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Perspective Newsletters
Winter 2003
RECREATION THERAPY
Page 6
One of the therapeutic support services that is offered to students in the Leary
School programs is Recreation Therapy. This issue of the Perspective focuses on this
very important part of the program.
 Students
at all three of the Leary School programs - Leary School of Virginia, Leary School,
Prince George's County, and the Leary School Jobsite, receive recreation therapy
services under the supervision of Molly Macdonald, M.S., Certified Therapeutic Recreation
Specialist (CTRS). Ms. Macdonald divides her time between the campuses in Virginia
as well as the Oxon Hill campus and works with the students at all of the Leary School
sites.
A graduate of Aurora University in Chicago, Illinois and Gallaudet University in
Washington, D.C., Ms. Macdonald had experience with psychiatric programs, outdoor
education programs, parks and recreation facilities, and Special Olympics before
joining Leary School in 1998.
 All
students have Recreation Therapy as part of their Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
to help them address areas such as communication and social skills, self esteem and
working together as a team. Students participate in both indoor and outdoor group
oriented field trips. During the school year, Ms. Macdonald organizes and leads trips
for 25 classrooms, each group going approximately every other month. These excursions
have included swimming, ice skating, bowling, movies, museums, trips to Sandy Point
State Park, the Kennedy Center, George Mason University Cultural Art Center, the
Black Wax Museum, Fun Company for Kids, and area recreation centers and parks.
 In
addition, Ms. Macdonald organizes both overnight and multi-day camping trips. She
plans fall and spring camping trips for both schools, including a yearly chartered
fishing trip to Point Lookout, Maryland. Students as young as six and as old as 21
often experience their first camping trip through Leary School and these are experiences
that they talk about for years!
Ms. Macdonald has also worked for the past four summers with the Extended School
Year program as part of the outdoor education team which plans for three camping
trips each summer. The younger students go to Prince William Forest Park while older
students go to the Shenandoah Mountains or George Washington National Forest in Virginia.
Older, more experienced campers have gone to the White Mountains of New Hampshire
- a 7 day trip. On all these excursions, hiking, swimming and canoeing are incorporated
into the experience.
 With
the students' access to the Internet, they have begun independently researching recreational
opportunities and resources in their community. This research often leads to suggestions
for upcoming recreational therapy trip or gives them ideas for positive experiences
they can involve themselves in within their own communities. Developing these leisure
skills fosters the students' independent and positive habits that can become choices
they make throughout their lifetimes.
Early exposure to enjoyable activities may help steer students away from negative
leisure habits such as television, video games and into those that can maximize physical,
emotional, and social well-being.
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