Therapy Services
At Summit Academy, we believe in addressing the needs of the whole child. Learning differences are often accompanied, or complicated by, co-occurring conditions including speech/language or sensory integration disorders, fine or gross motor delays, visual/spatial problems, or social skills difficulty. Summit Academy provides remediation for these difficulties that is integrated into the curriculum.
Learning differences sometimes cause more than academic difficulties. The emotional and social repercussions of not succeeding in school can be great. If a child feels like a failure as a student, this can translate into test anxiety, oppositional behavior, and frustration for both parent and child. Summit Academy provides its students with an outlet for their frustrations and concerns with the Second Step program.
In addition, thanks to a large grant from Kosair Charities, we are able to offer a limited amount of speech and occupational therapy to selected students, as determined by our staff and service providers. These services take place in a group or one-on-one setting, and may occur in collaboration between the teacher and the therapists.
Speech Therapy
Many factors work together to enable a student to receive and process information and produce work at school. If any of these factors is delayed in development, it can interfere with the whole process of learning.
- If your child appears not to hear you, but you have had his hearing
checked, then maybe s/he has an auditory processing problem. - If your child has difficulty reading body language or maintaining eye contact, then s/he may not understand the pragmatics, or social part of language.
- If you see signs of tension during your child’s recitation or out-loud reading, or if stuttering runs in your family, then your child may need fluency therapy.
In order to address the needs of the whole child, Summit Academy offers speech therapy, on campus, for selected students as a part of the regular curriculum. These services are provided by Gail Griffith, MEd, SLP.
Occupational Therapy
- Does your child have trouble concentrating in class or act out for no apparent reason?
- Does s/he struggle to accomplish basic tasks or have trouble changing from task to task?
- Does s/he lack coordination, fatigue easily, or is s/he accident prone?
Believe it or not, these can all be red flags indicating a larger problem that is making it hard for your child to learn. Since signs and symptoms of learning difficulties and differences often look similar, or even harmless, proper diagnosis and treatment by an occupational therapist might be critical to your child’s success.
Summit Academy provides on-site group Occupational Therapy sessions for our younger students. Paid private sessions are available if you feel your student would benefit from one-on-one therapy.