Some children don’t always pay attention in class. 
Some can’t seem to button their shirts correctly no matter how hard they try. Others have trouble forming words properly or have a hard time reading. Most of the clients who walk through the doors of Therapy Services in Huntums Ghut just need a little extra help learning how to perform everyday tasks.
Kerri-Ann Austin de Castro founded the firm in 2010 after working as a consultant in the public schools.
“There’s a huge need and not enough professionals, to be quite honest,” she said. “Our case load? Every day we’re just bombarded.”
Besides Ms. Austin de Castro, the company has grown to include a speech language pathologist, an occupational therapist and a reading specialist, all with master’s degrees and professional licensure in the United States. The staff members work with students who are academically delayed, special-needs clients, and children diagnosed with autism and related conditions.
Public awareness
Ms. Austin de Castro said that in some cases there is a lack of public awareness in the territory’s schools about students with special needs. Last year, Therapy Services collaborated with the Rotary Club of Road Town to offer a workshop for teachers focusing on how to teach special-needs students. At the beginning of the session, the majority of the several dozen teachers in attendance said they had never taught such students in their classes. Then Ms. Austin de Castro started describing characteristics of students with special needs.
“Halfway through the workshop they were like, ‘Wait a minute. We had these kids 15 or 20 years ago and we hope we did the right thing,’” she said.
As a speech language pathologist, Ms. Austin de Castro typically works with children “who aren’t able to express themselves as they should for their age,” she said. After evaluating children’s particular issues, she teaches them techniques to better articulate sounds into words. She also works with clients who have trouble swallowing, a simple yet vital skill taken for granted by most of the population. In the past, she’s taught patients recovering from a stroke how to eat again.
“If you can get somebody from eating a puree – that mushy thing – on to eating a steak, which is their favourite thing, they’re so grateful,” she said.
For autistics who are so sensitive to texture that they can’t eat certain foods like grainy cereals, teaching them to swallow properly is often needed to prevent malnourishment, she said.
Reading specialist
Melanie Okadigwe, a reading specialist with the company, said the students she typically works with are academically delayed. She’s seen a high number of students, especially in primary school, who aren’t reading to grade level.
“It surprises you because you see an 8- or 9-year-old with basic phonics, the foundations just aren’t there,” she said, adding that she helps them with the critical thinking and reading comprehension skills they’ll need for the rest of their school years.
Meghan Cosgrove, an occupational therapist who recently joined the company, said that sometimes the students who struggle to focus or follow instructions can’t help it.
“It’s not they’re misbehaving or that they’re not wanting to do well,” she said. “It’s that there’s something more complex going on there a lot of times.”
Ms. Austin de Castro said the VI needs occupational therapists who work with children who have trouble sitting with the correct posture or who doesn’t know how to hold a pen properly. Failure to master those simple tasks can have long-term consequences, Ms. Cosgrove said.
“It affects your success in the classroom,” she said. “A kid might have all the knowledge, but who’s to say? If you can’t write it down in an essay, the teacher wouldn’t know that.”
The occupational therapist added that much of what the company offers its clients is individualised assistance for areas in which they need a little extra help.
“A lot of it is just about educating people to how they can get to a higher level in school or just get them to be as successful as they can be,” she said.