Allied Health

Swan Hill Specialist School
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Allied Health

Swan Hill Specialist School has a team of skilled allied health professionals who work in classrooms and with individual students and their families to provide therapeutic interventions that maximise students’ access to, participation in and success with learning activities.

The therapists include:

- Speech Pathologist
- Social Worker
- Physiotherapist

There are a number of ways in which this service is implemented across the school. Priority for service is based on recommendations from the therapists in conjunction with relevant teachers, and in consultation with the school leadership. The therapists consult regularly with the family, teachers and the other therapists in the team as well as therapists in the wider community. Everyone collaborates to create classroom goals to ensure carry-over of skills throughout all activities.

Speech Pathology

Speech Pathology at Swan Hill Specialist School focuses on supporting the teachers and classroom staff to incorporate and use the student’s communication systems across the school setting. The school supports the use of various alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) including signing, object symbols, PODD and speech generating devices. The speech pathologist works closely with an education support staff member who further assists with the implementation of communication in the classroom.

Physiotherapy

The main role of the physiotherapist at Swan Hill Specialist School is to assess the gross motor function of individual students and to provide physiotherapy programs to meet the student’s needs. The aims of the physiotherapy program are to improve student’s mobility, posture, sitting balance, coordination, muscle strength, joint range, and muscle flexibility, standing stability and walking skills.

Social Work

The social worker at Swan Hill Specialist School is an important part of the child’s support system in school, often consulting with teachers and families to optimise the child’s school experiences and learning. They may also provide some small group interventions that focus on the handling of a family break up, grief/loss or teaching positive social skills.