Jessica Miller

The Wolf School

The Wolf School is dedicated to providing an educational environment where children with learning differences become successful, secure learners. Our intensive and integrated model enables children to discover and utilize their strengths and challenges by meeting their academic, social and emotional needs. Located in East Providence, Wolf educates up to 50 children a year in grades 1-8 from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Students at Wolf have average or above average cognitive potential, but experience enormous difficulty progressing in a traditional classroom due to a learning profile that includes language processing and production challenges, problems with sensory regulation, and ineffective social communication. While students have various diagnosis and abilities, these three obstacles to learning are prominent. In contrast with a "pull out" model where students receive academic, speech or occupational therapy support during the day in a separate room, the Wolf School created an "immersion model" whereby therapeutic support is integrated within the entire curriculum throughout the day in each classroom. The immersion model utilizes a team of professionals (academic teacher, speech pathologist, and occupational therapist) working with small instructional groups (1:4 maximum) to ensure lessons integrate language, sensory, and social skills. This unique educational approach allows our students to attend to task and be ready to learn.