The History of the Therapeutic School in Torun 
In 2011 the Therapeutic School in Torun celebrates the 20th anniversary of its existence.
The Therapeutic School in Torun was founded on February 11th 1991 at the request of dr Jadwiga Jastrząb. It was a phenomenon unprecedented in the country as it was a completely new educational institution in the Polish school system. The school tried to meet special developmental, educational and social needs of children with learning difficulties and discipline problems in order to protect them from a school failure and a social maladjustment threatening them into a mainstream education.
The first base of the school was the home of a catechetical school at Jodłowa street. A significant date in the history of the school was 15 November 1993. Then the Board of the City of Torun eventually decided to move the base of the school to the State Kindergarten’s building at 14 Bolta Street.
In 1997 dr Jadwiga Jatrząb, finished first in her opinion, the most difficult period of the school’s existence . The school formally entered the Polish system of education in late 1998.
The innovative and pioneering nature of teaching set the school the therapeutic education worked out by the founder of the school dr Jadwiga Jastrząb.
The Therapeutic School in Torun was founded on February 11th 1991 at the request of dr Jadwiga Jastrząb. It was a phenomenon unprecedented in the country as it was a completely new educational institution in the Polish school system. The school tried to meet special developmental, educational and social needs of children with learning difficulties and discipline problems in order to protect them from a school failure and a social maladjustment threatening them into a mainstream education.
The first base of the school was the home of a catechetical school at Jodłowa street. A significant date in the history of the school was 15 November 1993. Then the Board of the City of Torun eventually decided to move the base of the school to the State Kindergarten’s building at 14 Bolta Street.
In 1997 dr Jadwiga Jatrząb, finished first in her opinion, the most difficult period of the school’s existence . The school formally entered the Polish system of education in late 1998.
The innovative and pioneering nature of teaching set the school the therapeutic education worked out by the founder of the school dr Jadwiga Jastrząb.
The first step is to perform a complete medical (both physical and neurologic), developmental, social, school performance, and family history. These are followed by psychoeducational testing and psychological assessment. Other causes of learning disabilities need to be ruled out before the diagnosis of dyslexia is confirmed.
The Therapeutic education in the Therapeutic School in Torun includes special day classes, specialist help and individualized tutoring that distinguishes it form a mainstream education. This education is addressed to students with learning difficulties, and it is conducted by therapists. Every individual has different requirements that is why an Individual Education Plan is created for each child.
The main objective of therapeutic education is the development of such traits of personality and character and psychophysical functions through which a student can achieve the optimal development for themselves and master the essential knowledge and skills at school. The pedagogical procedure is based on the deep psycho-educational awareness of the dependencies between the student’s process of learning and the teaching process used by the teacher. Only the correct synchronization between these processes based on the knowledge of current and potential capabilities and limitations of the child, determines the effectiveness of education and the student’s development under its influence. The teacher constantly remembers about the necessity and value of diagnosing, so incessantly adapts flexibly to the current state of efficiency of each pupil.
In the canon of therapeutic tasks, we include:
• stimulation of psychomotor development,
• compensation of developmental deficiencies,
• interference correction of processes and mental functions,
• elimination of deficiencies of teaching,
• changing attitudes to the difficulties and school failure,
• removing obstacles to adaptation student in the school environment.
The multiplicity and diversity of the tasks set therapeutic education major functions: stimulating the development of students; prophylactic against the threat of school failure, corrective to any developmental abnormalities, compensatory to the existing problems of teaching. The interplay of all these functions and meeting the special needs of students is used to optimize their development and social functioning.
The educational procedure must be multifaceted, combining into one coherent stream of impacts.
The Psychotherapeutic aspect means that a student actively participates in the process of overcoming difficulties in learning. This can be achieved when a child temporarily accepts their own difficulties. A teacher must mobilizes them to hard work, despite the existing obstacles, teach them how to overcome setbacks, inspire him with confidence in their own opportunities and stimulate efforts to achieve success.
The Psycho-corrective aspect is the use of many specialized treatments designed to achieve the overall efficiency of functions and psychophysical processes involved in the learning process in general, and to overcome specific difficulties in their particular area. This can be achieved by the correction and compensation of elementary perceptual and motor functions, their synchronization in a multi-modal integration, and by supporting the normal growth of processes such as: imagination, attention, memory, speech and thinking.
The Psycho-didactic aspect is the development of basic skills such as literacy, numeracy, speaking, problem solving, acquiring knowledge and skilful use of it to measure the current capabilities and future needs of students and the requirements of teaching programmes. This can be achieved by adapting the methodology of teaching. A combination of educational methods is the most effective way to teach children to read and write. These methods include teaching phonics-making sure that the beginning reader understands how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form words. Guided oral reading, in which the student reads aloud with guidance and feedback, is also important for developing reading fluency. The child must clearly understand the instructions being given, and the instructions must be repeatable or systematic in order to improve the child's reading abilities. These methods of teaching reading and writing are closely correlated with the individual student's psycho-ground capabilities and appropriately selected models of error correction exercises.
In order to stimulate student’s general development the teacher improves their psycho-social and emotional development by updating, supplementing and broadening of knowledge in different fields and interests.
In the psychotherapeutic procedure works the technique of positive reinforcement in conjunction with the modelling of behaviour by imitation. Positive reinforcement is very important as many students with learning disabilities have poor self-esteem A strengthening is carried out directly on the child and, indirectly, when a student observes situations of giving and depriving the prize. The system of positive reinforcement is hierarchical and varies the types of prizes and rules for their allocation.
In the psycho-corrective procedure, it is generally used a perceptual-motor programme. This programme leads to a significant minimization or completely elimination of the developmental abnormalities, thus neutralizing the functional disorders.
In the psycho-didactic procedure, a reconstruction of knowledge and basic skills is carried out. This procedure introduces the repetition of previously completed programme content, reconstructing areas of arrears and corrects possible to overcome the specific difficulties in all subjects of school teaching.
The Therapeutic education in the Therapeutic School in Torun includes special day classes, specialist help and individualized tutoring that distinguishes it form a mainstream education. This education is addressed to students with learning difficulties, and it is conducted by therapists. Every individual has different requirements that is why an Individual Education Plan is created for each child.
The main objective of therapeutic education is the development of such traits of personality and character and psychophysical functions through which a student can achieve the optimal development for themselves and master the essential knowledge and skills at school. The pedagogical procedure is based on the deep psycho-educational awareness of the dependencies between the student’s process of learning and the teaching process used by the teacher. Only the correct synchronization between these processes based on the knowledge of current and potential capabilities and limitations of the child, determines the effectiveness of education and the student’s development under its influence. The teacher constantly remembers about the necessity and value of diagnosing, so incessantly adapts flexibly to the current state of efficiency of each pupil.
In the canon of therapeutic tasks, we include:
• stimulation of psychomotor development,
• compensation of developmental deficiencies,
• interference correction of processes and mental functions,
• elimination of deficiencies of teaching,
• changing attitudes to the difficulties and school failure,
• removing obstacles to adaptation student in the school environment.
The multiplicity and diversity of the tasks set therapeutic education major functions: stimulating the development of students; prophylactic against the threat of school failure, corrective to any developmental abnormalities, compensatory to the existing problems of teaching. The interplay of all these functions and meeting the special needs of students is used to optimize their development and social functioning.
The educational procedure must be multifaceted, combining into one coherent stream of impacts.
The Psychotherapeutic aspect means that a student actively participates in the process of overcoming difficulties in learning. This can be achieved when a child temporarily accepts their own difficulties. A teacher must mobilizes them to hard work, despite the existing obstacles, teach them how to overcome setbacks, inspire him with confidence in their own opportunities and stimulate efforts to achieve success.
The Psycho-corrective aspect is the use of many specialized treatments designed to achieve the overall efficiency of functions and psychophysical processes involved in the learning process in general, and to overcome specific difficulties in their particular area. This can be achieved by the correction and compensation of elementary perceptual and motor functions, their synchronization in a multi-modal integration, and by supporting the normal growth of processes such as: imagination, attention, memory, speech and thinking.
The Psycho-didactic aspect is the development of basic skills such as literacy, numeracy, speaking, problem solving, acquiring knowledge and skilful use of it to measure the current capabilities and future needs of students and the requirements of teaching programmes. This can be achieved by adapting the methodology of teaching. A combination of educational methods is the most effective way to teach children to read and write. These methods include teaching phonics-making sure that the beginning reader understands how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form words. Guided oral reading, in which the student reads aloud with guidance and feedback, is also important for developing reading fluency. The child must clearly understand the instructions being given, and the instructions must be repeatable or systematic in order to improve the child's reading abilities. These methods of teaching reading and writing are closely correlated with the individual student's psycho-ground capabilities and appropriately selected models of error correction exercises.
In order to stimulate student’s general development the teacher improves their psycho-social and emotional development by updating, supplementing and broadening of knowledge in different fields and interests.
In the psychotherapeutic procedure works the technique of positive reinforcement in conjunction with the modelling of behaviour by imitation. Positive reinforcement is very important as many students with learning disabilities have poor self-esteem A strengthening is carried out directly on the child and, indirectly, when a student observes situations of giving and depriving the prize. The system of positive reinforcement is hierarchical and varies the types of prizes and rules for their allocation.
In the psycho-corrective procedure, it is generally used a perceptual-motor programme. This programme leads to a significant minimization or completely elimination of the developmental abnormalities, thus neutralizing the functional disorders.
In the psycho-didactic procedure, a reconstruction of knowledge and basic skills is carried out. This procedure introduces the repetition of previously completed programme content, reconstructing areas of arrears and corrects possible to overcome the specific difficulties in all subjects of school teaching.
