LAURENS INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION

Occupational therapists look at what elements support or hinder successful participation for a consumer, which often includes the environment, sensory processing, behavior, motor skills, language, and cognitive skill development. They then create individualized activities for each consumer to help them achieve independence and well-being. For example, they may work on hand muscle strengthening using putty so that a consumer can successfully button a shirt.

Physical therapy helps consumers improve in the areas of gross motor skills. Physical therapists look at whether a consumer is functioning at age-appropriate level in physical skills such as mobility, coordination, and strength and then determine interventions to help address areas of concern. For example, they may use therapy ball activities to strengthen a consumer’s core muscles so that they can learn to roll or maintain their balance when riding a bike.

Speech/language therapy focuses on remediating speech, language, and social communication. A speech disorder involves difficulties producing sounds in words, whereas a language disorder involves difficulties understanding words/sentences and communicating wants and needs. For example, a speech therapist may practice with a consumer on different ways to introduce themselves to others if they have a goal of improved social communication.

Our DTE department includes multiple programs funded by the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) including our adult day treatment program, after school program, summer program, transition to employment program, and our group supported employment program.

We have classrooms that support students with a wide array of cognitive, physical, and emotional needs from ages 3-21. We develop individualized learning plans and use research supported curriculum. Many of our students receive on-site therapy and behavior support and all our departments work together in a transdisciplinary approach. We are also fortunate to have a beautiful campus and multiple clinical enhancement programs and environments. We have assistive technology services, adaptive music, adaptive art, and adaptive physical education which are run by our clinical enhancements team. We also have outreach programming that includes partnerships with local academic institutions to assist in education of students. We are proud to have received a 5-year accreditation in 2021 from Cognia.

Our Behavioral Programming and Support (BPS) department provides comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) services using the most up-to-date best practices in the field of behavior analysis. We utilize a number of different behavioral strategies tailored to each individual consumer. We support consumers in our academy as well as those from the community. We are also a BHCOE accredited organization.

L.I.F.E. offers consumers and their families several different options to receive care services in-home and community including habilitation (HAH), respite (RSP), and attendant care (ATC). Habilitation consists of a direct support professional (DSP) providing teaching methods to help a consumer be more independent. Respite is involves a DSP providing supervision and care for a consumer for short amounts of time to provide a break for regular caregivers. Attendant care includes a DSP assisting a consumer with personal hygiene tasks (e.g., dressing, brushing teeth, toileting) and activities of daily living (e.g., eating, housekeeping chores) with the goal to assist a consumer in maintaining their health and healthy living conditions.

Feeding therapy is provided by occupational therapists or assistants or speech therapists or assistants that have obtained additional training in the specialty of feeding therapy. These therapists use carefully chosen interventions to address concerns such as only eating a very limited number or type of food and/or to improve oral motor skills to reduce concerns like gagging, choking, or aspiration.