Curriculum
Reading Program: Fairy Tales
Literacy is built through a rich collection of fairy tales and other stories which capture the children’s imaginations, create shared reading and social experiences, and build a love of stories and reading while also building skills.
Reading Program: Lindamood-Bell
This program teaches the sensory-cognitive skills necessary to read, spell, comprehend, and express language. The program develops the five components critical for overall academic achievement: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Reading Program: Orton-Gillingham
This reading approach is especially helpful for individuals suffering from Dyslexia and other learning disabilities. The techniques used incorporate multi-sensory, verbal and visual learning cues, teaching students how sound and letter relationships create words in a sequential and cumulative way.
Math Program: RightStart Math
RightStart Mathematics uses the AL Abacus to provide a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experience. Practice is provided with math card games, minimizing review worksheets and stressful flash cards. Understanding and problem solving are emphasized throughout the curriculum.
Math Program: KeyMath3
KeyMath3 is a linked assessment and instruction system for math intervention that is aligned with the proficiency goals of the National Alliance of Teachers of Mathematical Standards for grades K-6. The ten math assessment areas link with instructional resources to provide a customized, individual instruction plan that considers the strengths and weaknesses of each student.
Handwriting Program: Handwriting Without Tears
This program has proven successful in teaching legible and fluent handwriting for students at levels pre-k through cursive. Letters are taught in a sequence that makes sense developmentally: in groups or similar formation. Children develop their writing skills through multi-sensory play with manipulatives.
Social Interaction Program: Social Thinking
Social thinking is required before the development of social skills. This approach, developed by Michelle Garcia Winner, uses cognitive lessons and a “social thinking vocabulary” which helps to break down social concepts into more concrete terms, thus helping students to understand the social expectations that surround them.
Visual Thinking: Thinking Goes to School
Visual thinking is the ability to understand relationships between objects in space and the ability to integrate that knowledge with understanding of one’s own sensory motor and coordination abilities. The methodology is based on the Thinking Goes to School (TGTS) curriculum, developed by Harry Wachs, O.D. and Hans Furth, Ph.D. Activities to improve visual thinking skills are based on a Piagetian constructivist model of learning. Our model utilizes a developmental hierarchy of activities that encourages individual students to construct new knowledge based on their prior knowledge and experience. Classrooms integrate visual thinking and sensory motor principles throughout each day.
Outdoor Program: Outdoor Rec Adventures, Inc.
Outdoor Rec Adventures is contracted by Hirsch to provide two separate services for our students. The students attend swimming one morning a week and outdoor programs away from campus each Friday. Both programs are geared to provide increased regulation as well as improved motor processing and strength. The activities specifically target growth and development, both for individuals and the group. Activities are also geared to be highly social and challenge the students to increase their abilities to relate to peers and adults.
