Students

AEPS Curriculum

Used after the Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System (AEPS) Test is completed and scored, this developmentally sequenced curriculum allows you to match the child's IFSP/IEP goals and objectives with activity-based interventions-beginning with simple skills and moving on to more advanced skills. Because the AEPS Curriculum for Three to Six Years uses the same numbering system as the AEPS Test, you can easily locate activities in the curriculum that correspond to specific goals and objectives identified with the test.

Occupational Therapy

The Occupational Therapist works with children to assist in the development of age appropriate skills in the following areas: sensory motor skills, environmental awareness, fine and gross motor coordination, upper extremity function, attention span, balance (in sitting and standing), independence in activities of daily living and wheelchair mobility. The therapist also works with parents, teachers, aides and the speech and physical therapists to instruct and assist as necessary in functional positioning and splint applications.

Physical Therapy

The Physical Therapist, working with a prescription from the child’s attending physician, provides many activities including: range of motion exercises, strengthening exercises, wheelchair instruction, activities to increase transfer ability, facilitation of gross motor development, instruction to increase ability to negotiate architectural barriers, gait instruction, and activities to help increase balance and equilibrium reactions. Physical therapists also help to fit and repair wheelchairs as well as recommending various orthotic devices.

Speech Therapy

The goal of the Speech Therapist is to help students to be effective verbal and nonverbal communicators. Therapy focuses on skills such as eye contact, following directions, listening, sequential memory, articulation, voice quality, rate of speech, turn taking, topic maintenance, cause/effect with switches, receptive vocabulary and expressive speech skills. We also attempt to develop a communication aid either with sign language, picture symbols and/or mechanical devices for nonverbal communicators. Therapy is done in the classroom or in the community working on expressive skills in another environment for carry-over.

Music Therapy

The music program is intended to compliment and enrich the individual program of each student. Music is another channel by which students at Pioneer can learn. General areas are:

1. Better physical control
2. Self-help
3. Number Skills
4. Communication
5. Leisure Time Activities

Each student is encouraged to enjoy music, but this is not a goal in itself; rather, that every student will gain something through music which will be useful in everyday life. Our elementary students ages 6-13 will learn through music groups while those students ages 14-18+ will engage in music electives.

Adapted Physical Education

The physical development program compliments work being done in the classroom, but the main focus of this department is to develop motor skills, physical conditioning, social skills and physical education. Group games, skill drills, dances, records, exercises and team sports are activities used to reach goals.

Instruction for Deaf & Hard of Hearing students

Deaf or hard of hearing students have unique academic and communication needs in the classroom. Pioneer Center provides services for students with hearing loss that include fostering sign language, spoken language or picture communication based on the individual child’s needs. These services are also provided in mainstream settings. Training for mainstream teachers and staff is offered as well as consultation for IEP teams and families.

Recreational Programming

The recreational programming at Pioneer Center provides individuals with a variety of physical, mental, social, and emotional benefits. The program provides a variety of diversified activities that promote interpersonal skills, contribute to a sense of self-fulfillment, and enhance the lives of students. Our emphasis is placed on motivating the student to try new experiences and challenges in a secure and safe environment at school, at home, and in the community, which helps build self-confidence.

Unique Learning System Curriculum

Pioneer School uses the Unique Learning System, a curriculum based on Ohio’s Learning Standards that adapts lessons to meet the individual needs of every student. The Unique Learning System has a built in tracking process that identifies individual student goals, preferences, and skills. We use five grade bands: Elementary (K-2), Intermediate (Gr. 3-5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12), and Transition Band (12+). The Unique Curriculum provides our students with quality instructional resources and learning materials to prepare them for daily living needs and vocational opportunities upon graduation from our program at age 22.

Occupational Therapy

The Occupational Therapist works with children to assist in the development of age appropriate skills in the following areas: sensory motor skills, environmental awareness, fine and gross motor coordination, upper extremity function, attention span, balance (in sitting and standing), independence in activities of daily living and wheelchair mobility. The therapist also works with parents, teachers, aides and the speech and physical therapists to instruct and assist as necessary in functional positioning and splint applications.

Physical Therapy

The Physical Therapist, working with a prescription from the child’s attending physician, provides many activities including: range of motion exercises, strengthening exercises, wheelchair instruction, activities to increase transfer ability, facilitation of gross motor development, instruction to increase ability to negotiate architectural barriers, gait instruction, and activities to help increase balance and equilibrium reactions. Physical therapists also help to fit and repair wheelchairs as well as recommending various orthotic devices.

Speech Therapy

The goal of the Speech Therapist is to help students to be effective verbal and nonverbal communicators. Therapy focuses on skills such as eye contact, following directions, listening, sequential memory, articulation, voice quality, rate of speech, turn taking, topic maintenance, cause/effect with switches, receptive vocabulary and expressive speech skills. We also attempt to develop a communication aid either with sign language, picture symbols and/or mechanical devices for nonverbal communicators. Therapy is done in the classroom or in the community working on expressive skills in another environment for carry-over.

Music Therapy

The music program is intended to compliment and enrich the individual program of each student. Music is another channel by which students at Pioneer can learn. General areas are:

1. Better physical control
2. Self-help
3. Number Skills
4. Communication
5. Leisure Time Activities

Each student is encouraged to enjoy music, but this is not a goal in itself; rather, that every student will gain something through music which will be useful in everyday life. Our elementary students ages 6-13 will learn through music groups while those students ages 14-18+ will engage in music electives.

Adapted Physical Education

The physical development program compliments work being done in the classroom, but the main focus of this department is to develop motor skills, physical conditioning, social skills and physical education. Group games, skill drills, dances, records, exercises and team sports are activities used to reach goals.

Instruction for Deaf & Hard of Hearing students

Deaf or hard of hearing students have unique academic and communication needs in the classroom. Pioneer Center provides services for students with hearing loss that include fostering sign language, spoken language or picture communication based on the individual child’s needs. These services are also provided in mainstream settings. Training for mainstream teachers and staff is offered as well as consultation for IEP teams and families.

Recreational Programming

The recreational programming at Pioneer Center provides individuals with a variety of physical, mental, social, and emotional benefits. The program provides a variety of diversified activities that promote interpersonal skills, contribute to a sense of self-fulfillment, and enhance the lives of students.  Our emphasis is placed on motivating the student to try new experiences and challenges in a secure and safe environment at school, at home, and in the community, which helps build self-confidence.

Sensory Room

A Sensory Room is a specially designed room which combines a range of stimuli to help individuals develop and engage their senses. These can include lights, colors, sounds, sensory soft play objects, aromas all within a safe environment that allows the person using it to explore and interact without risk. Children with developmental disabilities rarely, if ever, experience the world as the majority of us do. Limitations of movement, vision, hearing, cognitive ability, constrained space, behavioral difficulties, perception issues, pain, and other problems create obstacles to their enjoyment of life. Pioneer School's Sensory Room provides opportunities for bridging these barriers.

Nursing Services

Pioneer School offers comprehensive nursing coverage to our students. Compared with a public school setting where several hundred children would have a single nurse, Pioneer employs both an RN and an LPN for about 90 on-campus students. Our nurses have regular experience with handling seizures and their medications, tube feeding and medication delivery, catheterization, breathing treatments as well as administration of scheduled medications. Pioneer students also benefit from available nursing care during field trips and other community outings. When the need is documented in a child's Individual Education Plan, a one on one nurse can even be assigned to that child to provide constant care.

Summer Camps

Pony Camp - held at the Ross County Fairgrounds, this camp is focused on outdoor recreational activities such as pony cart riding, ground work, horse safety, anatomy, grooming, tack, horse sports, equine careers and horse crafts, but does include other outdoor recreational activities.

Inclusive Sports Camp - held in partnership with area school districts, this camp focuses on making new friends and learning new skills. Activities include football, cheerleading, track & field, baseball and more!

Art Camp - held at the Pioneer School, this camp offers a sensory-based, individualized art course for children of all abilities.

Camp Cattail - held at Camp Cattail on Cattail Rd, this camp includes all sorts of outdoor activities including fishing, bike riding, bounce house, hay ride, visits from the Chillicothe Police and Fire Department and others and many other activities.

Final Forms

Parents can update their child's information any time using our online Final Forms system. Click here to update your forms now!

Transition Timeline

Ages 14 & 15

• Begin Job Shadowing
• Create Job Shadowing log (ongoing for 14 and 15 year olds)
• Begin working to get an SSA if child does not already have one
• Give info on Ohio Means Jobs

Age 16

• Begin community job
• Complete Job Log (ongoing for 16-graduation)
• Send home OOD information
• Log date of OOD intake meeting
• Discuss Transfer of Rights prior to 17th birthday
• Estimate Graduation date

Age 17

• Discuss Guardianship
• Check transcript - is student on track to graduate?

Age 18 (or graduation year)

• Finalize transcript
• Finalize Resume