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| Updated May 10, 2000 |
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Student Health Unit |
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Before students are ready to learn, they must be in
optimal physical condition. The goal of the Medical and Health related
services program at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School is to
identify and address a student’s health related needs to maximize
the learning capabilities of each child. Nurses, Occupational
Therapists and a Physical Therapist are available on site to
facilitate integration of these specialty areas into a child’s daily
school environment. Availability of these specialists in-house is
instrumental to assuring that students are ready to address the
challenges of their educational program.
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| School Nursing
Program |
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Nursing Staff
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Jan Kemper
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Brenda Thaxton
•Student Health Unit
•Handouts
•School Nurse Protocols
•School Nursing
Classroom Integrated
Health Screening Project
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The KDES Health Services Program is coordinated by two registered
nurses, and the goals of the program are to identify each student’s
health needs and to maintain and improve the health status of every
student in order to maximize the learning capabilities of each child.
To achieve these goals, the nurses integrate their services within the
instructional teams incorporating health teaching into the classroom
activities, into each student contact and into their work with the
student’s families. The nurses participate in student review and
individual education plan meetings with the instructional staff
and the student’s families. They make referrals to community
agencies and serve as health advocates for the students and their
families in obtaining appropriate health services. The nurses help
students and their families develop health care literacy and to make
the transition from home to the communities in which they live.
The Health Services Program at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School
at the Clerc Center is health and wellness based and focused on establishing a foundation
of health care literacy for each student and their family.
Licensed Registered Nurses are available to:
- Provide medical history interviews
- Initiate entry health assessments
- Perform ongoing Health Screenings: Height, Weight, Blood Pressure, Pulse, Vision,
Dental Status, Scoliosis
- Work with audiologists to monitor a monthly ENT Screening Program with consultant
otolaryngologist
- Identify, evaluate, refer and monitor special health needs and conditions
- Serve as health advocates for students and their families in the community
- Provide first aid and short term nursing care for injuries and illness of students
and staff
- Identify and monitor communicable diseases
- Administer and monitor medications as prescribed by the students’ physicians
- Offer health education to individual students and their families in order to promote
health literacy and transition to community health services
- Integrate health screening and health teaching into the instructional programs
- Provide outreach to Gallaudet Child Development Center by offering first aid and short
term care to the students and staff, yearly health screenings and health education and consultation
services
- Assess and monitor the school buildings and grounds to promote safety and a healthy
school environment
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At KDES the school nurses focus on the three Clerc Center
Priorities: literacy, transition, and family involvement through the
following activities.
School Nurses promote literacy through:
- Integrating teaching about medical conditions and illnesses into every student contact.
- Integrating health screening and assessment into the classroom instructional program.
- Providing a “literacy rich” health room environment with a multiplicity of health related books, pamphlets, charts, posters and bulletin boards.
- Incorporating health teaching into each first aid care visit.
- Including a variety of print materials to teach students about their medicines and treatments.
- Providing health education presentations in the classrooms using many visual materials.
School Nurses support family involvement through:
- Initiating medical history interviews which encourage families to establish an organized medical file for their child.
- Working closely with the Parent Infant Program and Nursery families as they identify their child’s health needs, access community health services and follow up on treatment recommendations.
- Teaching families about normal childhood growth and development and guiding them to age-appropriate expectations for their child.
- Providing health advocacy for families in obtaining community health services.
- Teaching families about medical conditions: their diagnosis and treatment.
- Teaching families about medicines and their administration.
- Providing information and follow up with families on the control of communicable diseases.
- Presenting classes on a variety of parenting topics such as teething, sleeping, medicines, nutrition and prevention of infection.
- Creating and distributing Health Notes, Newsletters, Information Sheets and Bulletin Boards on health issues.
School Nurses support transition skills through:
- Teaching students to access nursing and medical care first at home, then at school, and finally in the community.
- Sharing students’ medical histories, health needs and treatment plans with the MSSD health services personnel when the students graduate from KDES and enroll in MSSD.
- Visiting hospital and community agencies as part of an integrated classroom instructional program to prepare students for treatment and follow up medical care. (i.e. Classroom field trips to a hospital before a child has surgery as a health literacy and transition lesson in accessing community health care and minimizing fear of medical institutions and procedures.)
 
  
School Nurses at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School support
National Mission Priorities through the following activities:
- Assisting in the Gallaudet Research Institute’s demographic survey of deaf students by completely the CADS forms on all KDES students yearly and serving on the Gallaudet University committee to update this information system.
- Teaching and serving as a health education resource to area university students in medicine, early family education, social work, nursing and psychology. (Teaching Gallaudet University classes, supporting KDES interns and student teachers, presenting to Howard University medical students).
- Meeting with visitors to share program and health related services information.
- Developing a web page for school nursing services to deaf students.
- Developing publications related to health services for deaf students.
- Presenting at national conferences on health issues concerning deaf students and their families.
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| Occupational Therapy |
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Occupational Therapy Staff
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Peyton Moore
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Lori Rolnick
•OT Website
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Occupational
therapists at KDES work as part of multidisciplinary teams that
include teachers, other support service specialists, and families.
The therapists work with the students to develop sensory processing,
and motor skills that lead to increased independence and classroom
success. Occupational therapy addresses students individual needs
for developing fine and gross motor skills, oral- motor skills,
visual- perceptual skills, perceptualmotor skills, and sensory
processing skills that impact on their academic achievement,
literacy, and job readiness.
The Occupational Therapy Program at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School at the
Clerc Center uses an integrated approach to school based therapy. It is driven by the
Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP), and is an
important part of an overall comprehensive educational program.
Licensed Occupational Therapists are available to:
- Provide comprehensive assessment of fine, gross, oral, sensory, and self-help skills.
- Develop appropriate IEP and IFSP goals for individual students.
- Provide therapy and intervention in both the classroom setting, and within the
occupational therapy room.
- Conduct home visits in order to provide training and information to families.
- Conduct inservice training for staff and families.
- Assess the need for adaptive equipment needed by individual students, within
the school environment.
- Teach and promote handwriting development within the classroom.
- Work on issues related to physical accessibility within the school building.
Occupational Therapy Services Integrate Clerc Center Priorities and National Mission
Activities.
At KDES occupational therapists focus on the three national mission priorities: literacy,
transition, and family involvement through the following activities.
Occupational therapists promote literacy through:
- Teaching handwriting in a student friendly manner designed with increased
ease and success in mind.
- Working in integrated groups with the communication specialists in order to
assure that reading, writing, and communication effectively are part of every
session.
- Using arts and crafts to promote pre-writing development, as well as to
supplement and enhance the written work of students.
- Providing written and visual directions before beginning an occupational
therapy activity, in order to promote general literacy development.
- Provide specialized assessment of visual-perceptual skills that may impact on
reading development.
Occupational therapists support family involvement through:
- Working closely with the Parent Infant Program and nursery to provide training to
parents on early motor development, as well as to closely involve family members in
the child's motor development program.
- Providing information in the KDES
newsletter to keep parents informed of current activities within the occupational
therapy department.
- Joining teachers on home visits.
- Meeting with parents and
caregivers regularly, to ask and answer questions, provide home programs, and
discuss issues related to general child development.
Occupational therapists support transition skills through:
- Assessing skills related to money, time, and independent living skills.
- Developing IEP goals, which impact on a student's ability to transition smoothly.
- Collaborating with the audiologist by running a regular lab designed to promote understanding of
daily living skills such as those related to: transportation, emergencies, use of
TTY's, demographic information, time management, and interaction with the
hearing world.
- Conducting assessment of high school students getting ready to
transition.
- Consulting to staff and families of high school students, as well as to the
students themselves, on issues related to transition.
- Serving as a bridge when a
special needs student's transitions between teams or from KDES to MSSD.
Occupational Therapists at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School Support National
Mission Priorities through the following activities:
- Visiting other programs in the community in order to bring back specific expertise
related to individual students.
- Meeting with visitors to share program and service
information.
- Develop publications related to occupational therapy and Deaf children.
- Developing and moderating a Deaf OT/PT list serve where therapists throughout the
country, as well as internationally can interact with each other and share information.
- Developing a web page on occupational therapy with Deaf children.
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| Physical Therapy |
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Physical Therapy Staff
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Yolanda Lusane
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Physical therapy is available to KDES students as a related service.
Physical therapy involves evaluation of students’ functioning levels by
examining their ability to use various gross motor skills involving ; balance
and equilibrium, developmental positioning, locomotion, catching, throwing, and
kicking. Physical therapy includes development of large muscle skills, development
of muscle tone, range of motion, and evaluation of equipment that can increase
independence and participation at school and at home.
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