Therapy can be an important part of the learning experience for young people with Asperger Syndrome. All students are offered personalised social skills profiles and are encouraged to achieve the goals they set in therapy.
A combination of evidence based therapies will be offered to help students, if it is assessed as necessary as part of their ongoing development.
Occupational therapy
Occupational Therapy (OT) focuses on supporting a person’s wellbeing though participation in meaningful activity. An Occupational Therapist will work with our learners to enable them to do the things that are important or meaningful to them.
An Occupational Therapist can help identify how a person is responding to various sensory input (things one sees, hears, touches, smells or tastes).
Sometimes sensory processing issues can cause a person to feel overwhelmed or anxious, and Occupational Therapists can develop personalised strategies to help with this. Examples of activities an OT can help with: Self Care, leisure and social activities, productivity such as organisational skills, study support, budgeting, mental health support including mindfulness, confidence building and relaxation.
Speech and language therapy
Our speech and language therapist takes a consultative role, as well as working directly with students to assess their needs and plan and implement intervention.
Many of the students have a varied communicative profile, often presenting as very able verbally, but failing to detect and/or understand more subtle verbal and non-verbal cues.
Students have access to individual sessions but development focus is on group sessions where a higher level of communicative competence and a more reflective stance of real-life situations is supported.
This integrated programme of therapy promotes a consistent approach to social communication and helps students to raise awareness of their individual difficulties, the effect on others and provides clear information and useful strategies for communication in adulthood.
Therapy referrals
Therapy referrals are usually from students themselves. However, parents, guardians and support workers can also make referrals but only with the consent and co-operation of the individual.