Education

Social skills are fundamental soft skills that facilitate communication, connections and help individuals function effectively in society. Individuals with special needs may face different challenges in developing social skills due to varied cognitive and communicative differences. However, the development of social skills is crucial for promoting independence, enhancing emotional wellbeing, and achieving satisfying interpersonal connections. This blog will explore some tips

Did you know that music provides many benefits, especially to those with special needs?  Music can decrease stress and anxiety while increasing communication, focus/attention, confidence, and so much more! Each week, we plan different musical activities to achieve these benefits. Last week’s music class began with a warm-up using scarves. The scarves are a great way to grab everyone's attention and get them moving to the beat! And who doesn’t love a good prop? We focus on hea

Proprioceptive input is a sensory technique using deep pressure that can change a child's Recreational Therapy session completely. With the implementation of proprioceptive input into sessions, we have observed improvement in focus, self-regulation, attention span, emotional and behavioral responses, and an overall calming effect on the child's mood. Ways we provide proprioceptive input into Recreation Therapy sessions is through the following: weighted items (weighted blanke

There are far and few between when it comes to nurturing, empathetic individuals that care to make a lasting effect on children, with the goal of improving their quality of life in the long run. We are lucky enough to have recently welcomed one of those individuals onto our team, Buffy Gerschick, MAT. Buffy is a special education teacher with 25+ years of experience, as well as a masters degree: Master of Arts in Education…. and Buffy has done exactly that, mastered the art o

Everyone knows exercise can be one more thing we keep putting off, but who doesn’t love Music?  This post will give a brief overview of 1. science behind why we love moving to music, 2. talk about how much fun our adult special needs group has engaging in exercise with rhythm, and 3. provide some simple ideas you can do at home to engage your special needs loved ones in exercise! Why Use Music when Exercising? -We are probably all aware of the vast benefits of exercise (incre

MELISSA AND DOUG SCOOP : Fill the pond with "fish," hold the squeezable rod, and reel in fun and learning with every cast! The "game" in Fish & Count Game is simple: Just lower the self-stick bait into the fishing pond, let it attach to one of the felted pieces, and lift out your catch. But the detail-packed printed fabrics and colorful, shaped pieces also offer unlimited opportunities for counting, sorting, matching, color identification, size comparisons, storytelling, and

Recreational Therapy serves many purposes: expressive language skills, social responses, fine motor functional ability and so many more. In order for the therapist to be effective they must determine deficit areas and structure the session to address any physical, visual, and communication areas. This is done to ensure the most therapeutic milieu that will assist client in meeting their goals.

Our bodies are full of receptors in our joints, muscles, and connective tissues that are help us with body awareness. These specific receptors make up the Proprioceptive sense. By continually stimulating these receptors it allows us to know where our body is in space and to safely navigate our environment. The benefits of proprioceptive input are vast. Some examples are; calming, self regulating, decrease in stress/anxiety, increase in focus and attention, increase body aware

Recreation Therapy is an intervention that employs recreation and leisure activities to enhance cognitive, physical, social, and emotional wellbeing in both adults and children. It incorporates the principles of learning through play and tailors specific interventions to help individuals achieve set goals in a medical context. This essay will focus on individuals with autism and how they can benefit from recreation therapy interventions. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning