ALLIED HEALTH

At Rosamond School, our Allied Health team uses a consultative model to deliver therapy to our students. This means we work closely with teachers and educational support staff in the classroom to ensure that students can maximize their learning outcomes and benefit from the curriculum. We work with students across all year levels and collaborate closely with families at home to understand each student's individual learning needs, providing accessible learning for all ages.

Our multidisciplinary therapy team consists of Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologists, and a Mental Health Practitioner /Social Worker who collaborate closely to create a well-rounded approach to therapy that meets a wide range of student needs.

By working with classroom staff and other key individuals in our students’ lives, we aim to have “therapy” occur all day, every day, not just when we are present.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

The goal of our Occupational Therapists is to provide all students with the support to participate in school activities and access the curriculum.

We work closely with our Early Years teachers and education support staff to deliver a ‘Floortime’ approach to learning. The DIR Floortime model is a ‘Developmental’, ‘Individual-differences’, and ‘Relationships-based’ model. Through

 this model with are able to build healthy foundations for social, emotional and intellectual capacities. We look at ‘Development’ from the perspective of the student, where they are currently and where they are heading. We identify ‘Individual-differences’ by 

understanding how each student takes in, regulates, responds to and comprehends their surroundings. We aim to create a s

afe space where students trust staff members through healthy relationships. Strong relationships are key to help promote student development.

We place a focus on regulation and allowing students to meet their sensory needs through exploring thei

r world. We follow the students lead and participate in activities that are meaningful to the students and engage through play while supporting communication and development. Once students are regulated they are more motivated and engaged to pa

rticipate within the classroom and access the curriculum.

Through collaboration with classroom teachers across the school we are able to identify challenges preventing students from participating within the school environment. Some of the key areas that we as Occupational Therapists support include:

• Interoceptive awareness and emotional regulation
• Handwriting and typing
• Sensory processing
• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
• Self-care (toileting, feeding, dressing)
• Play

By working closely with teachers, we can set up programs that allow therapy to be embedded throughout the school week.

SPEECH PATHOLOGY

At Rosamond School our Speech Pathologists work closely with teachers and Education Support staff to enhance students’ understanding of spoken information, use of language, speech sounds, and literacy skills. Staff and students are also supported in using Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), including Key Word Sign, Proloquo2go, Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD), and Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP). We welcome and encourage students to use their personal communication systems at school to ensure AAC is always available when required. 

As support is tailored to individual student needs, delivery of supports may look different for each student. We may work with students individually, in small groups, or as a whole class however our ultimate goal is for strategies to be implemented throughout the day by teachers and Education Support staff so that ‘therapy’ can occur daily.