Argumentative Essay on Social Concerns
It is very important for the educational therapist to collaborate with all of the allied professionals that have contact with a client. Each allied professional has a unique role when providing services to our clients with special needs.
A teacher has a very important role with our clients. This professional sees our clients in a classroom situation for six hours each school day. A teacher sees the client in a classroom with other peers his age, and this information tells us how the child interacts with other peers in a social situation. Educational Therapists usually see students one-to-one, so we do not get the benefit of seeing them in social situations. A teacher observes the student's strengths and weaknesses academically, and can share valuable information about what the educational therapist can reinforce and supplement in her sessions. This information establishes a collaborative approach to increasing the student's academic weaknesses and building on his strengths. The educational therapist can offer accommodations and strategies to the general education teacher to increase performance and lessen frustrations in the classroom.
A school psychologist or neuropsychologist is the allied professional who evaluates our students. This professional determines the child's cognitive abilities, performance and processing abilities as well as the child's academic strengths and weaknesses. Emotional functioning will usually be a part of this case-study, as well. From this battery of tests, the neuropsychologist evaluates and diagnoses the child's mental, academic and/or emotional disorders and synthesizes the information to form a therapeutic plan for this individual. The educational therapist will be able to collaborate with the neuropsychologist as to the child's strengths and weaknesses. This evaluation helps the ET formulate goals and interventions for academic growth. The case-study helps the ET to determine the discrepancies between verbal and nonverbal abilities, so the ET can write goals and interventions using the child's strengths to compensate for their weaknesses.
An optometrist is a medical doctor who examines children's eyes for disease or visual concerns. A child should have an exam to determine if visual acuity is a concern. If the child is nearsighted or farsighted, he will have difficulties in the classroom, as well as learning to read. Also, if the child has visual tracking weaknesses, the optometrist can offer therapeutic sessions to work on this weakness. This information is valuable for the educational therapist to know. Children are usually screened by the school districts in kindergarten to determine if visual weaknesses are present.
A social worker can collaborate with the educational therapist in many ways. The social worker at school usually gathers the family history and developmental history of the child. This gives the multidisciplinary team a framework of the child's background. The social history offers the educational therapist the emotional and medical history of the family, as well as the pregnancy and birth of the child. If the client has emotional difficulties, the social worker can collaborate with the ET to offer suggestions on how to work with the child to lessen frustrations and increase the child's self-esteem. If the educational therapist is noticing emotional concerns, she can refer the client's family to a social worker.
A tutor will work with the client in a specific subject matter. The client may have difficulties with algebra or geometry, for example. An educational therapist may refer to a tutor who has expertise with this particular academic subject. The educational therapist can offer strategies and accommodations to the tutor that will help this client succeed in this subject matter. The educational therapist does remediation, the tutor works on specific academic subject areas.
An occupational therapist may provide sensory motor integration training and testing. The OT may also work with clients who have severe gross and fine motor weaknesses. The OT and educational therapist can collaborate by offering each other suggestions when working with students who have ADHD, Autism, or other diagnoses.
The speech/language pathologist does assessments, diagnosis and treatment of clients with speech and language delays or disorders. The speech/language pathologist is an important allied professional for the educational therapist to confer with. The remediation treatment often overlaps academically when a client has language disabilities. Both professionals can collaborate and offer a multi-tiered approach to the client's remediation.
Each allied professional has a unique and important role when providing services to clients with special learning needs. When the allied professionals collaborate and work together, the prognosis for the client will be greatly increased.