Program Descriptions
- Academic Competence
- Language and Communication
- Relationship building and Social Cognition
- Executive Functioning
- Motor Skills and Motor Planning
- Activities of Daily Living and Independence Building
- Self-Awareness and Self-Regulation
Classroom Descriptions
Elementary Divisions:
Classroom 1 serves 5-9 year olds with language intensive needs. A strong emphasis on language development is enriched with augmentative and alternative communication supports. Academic instruction focuses on pre- academic skills and foundational living skills. A strong sensory-motor element is infused throughout the school day, and multi-sensory learning opportunities happen in both individualized and group settings. Classroom 1 is also known as The Caterpillars.
Classroom 2 serves 8-12 year olds in a language rich classroom setting focusing on K-1 foundational academics. Learning experiences happen in the context of small group, dyad, and individualized instruction. Hands-on learning activities, music, and relationship development occur regularly throughout the day. Classroom 2 is also known as Acorns East.
Classroom 3 is a class for 8-12 year olds with strong verbal skills who require social-emotional, sensory, and behavioral supports in order to access a modified general education curriculum. High interest activities include cooking projects, a student-run business, and frequent hands-on science projects. Academic skills development happens in the context of a program that supports social-emotional growth, internal control, and the understanding of one’s own sensory needs. Classroom 3 is also known as The Office of Pock.
Secondary Divisions:
Classroom 4 consists of pre-teens and young adults whose emergent language systems include oral language, sign language, picture symbols, and other symbolic means of communication. Daily routines enable students to expand their communicative capacity, and accumulate successful communication experiences in a variety of contexts within and beyond the classroom. Class projects develop executive functioning skills and support independence through verbal, visual, and gestured prompting, and through the gradual fading of those prompts. Functional academics such as mathematics, writing, and reading, are developed in a variety of multi-modal classroom instructional activities appropriate to each student. Classroom 4 is also known as Strawberry Fields.
Classroom 5 consists of young adults who effectively use oral language to communicate wants and needs, describe experiences, and engage in communicative discourse. The daily routine is built around structured language experiences designed to support the development of conversational skills including shared focus, reciprocity, interpretation of nonverbal signals, conflict resolution, and the conventional rules of discourse. Learning activities support independence by giving students opportunities to process and problem solve, enabling them to navigate their world with minimal prompting. Academic instruction is mindful of the eventual transition to adulthood, and learning experiences are designed to prepare our students for this transition. Classroom 5 is also known as Pride.
Classroom 6 consists of middle school and early high school students with highly developed language systems who access much of the academic content appropriate for their grade levels. Where specific learning challenges present obstacles to curricular access, individualized interventions are put into place to remediate the problem, bypass it through a variety of accommodations, or both. Multi-modal instruction occurs in the context of interdisciplinary and project-based learning activities that engage students around their unique interests and educational goals. Emphasis is placed on the social-communicative demands of functioning as a member of a group. The classroom also prioritizes activities that prepare students for the responsibilities of high school inclusion and adulthood. Classroom 6 is also known as The Rockstars.
Classroom 7 is a unique high school program designed for students with special needs. With a focus on academics, students work to earn high school credits in a clinically supported learning environment. While working in a classroom community, students cultivate cognitive flexibility and the executive functioning skills as they prepare for future educational endeavors. Classroom 7 is also known as Oak Hill Prep.
