Giant Steps Day School

Physical Education (PE) at Giant Steps focuses on building students’ physical fitness and health awareness in an environment that is fun, engaging yet challenging. Students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of standards based fitness activities that are adapted to meet their needs, interests, and ability levels. PE at Giant Steps is not just about physical fitness, it is also about learning sportsmanship, playing by the rules of the game, and many other critical social skills. Often you will find staff members participating in PE classes alongside students to support social skill development, model expected choices, and to create a fun and engaging environment.

Each classroom is led by an LBS1 Special Education teacher. Additionally, each classroom has a Senior Program Assistant who holds a sub-certificate with the state of Illinois and acts as a substitute teacher whenever the Special Education teacher is out. Classrooms are assigned additional paraprofessionals depending on student need (ranging from 1:1 support to 1:4 support). Even students with 1:1 staffing needs are not assigned a dedicated paraprofessional but rather rotate staff throughout the day as our program is focused on the generalization of skills across people and environments.

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY TEAM

One of the strengths of the Giant Steps program is the highly collaborative multi-disciplinary team approach. These team members work together to ensure staff are using a consistent approach throughout the day to support the generalization of skills. Our creative and innovative team of educators and clinicians include:

• Special Education Teachers – Our LBS1 educators develop academic programming for each student that exposes them to the standardsbased curriculum as well as individualized supports to help them make progress on their IEP goals. Our teachers serve as our parent liaison on a day-to-day basis and help share relevant information with the full team.
• Speech-Language Pathologists – Our SLPs promote receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language skills through a variety of interventions and supports. Our goal is for every student to have a reliable, spontaneous communication method. We partner with districts to ensure each student has access to appropriate communication tools.
• Occupational Therapists – Our OTs consider each student’s sensory needs and create an individualized sensory diet. They also address f ine motor needs (tying shoes, handwriting, typing, fasteners, etc.) and increase students’ independence with activities of daily living (e.g. tooth-brushing, putting on deodorant, cooking routines, pre-vocational skills etc.)
• Social Workers – Our Social Workers address social-emotional needs such as coping skills, social skills, flexibility, understanding changes related to puberty, and independence with play/leisure skills. They also serve as a resource for our families to help them prepare for their child’s transition to adulthood and connect them with community resources upon request.
• Music Therapists – Our MTs use the context of music to work on non-music-related goals (e.g. supporting communication, executive functioning skills, attention skills, social interaction, motor skills). They are trained in the Neurologic Music Therapy approach that looks at how music impacts the brain and can be used therapeutically.
• Board Certified Behavior Analysts – Our BCBAs apply the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to shape student behavior through the creation of an individualized behavior intervention plan for each student that incorporates proactive supports (such as a motivation system and multidisciplinary supports) as well as reactive strategies. They also analyze our data on student behavior and support skill acquisition that leads to independence.

The service delivery model is based on student needs (e.g., push in services, pull-out services), but related service providers are highly integrated into each student’s day!

Giant Steps Day School strives to achieve these two outcomes with all of our students:

Reduce Maladaptive Behavior & Increase Essential Skills

While our students present with many profiles of strengths and needs, we recognize that these two areas likely create the primary barriers that are preventing them from accessing education within their home district. In addition to striving for our students to re-integrate back into their home district, our team is also focused on diligently preparing our students for adulthood starting in Kindergarten! Our team works collaboratively to help all students grow in these 15 Essential Skills:

GIANT STEPS 15 ESSENTIAL SKILLS

1. Demonstrates an understanding of community safety (i.e. safety signs, crossing the street, staying with the group)
2. Can identify 5+ preferred leisure activities
3. Independently engages in meaningful leisure activities for 10 minutes (e.g., during the unstructured time in the classroom, while parents were cooking dinner, in a waiting room)
4. Follows spoken and visual directions
5. Can independently utilize coping skills to return to stable functioning
6. Can recognize changes in emotions/sensory/physiological needs
7. Can safely be in an instructional environment with 5+ people
8. Waits appropriately
9. Respects and maintains appropriate boundaries of self and others (physical and otherwise)
10. Advocates for wants and needs
11. Initiating appropriate interactions with familiar and unfamiliar people
12. Can identify alternative ways to get their needs met
13. Can tolerate unexpected environmental changes and/or changes to routines
14. Reads and writes functionally
15. Advocates for him/herself

A key component to the programming at Giant Steps is the ability to help students independently participate in their community to the fullest extent possible both now and into adulthood. Giant Steps provides dynamic and meaningful community-based instruction (CBI) and vocational experiences both within the school setting and out in the community. These experiences highlight the strengths and interests of the students, provide the opportunity for skill development, and help to bridge the gap between school experience and post-Secondary life. Student vocational opportunities are tailored to meet the unique needs of each student. We strive to equip students for success by providing them with the opportunity to demonstrate the skills they have, guiding them to build new skills, supporting them in increasing their stamina for being in the community and encouraging them to become increasingly independent.

Giant Steps utilizes a combination of student-specific positive behavioral interventions which are uniquely designed to maximize a student’s skill acquisition while reducing problematic behaviors as well as non-physical de-escalation strategies. All our staff who work directly with students are trained in a three-day training in physical procedures outlined by Professional Crisis Management (PCM). Our shared philosophy is that students who have a reliable and established skill repertoire are less likely to engage in the crisis behaviors which necessitate more restrictive procedures like physical restraint, time out, and/or isolated time out.

As students age within our program, our goal is to come alongside families in connecting them with resources and information to help them feel more equipped to navigate the process of preparing for life after school and adulthood. The Prospective Resources for Education & Planning (P.R.E.P.) Committee and Social Work Department organizes transition planning resources including parent tours of local Day Program options and our multi-disciplinary team collaborates on the best way to prepare students for their post-secondary goals.