The staff of the FrostigSchool is dedicated to providing children with learning disabilities a quality program that promotes the development of academics, language, motor skills, social-emotional strategies, creativity, and those factors that we believe will contribute to lifelong success.   We believe in serving the “whole child.”  By addressing all of the child’s needs in an integrated fashion, we can best help each child develop into a productive and successful member of society.

The FrostigSchool supports a “LEARN AND RETURN” policy.  It is our goal to assist students to improve skills, identify strengths, and develop strategies to compensate for areas of challenge. To insure that each student’s needs are met, we feel it is essential to develop an individualized educational plan.  This plan is based on an understanding of each student’s strengths and weaknesses and outlines a course of action to help the child reach his or her highest potential.

We believe in establishing and maintaining a learning environment that allows students to feel comfortable taking risks.  As part of risk-taking, it is essential to help students develop positive strategies to cope with frustration.  Our research supports the conclusion that students who are successful have an understanding that adversity is a normal part of the learning process.

The Research Department at Frostig has pursued two lines of inquiry over the last twenty to twenty-five years.  One of these lines, a 20-year follow-up study of former students at the FrostigSchool, has yielded significant quantitative and qualitative findings concerning the development of persons with learning disabilities over the life span.  This study has identified a set of attributes associated with successful life outcomes, including employment, education, financial stability, independent living status, family and community relations, life satisfaction, and psychological and physical health.   These “success attributes” include qualities such as self-awareness, proactivity, persistence, appropriate goal setting, emotional coping strategies and the development and use of social support systems.

The Success Attributes have been integrated into instructional practices within the School for approximately five years. These attributes are both taught directly through activities within the classrooms and high school transition program and indirectly through the strategies and vocabulary employed by the staff across the program.  The school team has adopted them as our Expected Schoolwide Learning Results for all Frostig students. Everyone at the School works to establish a culture that promotes these ESLRs:

Setting appropriate goals
Understanding strengths and weaknesses
Control and proactivity
Courage and perseverance
Emotional coping strategies
Self-advocacy
Support system access