LD Resources

Sanford Shapiro looks at The Ivymount School
© 2007 Sanford Shapiro

The IvyMount School is actually a continuum of school programs and clinical services that address the needs of kids from fours years old to young adults of twenty-one. Their 225 students come from the greater metro Washington DC areas and most have significant cognitive and developmental disorders, learning disabilities, the full range of autistic spectrum disorder and those with multiple handicaps.

They have a lower school for the early and primary elementary aged kids (4-10) who are struggling with pervasive communication difficulties including autism. Throughout all the programs there is attention paid to augmentative communication strategies and devices when needed and an interdisciplinary team is on hand. The teams are most often comprised of classroom teacher and assistant, a speech and language specialist, an occupational therapist, physical therapist and a social worker. The middle school group, for kids aged ten through 14 and provides an emphasis on applied academics in reading language arts, math, social studies and science. This middle school is the setting most often used for students with moderate to severe learning disabilities. They also have a functional, non-diploma high school with standard array of academic classes but the focus is on life skills and applications. There is a strong vocational and daily living skills component including building and construction work, basic childcare, landscaping, and library work. Resume building and advocacy curriculum strands play an important role as well.

Brand new at the Ivymount School is their Asperger’s Program. Designed initially for upper elementary grades, they have opened this past September with two classrooms. Like all of the autism programs at Ivymount there is a concerted discipline to use only research validated and best practice approaches, notably applied behavioral analysis. There is a strong emphasis on a cognitive-behavioral approach that is integrated into all the curriculum and classroom management techniques. They are definitely seeking to advance an intellectually challenging and creative curriculum for this unique profile of student, and also adhere to principles that guide students towards growth in emotional and self regulation, better motor planning and increased social pragmatic language skills.

Related at this site: The Ivymount School