Build Your Child’s Legacy
· To provide centre-based, evidence-based and customized therapy
programmes for children aged 2-7 years. This has the objective of enabling
children with special needs to advance towards mainstream education
and/or the maximization of their full potential.
· To provide the highest quality of therapy and care to the children attending
the programme.
· To build strong partnerships with parents and to work with them for the
benefit of the child.
· To encourage parents to be trained in effective behaviour management and
generalization of the skills their child develops.
· To develop a research culture within the programme with the aim of
providing data by which the programme’s and children’s progress can be
evaluated.
· To continue to gain recognition for the Excelerate V.2 Programme as a Centre
of Excellence.
· To enable school-aged children to continue to receive effective therapy when
they are unable to access mainstream/special school placements on a full
time basis. We have a specialised programme for this purpose: “Excelerate Elementary”
WHY CHOOSE INTENSIVE INTERVENTION FOR MY CHILD?
· Effective Model of Service Delivery
A team of specialist paediatric therapists work together within the proximity of the
centre to provide integrated, daily intervention to the children attending Excelerate
V.2. This has been a highly effective model of service delivery, particularly for
teaching daily functional skills. The rapid changes in each child’s neurodevelopmental
profile, based on daily and focused intervention in the child’s key
areas of deficit, has been evident from Excelerate V.2’s history of success. The
pivotal concept of teaching a child to “learn how to learn from others and their
environment” has been the backbone of the evidence based intervention service.
· Optimal Therapist to Child Ratio
Another essential element of Excelerate V.2 is the tailored therapist-to-child ratio.
Research has shown that each child's optimal ratio for 'learning how to learn in a
group' differs based on each child's skill level and experience. Teaching children
how to learn to be in a “group” environment from a very early age, makes the
process of generalization more efficient and successful when the child moves into a
mainstream environment, where group learning is inevitable. The therapist to child
ratio in Excelerate V2 is dynamic and responsive to each child's needs, with a focus
on optimising their learning and rapidly facilitating their classroom readiness.
· Optimal Child Grouping
The class groups are divided based on developmental ages and stages rather than
chronological age; which is irrelevant when dealing with children who have a
disordered profile of skills. Instead, children are matched for personality,
disposition, skill strengths and skill limitations such that each child is placed
in a group scenario where they will reap optimal benefits.
· Customized Intervention
The application of the various therapeutic methods varies for each child according
to his or her individual profile. That is, what applies to one child might not have the
same impact for another. As each child interacts daily with Excelerate V.2
specialized therapists, an accurate and comprehensive profile of the child’s skills
and learning needs can be created, leading to individualized, effective and efficient
intervention. You can be assured that we do not adopt a “one-size fits all” or “cookie
cutter” approach to learning.
· Intensive and Concentrated Intervention
The intensity of Excelerate V.2 results from the duration of the programme, which is
usually recommended to be around 15-30 hours per week (3 hrs per day in the halfday
program and 6 hrs per day in the full-day program), and the density of the
therapy sessions that actually take place. It is important to note that it is not the
intensity alone that determines the quality of the outcome. Of equal importance is
the skill of the therapists and the number of appropriate learning opportunities
provided throughout the sessions.
WHY CHOOSE A CENTRE BASED APPROACH?
Benefits for the Parents:
· Staff recruitment, screening, training, dedication and passion is taken care
of.
· The Excelerate V.2 Programme can deliver up to 30 hours of therapeutic
intervention per week, over 48 weeks of the year, with the only extended
break being from mid December to mid January each year.
· Parents will receive assistance in selecting an appropriate school for their
child once their child has exited the Excelerate V.2 Programme.
· Parent training across all disciplines takes place on a regular basis.
· Excelerate V.2 develops relationships with professionals who visit the
premises on a regular basis. For example, Counsellors, Teachers,
Paediatricians and Clinical Psychologists are frequent visitors who support
and enhance our therapeutic interactions with parents and children.
· Parents will have time for themselves or to devote to siblings while their child
is at the Excelerate V.2 programme.
· The logistics, timing and resource drain of bringing their child to several
different professionals for several different therapies (speech, occupational,
educational etc) each week will be significantly reduced.
· Parents may find a reduction in the overall stress their family experiences
and will hopefully have more time and energy to successfully implement
behaviour management strategies in the home and generalize the skills that
their child has learned during the day.
Benefits for the Child:
· Excelerate V.2 is a lovely environment for children to learn and have fun.
· Quality, controlled and effective therapy sessions take place daily.
· There is consistent management and evaluation of each child’s individual
programme.
· Children will receive integrated therapy focused on functional goals.
· Children will have the opportunity to generalize new skills with all therapists
across disciplines and environments.
· Children will learn to interact with their peers in a variety of social settings.
· Children will learn through group play, observational and incidental learning.
· Children will have access to the entire Excelerate V.2 environment and will
therefore not be restricted to one area, as is often the case within a home
environment.
· Children will be able to practice and hone classroom skills before being
introduced into mainstream classroom situations where limited support is
provided.
· Children will be taught to develop relationships within the community to aid
in community integration.
· Children will have supervised and facilitated snack and/or lunchtimes where
feeding issues may be addressed in a specialized, structured and systematic
manner.
CURRICULUM
Each child’s programme is individually tailored to the child’s particular strengths
and needs. The overriding objective of intervention is to teach the child to develop
the skills that will help him/her achieve as much independence as possible, thus
attaining the highest quality of life. It is important to build on the child’s successes,
expand the utilization of existing skills as well as develop new ones. The curriculum
has been based on the functional skills that are necessary foundations for life long
learning. Listed below is an overview of curricular areas included but not limited to:
· Attentional Skills
Attentional skills are shaped and reinforced positively. Joint attention, attention to
speaker and tasks are all actively encouraged via several attention building
methodologies. Specialist therapists will select the best therapeutic method to
assist your child.
· Imitation Skills
Imitation is among the first basic skills acquired by children as it is the foundation
upon which many other important skills are based. Early learning occurs primarily
through observation and imitation of others. This programme facilitates the
development of observational learning, play imitation, self-help skills, verbalization
and early drawing skills.
· Communication
As Excelerate V.2 was developed by dedicated Speech - Language Therapists, early
communication is at the forefront of our therapeutic interventions. Therapists teach
the child the power of communicative gestures and verbalisation. Through
opportunity and facilitation, each child is vigorously encouraged to make their needs
known, to make choices and to comment. Keeping in mind that spontaneity and
motivation are important elements in the development of communication; these
factors are skilfully analysed for each child and are effectively implemented to
decrease the disruptive behaviours caused by frustration and an inability to
communicate effectively. Early communication intervention also provides a
foundation for the emergence and further development of speech and language
skills.
· Receptive Language Skills
The focus on receptive language skills is to develop functional auditory processing
and understanding for everyday life. Initially, a child will demonstrate this
understanding by pointing or touching an object when asked. Early tasks involve
listening to instructions e.g., pointing/giving/taking things. These skills develop into
recognition of familiar people, prepositions, colour recognition, emotions and
categorization. Eventually the child moves towards following more complex natural
language in generalized forms.
· Expressive Language Skills
Expressive language is required by children to verbalise what they have learned
instead of using gestures alone. Expressive language skills provide children with a
means to socially interact, communicate desires and to manipulate their world via
other people. The Speech & Language Therapists in the Excelerate V.2 Programme
share the philosophy that if a child can become functionally verbal (even at a singleword
level), that this is the single most socially-enhancing, self-esteem building, frustration reducing, and motivating skill they will ever acquire. For this reason
functional expressive language, with a skilfully chosen core vocabulary and learning
opportunities, is heavily emphasized for children in the programme, especially
children who are non-verbal upon entry.
· Self-Help Skills
The aim here is to increase the child’s independence in daily living skills, develop
age appropriate functioning and facilitate social integration. Some of the areas
focused on include: eating, dressing skills, home living, toilet training and
community skills.
· Play and Social Skills
We aim to develop age appropriate interests, to increase independence and
promote the constructive use of free time, thereby providing a means of interacting
socially with peers. The areas focused on are co-operative tasks, turn-taking,
observational learning, songs, creative activities, outdoor play, playground games
and imaginative play. Play also acts as another opportunity to stimulate, practice
and develop language skills.
· Generalization
From the start we ensure that all skills become functional and fluent so that the
child can use his/her skills with different people, in a variety of ways, across
different environments, with an understanding of natural language use. This will
enhance the child’s access to the community and to mainstream education.
· School Preparation
The aim is for the child to gain the skills required for classroom, playground and
school life. The above curriculum areas all contribute in preparing a child for school.
More specifically, samples of the skills targeted include: grapho-motor skills,
observational learning, classroom skills (e.g., hand raising, lining up), playground
and classroom play, peer interaction, daily living skills and community safety.
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