TIPS FOR GROWING: Edition 12- School Based Therapy Intervention For Teenagers

08.16.2023

TOPIC: Tools for Teens!

School Based Therapy Intervention Session Plans For Teenagers

Welcome to the Twelfth Edition of Tips For Growing! These blog posts will focus on important clinical topics that are regularly encountered when working with children.

Today’s "Tips For Growing" will focus on strategies and tools for school based therapy intervention for use with teenagers.

We hope these seeds of information will help with the most important job there is . . . helping children grow.

If you have a student on your caseload that is in their teen years, they may have been receiving school based Occupational and Speech Therapy for several years. As students enter their teenage years their functioning level may plateau. Their needs may be best met with a reduction in direct service, participation in larger group interventions, indirect service through consultation with teachers, or perhaps a discharge.

In addition to the above considerations, it is important to offer interventions that are highly functional and designed for an adolescent. Teenagers may reject materials that look too juvenile, and rightfully so. They deserve resources that have the interests and concerns of teenagers in mind. To be functional, intervention for teenagers should include what they experience in their daily routines and activities.

There should also be a focus on socialization, consideration for sharpening skills for future part time jobs, and broadening their independence. At this time in their lives students should identify their goals and learn how to advocate for themselves. To be effective, it is certainly best if the teenagers are invested in the therapy.

With all of this in mind, Tools To Grow is now offering monthly Themed Plans called “Tools For Teens”. These are designed to be used by both Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists for the delivery of direct services or shared with teachers/parents for indirect consultative services.

Skill Areas that will be Addressed in the Upcoming Months may Include the Following:

> Handwriting & Functional Motor Skills:

Transition away from solely focusing on the mechanics of handwriting

Designed to help students stretch their imagination, encourage thinking, and practice written communication with others

Practice use of calculators, tape, rulers, and intricate cutting

> Effective Communication:

Support for interacting effectively with others in social situations

Understanding body language

Creating longer and more detailed sentences

Understanding the main idea and details

Expanding vocabulary knowledge

> Life Skills:

Successful experiences in community settings

Increasing independence while participating in adaptive daily living skills

> Executive Functions:

Practical tips for organizing (ex: locker, desk, planners, etc.)

Practical strategies for prioritizing, planning, and following through

Working memory activities

Time management strategies

> Social Emotional Skills:

Support for understanding and developing self-control

Perspective taking skills to considers other’s needs and wants

Reinforcement of skills for compromising

Self-advocacy

Taking turns & using constructive feedback

> Typing/Digital Fun:

Make keyboarding fun with these tools! These digital activities are the perfect tools to use for distance learning! These ready-to-use interactive activities were designed to be used in a variety of platforms. This may include Google Slides, Abode PDF, and BOOM Learning.

For optimal performance, these keyboarding/digital interactive resources require:

Proper body and hand positioning

Kinesthetic awareness that links each finger movement with a key that produces a letter, digit or other function (shift, enter, spacebar, backspace, arrows, delete)