PTS Gives Back to the Global Community with Integrated Therapy Services 

Here at Pediatric Therapeutic Services (PTS), we have proudly supported clinicians, teachers, administrators, and students for 25 years—and counting!

In addition to our many partnering schools within the United States, we have brought integrated therapeutic support to 1,000 international schools around the world, including in northern India, the Dominican Republic, Belize, Guatemala, and beyond. 

Time and again we have seen our approach empower educators to help students in special and general education using available resources. Learn more about how we’ve given back to the global community! 

Our Child-First Philosophy for 25 Years

Driven by the ever-growing need for school-based therapy while contending with budget constraints, we asked ourselves, “How can we do more for a greater population of students for less expense?” This is at the heart of our “Children First” philosophy, which continues to drive us towards developing more ever-green resources and services for teachers and families around the globe.

Our commitment to putting children first led us to develop innovative ways to empower teachers to provide “therapy without the therapist.” By sharing how to incorporate therapeutic strategies and interventions directly into the classroom and beyond, we have seen students and teachers thrive in areas with limited resources.

Our First Global Partnership: Beautiful Gates Special School (BGSS) in Mysore India

In 2008, PTS developed a partnership that we continue today with the Beautiful Gates Special School (BGSS) for children with disabilities in Mysore, India. Currently, we provide a wide range of both clinical and financial support.

When the PTS team visited BGSS for 10 days, the school had 20 students with multiple disabilities or autism. There were no therapists available to step in and provide training or additional services. The solution was to find ways for teachers to provide “therapy without the therapist.”

At the time, it was clear that the students had overwhelming needs, including a lack of handwriting skills. PTS worked with the teachers to incorporate hand-strengthening activities, like counting beads as they added them to a string, directly into the daily curriculum. Soon, students’ hand muscles and control began to develop, so they could begin learning to write.

This showed that PTS’s approach to incorporating therapeutic strategies into the classroom was also effective in schools without a therapist and where little or no resources were available. After this first trip, PTS began developing more training programs and support for teachers that considered budgetary and resource constraints.

The True Power of Providing “Therapy Without the Therapist”

Though most pediatric therapists spend years studying in their field, therapy isn’t magic. In fact, many teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents can implement basic therapeutic strategies at the classroom level at any time. Therapeutic activities can also be easily replicated by caregivers and educators to ensure students continue to receive the support they need.

Based on what we learned by working alongside BGSS, we created The Capable Classroom™  suite of Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions that can be incorporated at the classroom or small group level. We teach these strategies and share these interventions with our partnering schools in the United States as well as at international schools around the world.

These activities address skill deficits in fun and effective ways and require very little or no resources. All The Capable Classroom™  activities also include easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. This means teachers, aides, and parent volunteers can implement them in a variety of contexts, so students get what they need to develop vital skills.

PTS Will Continue Teaching Integrated Therapeutic Strategies Through Our Global Partnerships for the Next 25 Years and Beyond

As we celebrate 25 years of service, we look ahead to what we can accomplish over the next 25 years by advancing our international partnerships and corporate mission work.

Since 2008, PTS has continued to expand, reaching more and more international schools, and providing free in-service teacher training to our partnering districts. We are dedicated to continuing to share our knowledge and proven interventions, so more students get what they need to fully access their education.