communication for expressing disagreement.
• Use appropriate jokes, sarcasm, and humor.

At Keswick School, we offer a variety of service delivery models to meet the needs of our students:

Individual: A variety of student specific goals, such as oral and written language, articulation and fluency are addressed with the intent of carryover into the academic and residential settings.

Integrated Group: The speech pathologist and classroom teachers collaborate to address language based goals within the classroom setting.

Small Group Communication Skills: Through games and structured activities, these small groups provide a setting to address improvement of social interactions across the academic and residential day.

Conversation Café: Students meet weekly in a small group during lunch. Table manners and conversation skills such as: opening and closing a discussion, topic maintenance, and joining a discussion already in progress are addressed.

The communication skills program is a core component of treatment at Keswick School. Because the social and neurological processes involved in successful communication are central to the academic, relational, and individual well-being of all of our students, these services are integrated throughout the program and are specified on each student’s IEP/ISP. Initial screening determines whether the student receives intensive one-to-one work or is assigned only to group interventions.