Mindset
Before I started teaching, I imagined related services as
something separate from my class. I would teach them, then the physical therapist
would come in and take care of their motor skill deficits. The speech language
pathologist would come in and fix their communication problems. The
occupational therapist would…well, I really didn’t know what the occupational
therapist would do!
Once I began teaching, I saw my room as an extension of the
therapies. They would tell me what to do and I would do it. For example, “Joe
needs to get in the stander for 45 minutes per day.” So, Joe would get in the
stander 45 minutes per day (well, ya know, most days). “Do these facial
exercises with John to stimulate chewing”. So, I’d squish John’s face before
lunch. With this mindset, it was so difficult to answer questions! “Hey Jenny,
how is Suzie doing with the articulation of her “th” sound?” *Deer in
headlights* “Uh...um…better?” I knew the
importance of therapies and understood that simply working on it in their once
or twice per week little snapshots of time wasn’t enough, but I still kept
therapy work and class work separated, only really
focusing on what was a specific IEP goal.
My mindset has shifted. If you could speak to the therapists
in my district, you’d know I’m not perfect (lucky for me, I’m not giving you
their numbers) ;-) but I try. I see the value of related service integration. I
know that for my students to truly make gains in related service goals, they
need to be able to generalize these skills throughout their
days. It needs to be a priority for me to mesh ALL of their goals into an
individualized program for each of my students. I'd love to, through this series, open up the conversation for others to share with me how they incorporate therapies into their classrooms. In part 2 of this related
services series, I’ll reveal what spurred the change in my head, heart, and
classroom. Stay tuned!