While autism spectrum disorder (ASD) generally affects socialization, communication, and behavior patterns, the needs of our students vary greatly, so Shrub Oak employs a highly talented, experienced, and fully credentialed team of professionals to support our students’ mental health. Experts in the field of autism, our psychologists, social workers, Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), and mental health clinicians collaborate closely to address each student’s typical ASD needs in addition to their individual specific mental health needs.
As part of the Shrub Oak Clinical Department, our mental health team provides interventions that effectively address the array of mental health challenges faced by our students. Mental health services may include consultation, strengths-based group or individual counseling, and formulation of individualized mental health treatment/behavior plans, supports, and interventions. Mental health goals and objectives are developed in collaboration with students, teachers, parents, service providers, school districts, and support professionals to address the social, emotional, and developmental needs of our students, centering around their strengths and interests. Shrub Oak’s mental health clinicians also collaborate closely with other members of the clinical team and with our education and campus life departments, as well. This collaboration is vital to maintain consistent reinforcement of student strengths and to facilitate utilization of coping/regulation strategies when required.
Students receive counseling regularly. The purpose of counseling sessions is to provide students with support in addressing issues that may be hindering their progress. Individual counseling fosters students’ ability to advocate for their needs across different areas of their lives, including school, family, and community, while group counseling focuses on improving social skills and healthy peer interactions within a safe environment. Furthermore, Shrub Oak students are encouraged to identify and implement strategies aimed at enhancing their emotional regulation and goal attainment. The ultimate goal of counseling is to facilitate students’ self-advocacy and effective utilization of the support systems available in their relationships with peers, adults, and community members.
The Shrub Oak International School mental health department also conducts routine psychological assessments that include testing of cognitive, emotional, and educational functioning. Together with assessments conducted by our psychologist/s and BCBA/s, these measures provide valuable data regarding a student’s strengths and specialized support. Furthermore, our clinical psychologist provides direct therapeutic interventions including Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Trauma-Focused Therapy (TF-CBT), and psychodynamic psychotherapy to students requiring these services at an individual, group, or family level. As part of Shrub Oak’s transdisciplinary team, our clinical psychologist contributes expertise regarding the cognitive and emotional aspects of a student’s daily functioning, as well as the social and interpersonal contexts that affect them.
Additionally, staff are trained to support each student’s individualized plan to enhance acquisition of new skills.
Shrub Oak International School speech and language pathologists (SLPs) build on each student’s innate strengths and preferred means of communication using multi-modal approaches including strengthening muscles and/or enunciation; sign language; Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices; Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS); iPads and other electronic touch systems; and speech output devices. In addition to working on communication and language goals, our SLPs work on goals related to social communication such as body language, matching the emotion with the aligned facial expression, and responding to questions.
As needed, SLPs perform comprehensive speech and language assessments to guide goal development, intervention, and future planning. The goal of intervention is to support a student’s functional communication development across various settings while focusing on their strengths and interests. Our SLPs collaborate with the student’s transdisciplinary team and community members to increase knowledge and understanding of communication supports needed for students to ensure each student’s plan is holistic, individualized, integrated, and considers their specific developmental needs. Providing services in various settings around the campus and community enables the use of language skills in the natural environment with various communication partners and promotes carryover. Settings can include, but are not limited to, academic classes, the farm, the dining hall, the playground, the life skills house, and job sites.
Shrub Oak International School occupational therapists (OTs) help our students reach their collaboratively determined, person-informed goals while supporting them to reach their full potential in school, the community, and campus life. Our OTs take a student-first and holistic approach in supporting students, and do much more than address fine motor skills. They support educational goals; visual perceptual and visual motor integration skills; sensory processing; motor coordination; cognitive skills and executive functioning; body awareness; meal preparation; shopping; pre-employment; job performance; leisure exploration; and social participation. The objective is to assist students in reaching their full potential and foster self-reliance in significant daily activities. Although OTs may provide occasional assistance or advice to team members regarding a student’s self-care routines, students’ direct support professionals (DSPs) are responsible for routinely supporting daily self-care tasks, such as teeth brushing, shaving, toileting, bathing, feeding, and nail trimming.
Shrub Oak International School physical therapists (PT) design and perform therapeutic interventions including prevention strategies and adaptations, focusing on functional mobility and safe, efficient participation in educational activities and daily living routines. Using their unique expertise in movement, form, and function, our physical therapist creates individualized treatment plans to support students’ physical needs as they work to improve strength, balance, coordination, and mobility. By helping to remediate or compensate for musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, or cardiopulmonary impairments, physical therapy helps increase school participation and engagement while enhancing functional mobility and facilitating safe and efficient engagement in educational activities and school routines.
To enhance our therapeutic programming, Shrub Oak offers students access to a Snoezelen room on campus. Also known as a multi-sensory environment, a Snoezelen room is a specially designed space that combines a variety of sensory experiences to create a calming and stimulating atmosphere. Our Snoezelen room is equipped with an array of resources and materials providing visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and vestibular stimulation. These features are customizable to meet each student’s unique needs.
In addition to the Snoezelen room, Shrub Oak features sensory gyms for active sensory exploration, and a multi-use therapy gym with sensory features that students use regularly. Sensory gyms are equipped with a variety of therapeutic equipment to promote learning and development, sensory regulation, improved focus and attention, and emotional regulation. Our staff clinicians use both gyms to support students’ specific therapeutic goals. For example, during occupational therapy, students can work on postural endurance and visual perceptual skills while receiving regulating pressure input from the platform swing. Physical therapists enhance students’ gross motor skills through activities involving jumping, climbing, and balancing using trampolines, balance beams, and obstacle courses. Speech and language pathologists utilize the gym to facilitate communication through interactive games and activities that encourage verbal and non-verbal communication.
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