As school districts continue responding to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pediatric Therapeutic Services (PTS) is here to help you provide your students with the therapeutic supports they need.
Using our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) approach, you can keep caseloads manageable and contain costs, while ensuring that each student is matched with the appropriate level of services.
Our Whole-Child Approach Philosophy
Our “Whole-Child” approach philosophy ensures each child gets the supports they need without creating more work for teachers, paraprofessionals, or therapists. A large part of that is the adoption of an MTSS approach to related services like Occupational Therapy (OT), Physical Therapy (PT), Speech-Language Pathology (SLP), and Behavioral Health.
MTSS is a cross-disciplinary framework that promotes inclusivity by introducing tiered supports at three different levels, depending on the student’s need. This includes introducing therapeutic supports at the general education level where they can benefit all students, while allowing them to learn in their least restrictive environment.
By taking this kind of approach, we’re able to provide students with the highest quality of care, reduce unnecessary referrals, and keep caseloads manageable.
Identifying the Root Cause of Issues
In order to determine where to implement classroom-level supports, you need to have a clear picture of your program’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. That’s where BudgetWatch™ comes in. Our BudgetWatch™ technology can provide vital and actionable data-driven insights as you take stock of your current post-pandemic programming. Our data can help you answer questions like:
·What are the primary issues driving referrals?
·Where are referrals coming from?
Knowing these answers will allow you to determine which issues can be addressed at the classroom level by teachers or through push-in sessions with therapists. This allows all students to benefit from exposure to therapeutic interventions, while also keeping students off caseload who don’t truly need to be there.
This is key to keeping caseloads manageable in a post-pandemic educational environment.
Supporting More Students with Classroom-Level Interventions
Offering therapeutic services to the whole classroom benefits all students. As schools continue to re-adjust back to in-person learning, many more children will likely require additional supports and services to catch up from a year-and-a-half of virtual classes.
By using classroom-level interventions as part of an MTSS approach to address this new reality, your district can work towards getting every student up to speed without overloading therapy caseloads.
With our Capable Classroom™ suite of interventions, we can help you incorporate classroom-wide interventions specifically targeted to address skill deficits. Some examples include:
- Super Self™: A self-regulation group for third graders that boosts social skills, as well as self-regulation abilities.
- I Know What to Do! Card Game: A social skills game to support students struggling with impulsivity or who need social scripts.
- Pencil Power™: A small-group supplemental handwriting instruction program that keeps first- and second-grade students off Occupational Therapy (OT) caseloads.
- Artic Blast™ Board Game: A fun game designed for pre-referral Speech Language Pathology (SLP) interventions.
PTS provides free in-service trainings to our partnering districts to help teachers think like therapists and seamlessly incorporate the appropriate interventions into the classroom routine.
PTS Can Help Your District Implement an MTSS Approach to Respond to Increased Student Needs
PTS offers our partnering districts free in-service training, data collection and analysis through our BudgetWatch™ technology, and day-to-day program management by our experienced Clinical Directors. We can help you multiply the impact of your special education services, while containing costs.
View our free watch-on-demand webinar and contact us to learn more today!