The mission of the Psychology Department is to assist in the development of the social and emotional life of our children in order to help each of them succeed, to the best of their abilities, in our ever expanding social world. In addition, we foster an understanding of all of our children's learning styles and needs in order to help them reach their potential in the academic environment.

We accomplish these tasks through both direct and indirect services that include:

• Individual Play Therapy
• Group Therapy
• Social Skills Training
• Consultation/Collaboration with our teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists and other outside service providers.
• Participation in classroom activities to promote generalization of skills

In our therapy sessions, we focus on:

• Relatedness
• Reciprocal communication
• Development of play and language skills
• Self-regulation
• Coping skills
• Social problem solving skills

We work closely with parents in order to build a bridge between home life and school life and promote consistency in the way we all relate to the children. Here, at Gillen Brewer, we strive for open and frequent communication with our parents, which may be accomplished by face-to-face meetings and/or telephone calls. In addition, we provide a bimonthly preschool parent support group where parents share both their experiences of having a child with special needs, as well as strategies for addressing a myriad of behaviors. Parent workshops are held throughout the year, some of which are presented solely by the Psychology Department and some in conjunction with our other departments. These workshops are designed to both inform parents about important issues regarding raising a child with special needs, as well as to provide them with specific strategies and helpful tools to enhance development.

Click here to see psychologist's notes from the 2005-2006 parent workshops.