The Education Program

KidsAbility School has half-day special education programs for children with communication, physical and/or developmental disabilities. The one-year program focuses on early identification, early intervention and transition into community schools. Teachers, parents, educational assistants and therapists work as teams to combine education and therapy in order to meet the unique needs of each child.

The purpose of the education program is to:

• Develop a child’s skills in communication, social interaction, and physical skills for daily routines, self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Develop a child’s ability to function within a group setting, learn basic routines and follow instructions.
• Determine appropriate therapy equipment, behaviour strategies and learning strategies.
• Focus on academic learning through individualized programming.
• Provide support and strategies for families to prepare for transition from KidsAbility School to community schools for the following school year.
• Provide home and community programming as needed.

The education program expectations are based on the Kindergarten program developed by the Ministry of Education. Individual Education Plans (IEPs) are developed to meet the specific learning needs of each child.

Therapy Services

Therapy services are offered by KidsAbility as a support to the child’s educational program.  Therapists work as part of the team involving the child, the child’s family/caregivers, teachers, educational assistants, and other school personnel.  This team works together to set goals and develop an intervention plan in order to assist the child to function in the school setting.

Therapy services may include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and/or speech and language therapy, depending on the needs of the child and the availability of resources.  Assessment and consultative services may also be available from social work and therapeutic recreation.  If needed, other KidsAbility services such as seating and mobility, orthopedics, orthotics clinics, and/or augmentative communication services (ACS) may be accessed. 

A variety of approaches may be used by the therapists to assist the child in meeting his/her goals. These include direct service, mediation, and consultation.

• Direct service:  Intervention activities are implemented by a therapist with one child or a small group of children using specialized strategies and techniques.   This may occur in the classroom, gym or therapy room and may involve more than one type of therapist (e.g. occupational therapist and speech language pathologist may see a child at the same time).   Following a number of direct sessions, the child may receive a ‘break’ to practice and consolidate learned skills.
• Mediation:  Intervention activities are implemented by “mediators” (e.g. parents, caregivers, teachers, educational assistants, therapy aides or volunteers) in the child’s environment.  The therapist is responsible for training and coaching the mediators, monitoring the child’s program and evaluating his/her progress.
• Consultation:  Intervention occurs by the therapist sharing knowledge, resources and expertise to enable others to make changes in their roles, functions, programs, and environments (e.g. parent education workshops, team meetings, written information, etc.).  Consultation involves evaluation and/or monitoring of the child’s progress and may occur in conjunction with another approach. 

Depending on the needs of the child and the resources available, different approaches will be used at different times throughout the school year.  For example, a therapist may begin with a direct service approach to identify strategies and then change to a consultation approach to share these strategies with teachers and educational assistants.   The child’s therapists work with the family and the rest of the team to determine the most appropriate intervention plan.