Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy at Keswick School promotes “skills for the job of living.” Sensory integration and a variety of O.T. techniques are used to promote an adequate neurological foundation for the development of essential skills. Students that benefit from O.T. are those with developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, ADHD, sensory processing disorders, dysgraphia, sensory defensiveness, Tourette’s Syndrome, affective disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. TKS also uses EM Wave and WatchMinders as effective tools for intervention.
Selected students are identified for support and development of:
- Regulation of attention and emotions
- Stress management and modulation of anxiety
- Fine motor skills and perceptual skills (to write, type, and do projects with their hands)
- Gross motor skills (to run, jump, throw, kick)
- Motor planning ability (to arrive at a spot at the same time as a ball in order to kick it, to sense how hard to press when writing, to move food around in their mouth to chew adequately and eat neatly)
- Ability to move across the mid-line with eyes, arms, and legs in order to read, write, and do physical activity
- Accurate sensory processing, and filtering (sensory defensiveness)
- Age-appropriate social skills
- Trunk stability
The Occupational Therapy program at Keswick School is individualized and consists of combinations of the modalities listed below.
Individual Occupational Therapy is on an individual basis one or two times a week to address specific coordination, sensory, and emotional needs as they relate to self regulation, executive functioning, fine motor skills, and visual motor skills used for handwriting.
Group Stress Management / Relaxation Class is provided one time a week for all of the students in each class. Methods are taught and practiced to help manage daily stress and anxiety in a variety of settings.
Small Group Occupational Therapy is provided for groups of two to five students to work on specific sensory, social and coordination goals such as handwriting and fine motor skills.
Integrated Occupational Therapy Services consists of ongoing intensive review, consultation, and intervention of O.T. goals and objectives. Relevant data from performance in all areas of the program are reviewed weekly by the Occupational Therapist Registered/Licensed (OTR/L), and personalized intervention plans are devised with academic and milieu staff members in which exercises are prescribed and scripts are provided.
