What Happens During a Therapeutic Day Program?

Parents often wonder what a typical day is like in a therapeutic day program. A structured schedule and daily routine are critical in a child’s early developmental stages. Below is a schedule of activities performed throughout the day that will help enhance your child’s speech and language development.

Therapeutic Play/ Free Play

Allows children to gain knowledge and practice social skills such as turn-taking and interactive play with their peers. Many speech therapy exercises performed in the classroom will target memory and gross motor skills. Therapists also use DIR Floortime to enrich their learning by getting on the same level as the child. This boosts social interaction and emotional functioning, which results in an increase in communication within the child.

Circle Time

This critical time allows children to actively engage and participate in activities in a group setting. Students learn letters, numbers, sounds, seasons, holidays etc. during this time. Students are asked to follow directions and actively participate in this structured group activity. This helps students later transition into a classroom setting, where they are expected to take direction and listen to a teacher.

Music

Students are excited to have a chance to actively express themselves through song and dance each day. This repetition activity targets gross motor and memory skills all while engaging in new receptive and expressive vocabulary.

Language Development Activities

Children will engage in story time by learning new vocabulary that helps overall expressive and receptive language skills. Sign language is often incorporated in stories and songs to keep students interested and learn a new way of communication.

Art

This allows the children to be creative and express themselves by participating in fine motor activities. These activities are demonstrated in artistic mediums such as coloring, painting, building, and creating crafts. This gives students a chance to explore their resources in an artistic manner while developing fine motor skills. Students also learn to ask questions and engage in discussion of their needs and wants, for example, asking for a purple crayon.

Feeding Therapy and Development

Children will incorporate learning during this time by practicing acts of sharing, using manners and exploring different snacks. Trying new foods allows a child to also explore new textures and tastes. Along with new foods, they learn new vocabulary associated with mealtime. Some children that struggle with oral motor skills may receive additional support during this time.

This daily schedule is important for children so that they can learn the pattern of a routine, follow directions, and get used to starting at any therapeutic day program. Parents will see improvements in their child’s speech, language, behavior and attitude from having a uniformed routine and additional therapeutic support.

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"After almost 2 years our son’s time at CST Academy has come to an end. The preschool program has done wonders for him. Ms Jaclyn is such a warm, kind and patient teacher. She and my son’s OT (Ms. Nikki) and ST (Ms. Erika) worked together to ensure he was meeting all of his goals. The level of collaboration between all therapies shows how dedicated they are to helping your child reach their full potential. They have all made such an impact on him, it’s amazing to see the changes since he started there. He has blossomed into a strong, confident boy who is more than prepared to start his new school in a few weeks. We will always fondly remember our time at CST Academy. Can’t recommend them enough!"
"I worked with CST Academy over a period of about 10 months. They are absolutely incredible! I also referred a friend to their program and the progress his child made just blew him away! Usually, I don’t write reviews unless I feel strongly compelled one way or the other, and in this case I do! You cannot go wrong here. I would not trust my children to anyone else. Call them and see for yourself. I have seen other programs and there is just no comparison."