New Beginnings provides a comprehensive set of services that allow our students to achieve success each day through a structured, caring and positive environment. The services described below are available to the students as mandated in their IEPs.
Health Services
New Beginnings employs a full-time nurse who is available to students throughout the day. The school nurse assists with student illnesses, medications, emergencies, support and guidance. In addition, the school nurse maintains up-to-date medical records for each student, including medical history, immunizations, and any special medical considerations.
Speech and Language Therapy
The New Beginnings speech department is comprehensive and student specific. Students receive speech services in individual, group, infused, or co-treatment sessions with the occupational and/or physical therapists as determined by the IEP. Sessions are thirty minutes in length; a maximum of three sessions are provided each week. Speech therapists work closely with the classroom staff to facilitate speech and language development throughout the day. New Beginnings speech therapists address goals in the areas of receptive and expressive language skills, pragmatic and social language development, oral motor therapy and feeding therapy. Many of the speech therapists are trained in the PROMPT technique. To facilitate communication throughout the day, New Beginnings employs a variety of augmentative and alternative communication methods, such as the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), sign language, picture schedules, topic boards and hi-tech augmentative communication systems. In addition, speech therapy sessions address play skills and generalization of language skills to other people and settings.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy at New Beginnings incorporates a variety of intervention strategies into their students’ therapy sessions, with the goal of ensuring that each child is provided with an individualized program that includes the involvement of all other therapeutic disciplines. Our team approach allows for an optimal learning environment for each child. Students at New Beginning participate in 30-minute individual or group sessions, as outlined by each child’s IEP. Therapy sessions typically focus on improving sensory processing/modulation skills through the use of various sensory integrative techniques. Students also engage in various handwriting programs, visual perceptual/motor, self-care, vocational, and fine motor activities. The use of adaptive equipment and assistive devices are also utilized as needed. At New Beginnings, occupational therapy provides each child with learning experiences that generalize to other life skills.
Physical Therapy
Students are evaluated to determine any gross motor delays and how these delays may influence their ability to function within the school setting. Students receive a 30-minute individual or small group session one or two times per week, depending on the needs of the student. To assess a child’s skills within the school environment, the physical therapist takes into consideration a student’s postural stability, body awareness, and his or her ability to safely navigate through the hallways and within the classroom. In addition, physical therapy addresses a student’s gross motor needs to promote more age appropriate reciprocal play skills to encourage greater peer interaction. These areas may include: balance, coordination, motor planning, and ball skills. The physical therapists work with the adaptive physical education teacher to apply skills addressed in the physical education curriculum.
Counseling Services
Counseling services are available to enhance positive behavior and/or social skills to contribute to students’ social and emotional development. New Beginnings social workers provide group and individual counseling up to three times per week for 30-minute sessions as determined by students IEPs. In addition, social workers provide group social skills lessons in classrooms. The social workers also work collaboratively with other therapists and classroom staff to facilitate social development and peer interaction throughout the day. Social workers also are available to aid parents in accessing outside services, such as recreational activities, specialists, and the Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDD).
Reading Specialist
New Beginnings' reading specialist assists those students exhibiting difficulties with mastering reading skills. The program provides a wide variety of methodologies that support the Orton-Gillingham Method to increase decoding, fluency, encoding, and reading comprehension. Some of the methodologies utilized are the Wilson Reading program, Recipe for Reading, Bradley Reading and Language Arts, High Noon Reading Series, Wright Skills Readers, and Phonemic Awareness Techniques.
Board Certified Behavior Analyst
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) offers empirically proven strategies for evaluating the functional and communicative meaning of behavior. This data provides useful, objective assessments of progress. In addition, the interdisciplinary team members are able to map out strategies to further promote learning, growth, and development. A certified behavior analyst is on staff at New Beginnings to provide assessment and treatment strategies that allow for positive learning experiences for the students.
