Academy F.A.Q.

Hummingbird’s Academy is a very unique program for our area. It is run 100% by therapists with a Master or Doctoral degree, including a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, counselor or social worker, physical therapist, and feeding therapist. 

The heart of our program focuses on social-emotional flexibility, resiliency, turn taking, and problem solving. We understand that these are foundational life skills that serve as the springboard for being able to learn. 

Often families come to us because their child’s preschool feels they are not “going with the flow”, “cannot attend” or “struggles socially or behaviorally.” Sometimes families call because their child has had limited experiences playing with other children and they are looking for something more. Other families use our Academy to supplement a community preschool experience or half-day kindergarten program.  Some families are already here for individual therapy and are ready for their child to practice their skills around peers.

The Hummingbird Academy is not a one-size-fits-all program. We specialize a child’s plan and goals to work on what they need to work on. We take a lot of time and care into creating our classes and curriculum to fit the children’s needs. We are here to help!

CAREGIVER & ME
The Caregiver & Me program is for children ages 1-2 years old that are not quite ready to separate from their caregiver. This is often the first experience for children around peers. Like the Discovery program, we will focus primarily on supporting play and social emotional skills, such as functional play (or learning how to play with a variety of toys), parallel play (or playing next to each other), cooperative play (playing together to reach a common goal) while increasing independence from their adult. Classes are small and capped at 6 children and their caregivers. Activities are fun, meaningful, and help our children get prepared to enter our Discovery program smoothly on their own.

DISCOVERY
The Discovery program is for children ages 2-4 years old. This is often the first experience for children around peers. It focuses primarily on supporting play and social emotional skills, such as functional play (or learning how to play with a variety of toys), parallel play (or playing next to each other), and cooperative play (playing together to reach a common goal). Classes are small and capped at 6 children. Activities are fun, meaningful, and help our children get prepared for our Early Learners Program.

EARLY LEARNERS
The Early Learner’s Program is for children around ages 3-5 years old and starts to introduce a typical preschool format. There is more structure in the classroom routines, and there is a maximum of 10 children. The program models appropriate social-language and pro-social skills, and introduces children to a routine and following a daily schedule along with the group plan, expected vs. unexpected behaviors, and early literacy skills.

YOUNG EXPLORERS
Our Young Explorers Program is for children ages 4-6 and it uses the foundational skills and self-confidence gained from the Early Learners Program. It follows lessons from the Social Thinking Curriculum and has more STEM based lessons. In this class, we focus on higher level social thinking, challenging our children to solve problems and become independent thinkers, and follow the group plan while working as a team with their peers. Many children attend this program as enrichment to their half-day kindergarten program, or it provides a unique opportunity for those late birthday children of kids who could benefit from an extra year (or Kindergarten gap year).

IDEA BUILDERS (SUMMER ONLY)
A two day a week summer program for early elementary students ages 7-9 who are ready for more independent learning and higher-level thinking challenges. Hands on activities focus on critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Children will engage in STEAM experiments, collaborative projects, and interest-based explorations designed to build curiosity, confidence, and flexible thinking.

There is a speech language therapist, occupational therapist, and certified counselor in each academy classroom. 

• The speech therapist’s main focus is on your child’s communication skills and receptive and expressive language. 
  
• The OT will work on sensory regulation, emotional regulation, fine motor skills, and ADL’s (or activities of daily living). 
  
• The counselor will focus on your child’s ability to transition, participate with the group, and use pro-social language with others. The counselor will also help with using coping strategies in the classroom when upset or having big emotions.
  
• A PT will come into the class once a week. The PT will focus on gross motor skills such as jumping, stairs, balance, and throwing skills. 
  
• The feeding therapist comes in and leads a cooking class! During this time, the therapist will help the children explore a variety of food groups and textures in a fun and engaging way. 

We use several different research-based curriculums to help create our Academy Program. Some examples include:

• Creative Curriculum
  
• DIR floortime
  
• Zones of regulation
  
• ALERT program
  
• Zoo phonics
  
• Heggerty phonological awareness program
  
• Handwriting without tears
  
• The Social Thinking Curriculum
  
• SOS feeding
  
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
  
• And more!
  

It is important to note that in the field of therapy, we are constantly learning as clinicians. Many times a family may come to us with a program they have heard about, and we do further research and sometimes become certified in that program if we feel it would be beneficial for the children. We are constantly updating our methods. 

DISCOVERY 
In our discovery program, the day is typically 1 hour and 45 minutes long. We start with exploration and regulation time with therapists joining in on your child’s play, helping them build attention, engagement, and play skills both independently and with other children. The children then go to our sensory gym for gross motor play with swings and slides, a ball pit, rock wall, trampoline, and obstacle courses. A physical therapist will also come in during this time once a week to give the children more focused attention on gross motor development. Next comes snack, where we work on functional skills such as washing hands and/or bathroom routines, opening snack bags or boxes, and joining everyone at the table. Finally, there is a group activity, where the kids might participate in a story book reading, craft, or game. Lastly, there is music time and farewells before it’s time to go home!

CHILDREN’S
In our children’s academy groups, including the Early Learners or Young Explorers program, the day is set up with a few more structured activities. It is typically 2.5 hours long. We start with sensory and exploration time, which is used to help the children focus, self-regulate, and get them ready to learn! We have stations with several different activities to explore. Then the group transitions to circle time, where they practice greeting friends, review the day, calendar, weather & participate in conversation exercises. During the OT activity, the children may participate in Handwriting Without Tears activities, sensory exploratory toys or projects, animal walks, yoga, or other fine motor games. We have SEL lessons, led by a counselor or LCSW. The activities focus on prosocial skills like sharing, empathy, perseverance, self-regulation, confidence building, and more. The class will have a speech lesson, which includes a phonological awareness activity (rhyming, letter/sound recognition, decoding, etc.), reading comprehension, or language tasks. The class will have snack during the middle of the day, and transitions from one activity to another includes music and movement, sensory walks, or follow-the-leader games such as “Simon Says.” The day will end with a closing circle, sharing our favorite part of the day, and saying our goodbyes. 

For our Early Learners & Young Explorer Program, we offer a social feeding group, “lunch bunch” for an extended day. The morning group has lunch bunch 11-11:30, and the afternoon is 11:30-12. You would send your child a meal for lunch and therapists would continue to work on meal-time engagement with the group. At this time, a feeding therapist may also join the group to work on eating a variety of foods and oral motor skills.

To enroll your child in one of our Academy classes, give us a call! You can also attend one of our open houses, which we typically do every summer, fall, and spring. 

After we gather some initial information from you, we can schedule a tour or shadow day. This is when your child can come in and play in one of our classrooms for a part of the class. After that, we will discuss a plan of action for your child with you, which may include any of the following:

• Full classroom without private therapy
• Private therapy + academy (either before or after class)
• Part time academy and get pulled out for private therapy
• Starting with private therapies to ready your child for the group setting

You must turn in our registration packet and one-time new family registration fee to secure a spot in the classroom.

We will then set up evaluations for all areas, including speech, OT, counseling, PT, and feeding. This allows us to really understand your child’s strengths and areas of opportunity. Evaluation results will be shared with you as we put together goals for your child for his/her Academy class.

After that, you will be introduced to your child’s Academy classroom therapist team and will receive all communication from them going forward.

If you are a current family, ask your child’s therapist for more information! They would be happy to explain more about our programs and let you know if the program would benefit your child. Your therapist would then let the Academy team know that you are interested, and we will reach out to you to start the process.

Your child does not need to have a diagnosis to join Academy. We have several different Academy groups operating across our locations to be able to offer your child a setting that will best complement their goals and skills they are working on.  For instance if your child is working on using their AAC more, we may have an AAC class. If your child needs to practice their social skills, we have a class for them too.  Just like our other therapy sessions, our Academy team will create goals around what we see and observe.

Absolutely! We would be hard-pressed to find a child that would not benefit from the safe, supportive environment of the Hummingbird Academy.  Our Academy program is a great way for your child to take the skills they are practicing in individual therapy and work on them around peers under the guidance of a therapist. Or there may be children that are not currently receiving private therapy, but thrive in this small, structured environment. Some families choose to use the Academy as a gap year prior to entering into the school district.