Occupational, speech and emotional therapy with students attending booster classes

Abstract

Abstract The current study reviews the work being carried out in the Naomi Therapeutic Center in Kiryat Yam, Israel. The staff in this Center decided to provide a holistic response (which includes occupational therapy, speech therapy and art therapy) to 50 elementary school special education students in five booster classes. The goal of the study was to enable these students to improve their self-image, demonstrate fewer classroom adaptive behavioral problems and bring them to function better in class by the end of the school year. Findings demonstrate that in the study group, students’ self-image scores were significantly higher at the end of the intervention program than they were prior to the intervention (p=0.040). In addition, the study group demonstrated a significant difference in adaptive behavior scores before and after the intervention, indicating fewer adaptive classroom behavior problems towards the end of the intervention (p=0.034). Finally, findings indicate that there was a significant improvement in students’ functioning on all of the occupational therapy categories.