Community Therapy Services, P.C.
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Community Therapy Services offers physical therapy services delivered by licensed, certified, and experienced physical therapists.

CTS physical therapists work with a wide variety of congenital or acquired physical disabilities. The PT will evaluate, set goals, consult with a multidisciplinary team, and offer recommendations for seating and positioning and establishing ADL exercise programs. Direct care staff will be in-serviced on disabilities, transfers, seating and positioning, and body mechanics. Services can be delivered individually or in a group with peers of similar ability.

A workshop is available on seating and positioning of the individual. Objectives include:

• Positions for stability to let the child focus on the task at hand
• Positions for mobility to work towards improved posture and strength

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• Music activities offer opportunities for social interaction and discussing common interests.
• Thematic music groups provide a springboard for further discussion and interaction among residents after group is over.
• Promotes continued use of motor skills through instrument playing an structured movement to music.
• Organized bell choirs, vocal choirs, rhythm bands, and kazoo bands allow residents opportunities to perform both in and out of the facility. Residents are also given a chance to choose which musical band they would like to participate in.
• Songs from the residents' era encourages reminiscence and keeps thought processes in tact.
• Opportunities for a positive life review through music associations that can include family members from many generations.
• Rehabilitation exercises set to appropriate music (rhythm, tempo, style) make exercising more enjoyable and reduces recuperation time.
• Music can be used as a common interest element for intergenerational programs.

• Instruments, songs, and music activities help keep orientation to time and place, and improve upon current level of functioning in a successful environment.
• Assist in the learning and use of Activities of Daily Living (grooming, personal care).
• Music is a fantastic leisure activity for people with a great deal of free time on their hands.

• Research studies show how the use of music can improve brain development (thought process, problem solving, critical thinking, creating neuro-pathways).
• Songs and music activities help with socialization, verbal and nonverbal communication, motor planning, and coordination.
• Rhythm instruments aid in developing fine and gross motor skills.
• Wind instruments aid in developing breath control and verbal communication skills.
• Music therapy is recognized as a developmental service for the State of Illinois Early Intervention Program.

Good sensory processing skills are essential for the child for many reasons. Sensory processing skills are the skills a child uses to demonstrate proper overall organization skills and attention to task. How a child attends to and completes a task relate back to his or her overall sensory processing skills. Thus, occupational therapy services are essential to afford the child the optimal opportunities to effectively learn.

The following are the essential sensory processing skills a child needs:

Tactile - Tactile sensation refers to our ability to interpret stimuli received by the skin. This stimulation may be in the form of touch, pain, pressure, or temperature. There are two components of this system: a protective component which tells us that we are in contact with something dangerous and a discriminatory component which allows us to determine where we are being touched and what it is that is touching us. A child who demonstrates difficulty in this area may not like being touched by others or throw a tantrum when certain aversive stimuli touch his hands or other body parts. In turn, the child's overall learning experience can be greatly affected.

Proprioceptive - Proprioceptive input gives information to the brain about where our body parts are in space and what they are doing. The receptors for this system are located in our muscles and joints. Without the proper proprioceptive input processing skills, children often appear clumsy and are unable to remain seated and focused on the task at hand. Also, many times they are unable to appropriately gauge the proper amount of pressure needed to complete a writing task.

Vestibular - The vestibular system is our sense of movement and gravity. The receptors for this system are located in the inner ear. Vestibular input tells us whether or not we are moving and in what direction we are moving. Children demonstrating difficulty in this area do not like quick spinning motion or play performed on suspended equipment (like swings and slides). They tend to demonstrate gravitational insecurity. As a note, children with seizure disorders should not be moved in a spinning motion on any type of equipment. This can cause the onset of a seizure. A linear swinging motion is OK.

Visual - Visual activities involve processing of visual information (light, color). They require interpretation of visual environmental information and the ability to attend to what is necessary and ignore what is not relevant. Children with diagnoses such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)/autism often demonstrate difficulty in this area because they tend to get visual stimulation from different brightly colored or odd-shaped objects. Thus, learning is negatively impacted.

Auditory - Auditory activities involve the ability to process various sounds and intensities of sound along with the ability to filter out or ignore sounds that are not relevant. Some children are unable to take in all the different noises and sounds which are coming at them all at once. As a result, many children are unable to filter our the auditory stimuli that they need, and it causes them to have difficulty following directions and remaining organized and attentive to task.

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Physical Therapy in the Educational/Clinical Setting, Early Intervention, Early Childhood

Community Therapy Services offers physical therapy services delivered by licensed, certified, and experienced physical therapists.

The physical therapist's role in the school setting includes individual evaluation with a student and setting goals that are discussed in a team meeting with teachers, parents, and other disciplines. The PT goes into the classroom and offers recommendations for seating and positioning, activities, and supervision of the student. The teachers and the classroom aide are in-serviced on disabilities and transfers and lifting of students. The student may be seen either individually or in a group with peers of similar ability. Goals are determined that allow the child to function safely in the school and on the playground.

The physical therapist's role with the birth to 3 population is to help the child to attain motor milestones. Typical goals would be to sit independently, to gain some form of mobility -- commando crawling, creeping, or scooting -- in order to explore the environment, and to be able to stand or walk for weight bearing through the legs for bone growth.

A workshop is available on seating and positioning of the child. Objectives include:

• Positions for stability to let the child focus on the task at hand
• Positions for mobility to work towards improved posture and strength

Community Therapy Services provides licensed and certified speech-language pathologists on a contract basis to schools. A special education program contracting for speech-language services through CTS receives the highest quality services available. Our therapists are matched to the needs of your special education program. Therapists working for CTS have extensive experience serving a variety of populations in many different settings. We have SLPs providing services in the following areas:

• self-contained classrooms
• multi-needs
• inclusion
• regular education settings
• alternative schools
• many other delivery models

All of our associates have experience working with members of multidisciplinary teams. Our staff has the additional benefit of participating in professional development through our continuing education opportunities, thereby increasing the quality of the services they provide.

Community Therapy Services offers physical therapy services delivered by licensed, certified, and experienced physical therapists.

CTS physical therapists work with a wide variety of congenital or acquired physical disabilities. The PT will evaluate, set goals, consult with a multidisciplinary team, and offer recommendations for seating and positioning and establishing ADL exercise programs. Direct care staff will be in-serviced on disabilities, transfers, seating and positioning, and body mechanics. Services can be delivered individually or in a group with peers of similar ability.

A workshop is available on seating and positioning of the individual. Objectives include:
Positions for stability to let the child focus on the task at hand
Positions for mobility to work towards improved posture and strength

• Music encourages early enthusiasm for learning in an academic setting.
• Music provides time-ordered social activities.
• Songs and music continue to help children develop the social and communication skills necessary to succeed in life.

• Music is used as a tool to teach academic concepts.
• Music is used as a reinforcement for positive behaviors.
• Appropriate social development is promoted through group music activities.
• Individual music therapy sessions are used as a support for adaptive music education classes.
• Successful music experiences establish a non-threatening environment and promote the development of self-esteem.

If all of my possessions were taken from me, except for one, I'd choose the power of communication, because through it, I'd somehow acquire all the rest.
Daniel Webster

Community Therapy Services provides speech-language communication consulting services to ICF / residential care facilities for adults and children with developmental challenges. Our speech and language professionals are licensed and certified. Their experience is matched to the needs of your facility. Consulting services include trouble-shooting questions or concerns on implementing the Communication Bill of Rights (as part of the ADA), generating assessment protocols according to the needs of your clients and program, and promoting communication needs as the most critical component to a quality human life. We use a collaborative approach between the communication challenged and their significant communication partners. This provides a more complete picture of daily needs for communication. From this information, we can design and implement inclusionary philosophies and procedures and even identify functional augmentative communication systems and strategies.

• Music promotes common interests and increases social interaction.
• Music helps in reality orientation through songs and themes that coincide with special events.
• Music keeps breathing and motor skills functional through kazoo and rhythm instrument bands.
• Music improves the quality of life.

Community Therapy Services offers physical therapy services delivered by licensed, certified, and experienced physical therapists.

CTS physical therapists work with a wide variety of congenital or acquired physical disabilities. The PT will evaluate, set goals, consult with a multidisciplinary team, and offer recommendations for seating and positioning and establishing ADL exercise programs. The QMRPs and direct care staff will be in-serviced on disabilities, transfers, seating and positioning, and body mechanics. Services can be delivered individually or in a group with peers of similar ability.

A workshop is available on seating and positioning of the individual. Objectives include:

• Positions for stability to let the child focus on the task at hand
• Positions for mobility to work towards improved posture and strength

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Augmentative Communications

Community Therapy Service offers augmentative communication evaluations and training for home-based services, Bogard services, sheltered employment, rehab centers, and House Bill 69.

What is AAC (Alternative/Augmentative Communication?)

People who are nonverbal or have limited verbal skills need to have either alternative modes of communication or methods to augment their spoken message. Facial expressions, body language, and gestures are naturally occurring augmentative and alternative modes. The use of objects, pictures, signs, and electronic voice output are additional modes that can be taught and made available, as well. In each case, it is likely that a client will use a combination of all of these.

Why an Augmentative Evaluation?

Community Therapy Services believes that people have a right to interact with their environment and communicate with others. For some people, physical challenges involving the mouth, hands, arms, and head limit successful interaction. For some with socialization challenges, communication and socialization might be improved through the use of writing or computerized systems.

An Effective AAC Evaluation Will:

• Assess applicable cognitive, oral motor, literacy, and motor skills.
• Assess and match a person's strengths and challenges with communication and environmental needs.
• Allow direct practice with a variety of systems and devices in order to determine which is optimal.
• Offer both low technology options, such as picture/word communication boards and high technology, such as computerized systems with voice output.
• Offer assistance in identifying and locating the appropriate system.
• Find an optimal method of accessing a communication device, from direct hand selection to switch activation to visual scanning.
• Offer communication and training to other significant communication partners.

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