Riverview School’s Advisor Model Sets Students on Path for Social Success and Happiness
While the Riverview Student profile is diverse, there is one thing that every student has in common. They benefit from consistent social skills teaching. Whether navigating relationships, managing day-to-day emotions, or learning how to initiate a conversation; Riverview students are entrenched in social skills coaching all day, every day.
Riverview School’s innovative Advisor Model makes sure that all Riverview employees, from the dining hall staff and the administrative team to the classroom teachers and residential instructors, are trained in social thinking concepts and language. This guarantees that feedback given to students is consistent, timely, and generalized all day long.
Michelle Mendes, Riverview’s Clinical Coordinator, is responsible for offering support, modeling, guidance and supervision to the School’s team of 7 Advisors, all of whom are Licensed Clinicians specializing in working with adolescents and young adults with special needs.
The objective of Riverview’s Advisor Model is to support each student with their unique social goals. Each student is assigned an Advisor who provides social/emotional support and help with self-advocacy, self-awareness, stress management, anxiety and problem solving skills. Advisors do this by observing students, creating success plans, and by identifying and teaching strategies that the student can use themselves; and that staff and families can use when working with the student.
The Advisor serves as a liaison between Riverview’s Academic, Residential, and Language and Social Development teams to provide support, resources and consultation when needed. They are also liaisons between home and school, communicating weekly with families. And, they lead social groups and lunch groups to teach students about conversation skills, social activity planning, and community service.
Advisors facilitate “conflict corners,” where students sit and work through social challenges on the spot and learn about other social thinking best practices such as “perspective taking,” “big problems versus small problems” and “zones of regulation.”
“Zones of regulation” is a concept that asks students to “check yourself at the door.” This means that students are asked to identify how they are feeling emotionally and place a tag with their name in the corresponding red, green or yellow zone on the wall. When a student puts their name in the red zone, it helps their teacher to know that they needs some immediate support. The teacher then suggests strategies that the student can use to feel better and/or encourages the student to check-in with their Advisor. This practice helps students to further develop insight into their emotions.
According to Mendes, “One of the things that makes Riverview unique is our ability to be creative and to individualize resources and class success plans. In-the-moment teaching and problem solving also sets the School apart. Our students don’t have to sit with what’s bothering them.” Madison Lavoie, a Riverview Senior, echoes this. “If I’m worried about something, I can meet with my Advisor and that takes away my stress. Then I don’t have to think about it all day.”
Riverview’s commitment to social skills training and its innovative Advisor Model help to ensure that students are socially successful, and in turn prepared to live their happiest lives.
