Childrens Institute For Learning Differences

Causes: Adult Education, Counseling, Education, Mental Health, Special Education

Mission: Child's mission is to provide innovative school programs and therapies that promote social, emotional, and academic development for children with special needs.

Programs: Child's school program provides academic and therapeutic interventions for children, age 3-17, who are experiencing failure due to learning and behavioral challenges. In the full day school program, with a 3:1 student to teacher ratio, children receive the help they need to develop the essential skills that are critical to success. Challenges faced by clients are, but are not limited to immature neurological development; language and communication disorders; autism; trauma or impulsivity concerns; identified or suspected learning disabilities; and school avoidance. Many children are coping with combinations of disabilities that must be patiently discerned and addressed. Child is approved by the washington state office of the superintendent of public instruction (ospi) to provide contracted therapeutic services to students from public school districts whose resources cannot adequatelyserve the complex needs of struggling children. In addition, child is accredited by the northwest association of accredited schools and the washington federation of independent schools. By using games, activities, lessons, and practice, teachers help students with several important areas of social development, such as building self esteem; teaching rules, formulas and tools for appropriate social interactions; developing problem solving and conflict resolution skills; encouraging self regulation and management of anger; empathy training; enhancing self expression, social skill development, and cooperation through the arts.

child also provides developmental therapy services to children. Child's pediatric occupational therapy clinic provides evaluation and treatment services for children who have difficulty understanding, utilizing, and organizing information from the world around them that they gather through their eyes, ears and touch. These "sensory integration" issues often cause problems such as impulsiveness, distractibility, coordination, emotional fragility, and oversensitivity. Developmental therapists screen all of our new students so that subtle neuro-developmental issues that can cause a breakdown of learning are not overlooked. Speech and language therapy assists students in improving their use of receptive and expressive language. Students work with the speech therapist one-on-one and in small group sessions to develop their articulation and communication skills. The speech and language clinic offers comprehensive assessments, individual and group therapy, consultation with teachers and parents, and assistance with classroom programming. While child provides developmental therapy services to many childrens institute students, child also provides evaluation and therapy services to private clients who are not enrolled at child. Referrals come from physicians, teachers, parents and other concerned individuals who work with children.