Student Wellness Works*

Student Wellness Works serves our blind and visually impaired K-12 students by offering enrichment activities in and after school and during the extended school year. In doing so, the program helps students explore new opportunities intentionally designed to provide hands-on experience and spark their curiosity as part of our expanded core curriculum.

Supported partly by the generosity of individual donors to the Institute, program activities are provided to students and families at no cost.

Current programming includes:

Where Are They Now Speaker Series
Student Ambassador Program
Starlight & Co. Leadership Program
Performances by Guest Artists and Ensembles
Visiting Authors and Speakers
Masterclasses

After-School Activities

Teacher Fund

Special projects developed by our teachers and therapists created in collaboration in administrative staff to benefit students.

Technology

New assistive technology and adaptive equipment for use by teachers and students in classrooms (ex: CCTV's, Monarch, a multipurpose, multiline, tactile braille device)

Note: In addition to the Student Wellness Works Program for Schermerhorn students, Readiness Program teachers, childcare workers, and therapeutic recreational specialists plan and supervise various activities to support our pre-schoolers with developmental delays.

Program Benefits

Helps compensate for students' decreased opportunities to learn incidentally by observing others.
Offers opportunities for students to develop their executive functioning and leadership skills.
Supports student's community integration and peer-to-peer community building opportunities.
Strengthens social-emotional learning through assemblies and special presentations.
Provides career development training through internships and work training events.
Builds study and time management skills through academic tutoring.
Development of career education and job skills.

2024/2025 Select Program Activities

Program Benefits: Expanded Core Curriculum

Aligned with both our Academic and Expanded Core Curriculums (ECC), the Student Wellness Works helps students with nine universal educational needs for students with visual impairments.

These needs include:

Compensatory Access Skills
Self-determination
Sensory Efficiency
Assistive Technology
Social Interaction
Career Education
Independent Living Skills
Orientation and Mobility
Recreation and Leisure

Program Benefits: Social Emotional Learning

Social emotional learning is focused on helping students recognize, understand, and manage their emotions. Instruction methods vary based on the age of each student and encompass everything from learning how to share toys in kindergarten to digital literacy and preparation for college.

Examples of social emotional learning, include

identifying and managing difficult emotions
understanding how to make responsible decisions
different methods for handling stress
the importance of setting goals, and
building healthy relationships.

Source

https://childmind.org/article/what-is-social-and-emotional-learning/

Program Benefits: Executive Function Skills

Executive Functioning skills are core life skills used to successfully manage school, work, outside interests, and social relationships. These skills are critical to ensuring the development of students' independence at the Institute and are taught deliberately throughout our programs.

Executive Functioning skills include, but are not limited to

Displaying self-control and flexibility
Capacity to plan and meet goals
Following multi-step directions
Time management
Filtering distractions
Maintaining focus
Prioritizing tasks
Organization

Sources:

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/what-is-executive-function-and-how-does-it-relate-to-child-development/

https://harvardcenter.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/HCDC_BuildingAdolescentCoreLifeSkills.pdf

Program Benefits: Adaptive Sports

Reinforcing what one can accomplish through commitment, dedication, and collaboration, participation on our adaptive sports teams builds self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-awareness through teamwork, practice, and competition.

Students also benefit from learning to incorporate sports into an active and healthy lifestyle off-campus, encouraging them to remain involved in sports long after graduating from our program.

Specific skills taught include: