Search Results

Hey everyone, Continuing our "Month of Play" theme here at the OT School House, I wanted to use today's post to run through the importance of play and Mildred Parten's 6 stages of play to help refresh what OTs should be looking for in a student's ability to participate at recess and other times of play. In the third version of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (2017), the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) used Parham & Fazio's definition of play as “Any spontaneous or organized activity that provides enjoyment, entertainment, amusement, or diversion” (1997).And over the years there have been many articles which document the importance of recess time and the play exhibited during this time. Furthermore, AOTA broke down play into "Play Exploration" - the planning and structure of play, and "Play Participation" - having the ability to access the physical environment. So as we discuss the stages of play, we will be looking at the students' ability to engage in play exploration to participate meaningfully at recess. Parten's 6 Stages of Play 1. Unoccupied Play Seemingly unorganized to an observer, unoccupied play is typically seen in infants and is a way for infants to understand the world around them. Waving their hands in front of their face, randomly clapping their hands, shaking anything that they can get their hands on; these are all forms of unoccupied play and allow for the child to learn about their environment. 2. Solitary Play The next step up from unoccupied play, solitary play is characterized by meaningful play in isolation. Where in unoccupied play the infant shook a rattle randomly, now the child is shaking the rattle with reason, perhaps to a beat. The key component here is that the child is focusing on an activity for a length of time rather than jumping from one activity to another and so on. Solitary play is typically seen in children ages 2-3 years. 3. Onlooker Behavior This phase in play is seen in younger children as well as they look toward their peers and at adults to see how they play. It may be interpreted as being shy, but this onlooker behavior is integral to learning. I like to think of this step as a data collection period for children. They intently observe to learn about concepts like gravity and social cues. 4. Parallel Play Frequently seen at about the same time as onlooker behavior, parallel play is the act of doing the same play activity as a peer, but not with the peer. For example, two children playing with their own set of Legos a few feet apart from each other, but not really interacting with each other. You may see some onlooker behaviors and imitation, but little to no social interaction. 5. Associative Play This is the beginning of socialization in play. Typically beginning to develop slightly before a child's fourth birthday, many kindergarteners enter school at this stage. Children in this stage are learning the foundations of interacting with peers. They are playing with each other and commenting on each others tower, but are not yet working together to build something or taking turns. You often have a lot of tattling at this stage because some children are okay with sharing, and others are not. 6. Cooperative Play By the end of kindergarten, most students should have reached cooperative play where they can have positive interactions with peers and play by rules agreed on by the peers (not necessarily adult provided rules...). It is through cooperative play that children learn to problem solve with peers and to "give and take" in situations where there is not necessarily a winner or loser. Relating the Stages Back to School Function Alright, so those are the most popular stages of play. While some scholars have expanded on this list on to more advanced stages of play, I feel that if a child has reached the cooperative play, they have reached a level that is functional within schools. Thus, I tend to not look beyond that during my assessments. But yes, I do assess a students level of play during my assessments if there are any social or behavioral concerns- especially if I am assessing a younger student. So what do I do? I typically will observe a full recess session and talk briefly with the teacher(s) or aide(s) who monitor recess. I often find that if an aide knows exactly the kid I'm looking for, that student is either frequently in trouble or frequently isolated from their peers for one reason or another. Both are problematic and should be looked at more thoroughly. Many times the reason or reasons for difficulties at recess can be seen by a trained eye during observations. Is the student engaging in parallel play when his/her peers are actively participating in cooperative play? Does the student have the bilateral skills required to climb a ladder or the motor planning abilities to time out when to jump the rope? A few times, I have seen a student get in trouble for pushing or shoving. I know from working with them that they are receiving speech services because they have difficulties expressing themselves. I ask more about the situation and observe the student and I come to find that this student does engage in this behavior, but it is because they do not know how to appropriately ask/tell a peer to move out of the way. This is a form of communication and is a manifestation of their disability. They should not have recess taken away. With the help of the OT and Speech provider, this situation should be used as a learning experience for the student. What Works? Recess is the best time of the day for so many students and rightly so. I think we owe it to them to make sure they all get to participate and enjoy it. So what can we do as OTs? Just like we talk to teachers about how to grip a pencil, we should be working with the recess supervisors about how to facilitate play among our students with disabilities. Some students may just need a structured and specific play task where there is one person leading the game rather than 10 students all making up the rules. A few years ago I working with a student on the Autism Spectrum and we put in place a recess jar. Every day before recess he would pull out a piece of paper that had a game on it and then give him the materials needed to play (ball, jump rope, pool noodle, etc.). Not only did this give him an idea of what to do on the playground, but it also gained interest in that game from other peers. It didn't work out every day, but it did increase overall social play interactions. Alright, so that about wraps things up. I just want to encourage you to get out on the playground and observe your students out there for a bit. You are almost guaranteed to learn something new about your students and they may even surprise you. Also, I recommend checking out the resources below. All can be accessed with an NBCOT account. Thank you for checking out this post. If you'd like to be in the know about future posts and have free OT tools delivered to your inbox Subscribe here! Hope you are having a great week! Until next time, References: Creating Effective Learning Environments EncouragePlay.com Michigan State University Extension - The Power of Play Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (3rd Edition). Ramstetter, Catherine L, MS,PhD., C.S.C.S., Murray, Robert,M.D., F.A.A.P., & Garner, Andrew S, MD,PhD., F.A.A.P. (2010). The crucial role of recess in schools. The Journal of School Health, 80(11), 517. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/757825015?accountid=143111

Hey Everyone, Welcome back to the the OT School House for our first post about PLAY! (Yay!) But before we get into play, can I share something with you real quick? January was a tough month. Somehow, the stars aligned just right, and both Abby and I got supper swamped with assessments and IEPs. In fact just yesterday, I attended 4 IEPs starting at 8:30 and ending close to 5... It's been a long day. So I must say, I am ecstatic that January is over! But looking back on January, there is one thing I found myself saying over and over again during those IEPs. That phase was "play-based education." Although, yesterday I slightly modified it to "academic based rewards" in an IEP where we were discussing the need for a student to use assistive technology. I must admit, as a team we have failed to provide this student academic experiences through play, let alone, play in itself. Even at recess, this 5th grade student with autism simply walks around the playground, occasionally moseying up onto the play structure and then paces back and forth. Since finding this out, I have spent a few recess sessions working with him on how to climb the ladder, go up the slide, and now we are working on climbing the rock wall. These activities are much more meaningful to him than copying a sentence... So anyways, I want to talk about play-based education today. As students move on from preschool and kindergarten, too often the emphasis on fun academics dissipates. This is unfortunate in general education classes, but even more so in our special education classes where many of our students are still functioning social-emotionally at a 4 year age, or perhaps younger. They may have a higher vocabulary and write slightly neater than students that are younger than them, but they may still be at a stage where they are unable to understand the importance of work and thus simply refuse to do pencil and paper work. When a student is at this stage and a teacher or therapist has a mentality that the only way a student can learn to add is though desk work, what you'll often find is an adult complaining about behaviors and a student not making much progress. And it's not fun, or beneficial for either of them. It is in this circumstance that I try to educate the teacher and IEP team on play-based education and education-based rewards. If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. -Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Estrada What is Play-Based Education? Play-based education allows for the student's inherent desire to play, drive their potential to learn. By tapping into the student's intrinsic motivation for play, we can modify their play in real time to "squeeze" in the academics. If that sounds a bit tricky, it's because it is. You have to know exactly what academic skill you are working on and then think on the fly during what could be a small group session. Here's an example. A teacher has graciously welcomed you into her classroom to collaborate with her and the other adults in the classroom for centers that last about 20 minutes. So you and a classroom aide will have a group of 5 students and are asked to work on memorizing sight words. In many classes this center may look like a fill in the missing letter worksheet or simply copying the words. In a play-based environment though. The students may use K'nex or magnetic letters to build and spell the sight words. Or, perhaps they play Hangman to discover the word. A good gross motor game would be to form the letters with your body; it could be made into a dance even. Design a dance move for each: S, K, and Y to help the kids remember how to spell sky I know, it may sound corny, but the possibilities are only limited by your (and the students') imagination. Before I move on, I want to acknowledge that play-based education does not work in all classes. There are some students who will try to take advantage of it and get out of work. In other classes, it may not be feasible with the staffing or logical with the students' learning style. That is why I don't recommend this for all classes. This is definitely something that works best for younger students and students that display delayed social-emotional skills. Academic-Based Rewards! This is pretty straight forward, so I'll make it quick. Whenever possible, the teachers and I always try to make rewards for doing academic work a more fun version of the work they complete. For instance, a student who is motivated by iPad time may get to play Writing Wizard on the iPad after completing a spelling test. The same might go for playing Prodigy on the chromebooks after completing a math lesson. If you are in a pinch and are having trouble thinking of one, might I suggest Tic-Tac-Toe with any given numbers, letters, shapes, or spelling words. It's quite surprising how easy it is to get students to write words five times correctly when it's a game. Hopefully, by using the academic rewards, your student will not only be more inclined to complete the initial task, but will also improve in academics from the rewarded activity. So, that is all I have for today. I know not every student will benefit from the two tips today, but even if only one does, it was worth writing this post about play in academics. If you enjoyed this article or any other article you have read on our site, we welcome you to sign up. We'll send you a copy of our Gray-Space adapted paper as a thank you. Simply Click Here or subscribe below. Thank you, everyone. We appreciate you visiting us! Until next time,

Hey friends, Thank you for visiting us here at the OT School House. As we continue with our January theme of handwriting, I wanted to share a list of environmental factors that could be inhibiting or even preventing your students for effectively writing in class. Before I get to the list and some supporting comments, I want to point out just why looking at the contextual environment is so important when it comes to handwriting. Can you imagine writing a 5-paragraph essay on a desk the size of a small picture frame? Now imagine writing it while relaxing in a bean bag, or even laying on the floor. These would be uncomfortable positions, right? Well, now imagine you are still trying to learn how to write your name and the alphabet and you are forced to write in these same awkward positions. It may seem counterintuitive when you think about it, but sometimes we expect our students to do this very thing without even knowing it. So without further ado, let's look at several environmental factors that often go unnoticed in class that make it just a bit more difficult for our students to write in class. 1) Student's feet do not sit flat on the ground when seated in their chair We'll start with the most frequent culprit. Too frequently I walk into a primary grade classroom and see half of the class' feet not touching the ground. If your seated right now, lift your feet off even a few inches off the ground and you will quickly see how much work it takes to stay upright. You will likely feel it in your core and some of you may even find yourself using your hands to stabilize yourself. So you can then likely imagine how the students feel when they can't touch the floor. When a chair is too big for a student you will frequently see them stand up at their desk, sit on their knees, try to touch the tips of their toes to the ground, or even put their feet on the chair in front of them to help them stabilize. I will never forget the time I saw a student move his chair over so that he could place his feet on the leg of the table. he proceeded to get reprimanded for not sitting straight at his desk. I was not assessing that student, but I had to let the teacher know why he was moving his chair. I felt so bad for the kid. Quick Fix A phone book or even a pool noodle with some theraband or pair of nylons going through it as pictured below may be placed under the student's feet to help provide support. 2) Unstable Seating Similar to not being able to touch the floor, seating arrangements without stable backs (such as a yoga balls) are great for when you want to build core strength. However, they are not so great for most students just learning to write. Do your best to provide a nice stable surface with a back and/or armrests for your students to stabilize themselves. Just like the students who can't touch the floor, these students will frequently stand or lean on the desk while working if they feel unstabilized. 3) Lefties not being able to see what they are copying (sometimes a problem for righties too) I point this out primarily for younger students who are just learning to copy letters and words. Educators often use worksheets that have a student copy a letter or word from the left side of the page onto the right side of the same page. For right handers, this is great, but for lefties their arm is often covering whatever it is that they are supposed to be copying. This can lead them to attempt to use an awkward "hook" grasp in which they flex their wrist so that they can see what is on the page. Quick Fix Provide another paper for the student to copy onto. That way, they can place the paper anywhere that best suits their needs. 4) Copying from something that that looks very different than what they are asked to write on Copying from paper with 3 lines (top, bottom, and middle dashed line) to paper with 2 lines (top and bottom) is hander for our students than one might imagine. Try to maintain consistency in the paper you use to have students copy. I also want to point out here that it can be difficult for students to copy letters that change in the way they look. Take letters "a" (vs. a) and "g" (vs. g ) for example. When is the last time you wrote either of those letters like the first version. So be mindful of the font you use if you make your own worksheets. I often find myself changing the font just for those 2 letters. The font used above to "fix" them is "Comic Sans MS" in case you need it for your next worksheet. 5) Visual & Auditory distractions In most general education classes, teachers are pretty good at keeping their room pretty quiet. On the opposite spectrum though, they also tend to have a brightly colored and visually stimulating room. For some of our students (with or without special needs), this can be overwhelming and distracting for a student who already struggles with writing. Sometimes a quiet library corner that is "closed off" to the rest of the room can add some much needed respite for students who get overwhelmed. Quick Fixes A tri-fold piece of cardboard (or recycled amazon box) or laminated manila forder "study coral" or "privacy boards" can be put up to help a student focus. 7) A desk that is too tall Have you ever seen a student whose head is barely sticking out from behind a desk. Odds are his desk is too tall and his chair may or may not be too short. Ideally, a student's desk should be at the level his/her elbows rest when seated in a correctly sized chair. While we are looking at the desk, Let's make sure their desk isn't so small or messy that there is no room to write. Organization is often a skill that needs to be taught directly in schools in order to keep those desk clear from unnecessary papers. 8) Poorly sized paper - lines to spaced out or close together For teachers, I completely understand using the same paper everyday for every student. It just takes way too much time to assess each students' specific needs for paper in the general education setting. With that being said, I would encourage the teachers out there to ask your OT for help on recommending an appropriate paper for students who struggle to size their letters, write on the line, or space out their letters and words. Feel free to also try our Gray-Space Adapted Paper! We have it in all sizes for free. Likewise, be sure that the students understands the placement of the paper. Because of the way that our arms are designed, most students benefit from tilting the paper at a slight angle with the top of the paper tilting away from the side that the student writes with (I hope that makes sense). 9) Poor lighting Simple and straight to the point, but oh so important. Until students have mastered their visual motor skills to write without looking at their hand, taking notes during a movie or in a dark classroom can be difficult for them. As the lights dim, the lines on the paper become more difficult to distinguish and you are likely to see more illegible work from your students. Try keeping half of the lights on next time you watch a movie, or provide a small reading light for the students who still need it as they get older. Some teachers are even buying these blue shades (Affiliate link to amazon) to cover their fluorescent lights in attempt to provide a relaxing atmosphere without diminishing the quality of light. 10) Temperature We covered visual distractions and lighting, but temperature can be just as important. I know many teachers have no control over this, and if you did you'd likely keep it at the just right temperature, but try your best to keep the room from getting uncomfortable. Open the door if some fresh air is needed or provide some classroom blankets if your class get excessively cold. 11) Not coming to School The most detrimental environmental factor to any students' writing by far is not coming to school. Whether it be the parents' decision or due to suspensions & expusions, we absolutely cannot have students being absent. Instruction and practice are two very different things and students need to be at school to get the instruction they need. Click here for more on handwriting instruction. Alright, so there you have it, 11 environmental factors that educators and parents can adjust in order to facilitate their students' learning and continuing to write. Did I miss anything? Please let me know below in the comments. I would also really appreciate it if you shared this article with another educator. Just click below to share this article now! Then check out what else we have to offer. Thank you again for visiting the School House, Jayson

Welcome everyone, Last week I had the opportunity to go into two separate special education classrooms and teach the students how to use Google Docs. More specifically, I was there to teach students how to use the Speech to Text, or “Voice Typing” program, as Google calls it. Click here to see the Google Doc I made to teach the kids how to use Google Docs (It's Googleception!) The main reason the teachers and I decided to try this out with their students is because although they can talk on and on, and on again... Some of them are just not able to hold a thought long enough to get it onto paper. With that reasoning, we decided to attempt a Tier 2 RTI collaborative training in and self contained grades K-2 class and a self contained grades 3-5 class. Both classes are considered to be for students with mild to moderate disabilities (mostly students with specific learning disabilities, autism, and mild intellectual disabilities). Just to be clear, daily handwriting instruction is also continuing to occur in both classes, but we wanted to introduce the students to speech to text programs as well, considering it is a possible accommodation on the California state tests. We were a bit hesitant with some of the kindergarten and 1st grade students, but even they, with their tech savvy minds, picked up on the knowledge quickly. This is indeed a RTI tier 2 intervention as it is being conducted on a per class basis versus a full school or district wide scale. Even though it was conducted in a special education classroom, not all of the students receive OT or assistive technology services. Thus, we introduced a group specific intervention based upon teacher’s concerns that her kids are not able to express themselves through paper and pencil activities. Going forward, a tier 1 strategy may be providing a In service to all teachers about google docs. Alternatively, a tier 3 strategy may be a similar lesson, but in a smaller group or with an individual student through an SST process. If this specific tier 2 activity does not work, A tier 3 intervention could be having a group of students who need more assistance with remembering the alphabet still, saying the letters to Google. Now, when it comes to writing with pencil and paper, there is no doubt that it is a necessity to know. And we have no intention in replacing tier 1 writing with pencil and paper instruction from their daily routines. However, in the classrooms we often find that a student’s weakness in one area related to writing holds them back from excelling in other areas. For example, Johnny uses a functional pencil grasp, has nice legibility, and understands punctuation use. However, he rarely completes a sentence due to not remembering the end of the sentence by time he gets to writing it. Brian, on the other hand, is able to come up with ideas and remember them like nobody’s business, but despite years of handwriting remediation, he continues to struggle in forming half of the alphabet. And yet another student gets frustrated by not being able to spell correctly. All of these students have strengths. Unfortunately though, often times those strengths don’t get to shine because of one area of weakness pulling them down. This is why I have decided to embrace technology. Plus, in my opinion, speech to text is on the verge of no longer be considered an “adapted tool”. It is used by millions, if not billions, of people every day on their phones. So why hold out on our students? How to use Google Docs and the Voice Typing Program For those of you who are not familiar with Google Docs and it's abilities, I have put together a video showing you how to access Google Docs and the voice typing program within it. I promise you, it’s super easy! There are 3 things you need to have before pressing play though: A Google/Gmail account The Google Chrome Browser installed on your computer (most computers have this now) If you don't have it, it can be installed here! (It's free) And a built in or plugged in microphone. If there is a camera on your laptop, there is a mic as well. (an iPad/iPhone will not work for this process, you must be using a computer/laptop) With that, I’d like to share my video with you. Click here to view the Google Docs Graphic Organizer. Although designed to be used for a 5 paragraph essay, you could easily change it to a 5 sentence/single paragraph organizer. I hope you find this video and post useful. This is my first time audio taping myself, so I naturally cannot stand how it sounds, but I do think the content is well worth it if you are looking for a free speech to text program that works very well for both you and your students. Google’s ability to understand has far surpassed Apple’s Siri in my opinion. In fact, I used Google’s speech to text last week with another student who can be difficult to understand at times due to a lisp, but Google was able to hear him pretty well. With that said, I hope the voice typing will work well with whichever student(s) or classroom you were thinking of while reading this post. Let us know below if you have any questions. And to each and everyone of you, thank you for your support. Abby and I truly appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation with you all through this website. Until next time, Jayson P.S. If you appreciate what we are doing here at the OT school House, we would love for you to join us on Facebook and leave us an honest review. It helps us to grow and put more resources toward the website. Thank you!!!

Hello OTs, COTAs, teachers, parents, and all that appreciate helping students succeed in school. I wanted to share with you all two relatively cheap toys that are so versatile. To be honest, they tend to be my go to tools when things go awry. The best thing about them is that nearly every student enjoy using them and you can guide the child into using them in a way that develops skills. Both of these toys not only inherently work on various fine motor and visual motor skills, but they also can give you an insight into their ability to imitate, copy, or independently create something from their own imagination. They can be used to build shapes, letters, words, or any other mystical creation you or a student can think of. So when your student is bored with the pencil and paper task, I recommend you pull one of these out of your magic bag. So what are they? The first toy: K'NEX I remember growing up, I loved playing with K'nex. And although I never had the patience to finish the giant roller coaster my parents bought for me as a birthday gift, I built many buildings, cars, and monsters over the years. Never did I think back then though that I would be using K'nex 20 years later to help kids learn their name or how to complete simple and complex rotation skills. And I sure didn't know that the skill of snapping pieces of plastic together was so influential in many other things I did. (Must be why I can snap my fingers like a champ...) Don't believe me? Just ask the turkey a pair of students helped me to make last November. (Gobble Gobble) Now, before you go to Target or Amazon to purchase a set of K'nex, you need to be sure to get the set that comes with the bendable pieces as seen in the turkey's feathers. These bendable pieces really add to the versatility of the toy and as an educational specialist, they are a must. Without the bendable pieces, making several letters can be difficult to form. If you'd like to purchase a set that includes the bendable pieces, you can use this link to purchase a set from Amazon This set cost about $39, but it comes with enough pieces to use with group of four or more students. Toy #2: PLUS PLUS Puzzle Pieces Ranging from ~$8 to about $30 depending on the size of the container you get, PLUS PLUS (or Pixels as one of my 4th graders call them), is another toy that is just so versatile. At first glance, they look like just a bunch of puzzle pieces that have to be put together in a specific way. But Nope, put them together any way you want, to form anything you can imagine. Just like with K'nex, you can even build in 3D with them to make standing people, dinosaurs, or buildings. PLUS PLUS is especially good for the slightly older kids (2nd-5th grade) who really need that motor planning and visual motor integration remediation. It takes a good amount of planning and attention to the pieces to get them to line up correctly. I tend to use these as a a letter building activity, a body awareness activity (building a person or alien), or simply a fine motor reward that works on motoric separation of the hand, strengthening, pincer grasp, and in-hand manipulation skills. You could also mix them in with your sensory bin and have your students collect as many as they can. Then they can play with all the pieces they found at the end of the session. Afterall, for many kids, PLUS PLUS is their favorite... You can get your set of PLUS PLUS at Amazon here. Be sure to have your students follow paper instructions or copy a design you previously made. If you have a student that always refuses to copy a design and wants to build their own thing, it may be that they have difficulty with planning or any number of visual processing skills. If copying a 5 piece PLUS PLUS design is difficult, imagine how difficult trying to copy a word or sentence might be for them. So there you have two really great toys that students love and you can easily manipulate into a therapeutic activity to work on any number of fine motor, visual motor, or planning skills. Thank you for visiting the OT School House. We hope you enjoy the content we provide, the products we suggest, and our view on education. A quick reminder. I just want to mention that the links in this post are affiliate links. This simply means that if you purchase these products using one of the links above, the OT School House will receive a small (really small) commission on your purchase at no extra cost to you.This helps to keep the OT School House up and running. We really appreciate it when you click on these links, but completely understand if you decide not to. All mentioned products can also be found through a simple Amazon or Google search, but we hope you will use our links. Thank you so much for your support! Until next time, Take care and keep on supporting your students. PS. If you haven't yet subscribed, we'd love for you to do so below and receive a freebie in your email immediately. If you have subscribed, We would love to hear how you are using the Gray-Space paper you have received. Shoot us an email, comment below, or message us on Insta. We can't wait to have a conversation with you.

Feeding off our previous RTI Tier 1 post, in this post I want to discuss the failure of the Common Core to address handwriting and how all education providers (especially those working in grades k-2) can assist students with handwriting difficulties. Recently, I was reading a study published in the "The American Journal of Occupational Therapy" (AJOT) and it was all about how the Common Core fails to address the needs of our young students by omitting any core standards related to correctly forming, spacing, and sizing letters. Article Citation: Debra Collette, Kylie Anson, Nora Halabi, April Schlierman, Allison Suriner; Handwriting and Common Core State Standards: Teacher, Occupational Therapist, and Administrator Perceptions From New York State Public Schools. Am J Occup Ther 2017;71(6):7106220010p1-7106220010p9. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2017.021808. Go to the Article, Click here! You should have seen me reading this article. So many of my beliefs were affirmed that I couldn't control my excitement. I'm pretty sure I threw my hands up in the air out of joy at least a half dozen times. The employees at Starbucks must have enjoyed my animated gestures. Anyways, I found 3 key takeaways from this study were: 1) There is no common core standard directly related to the foundational skill of forming letters and there should be at least one standard addressing this. 2) Teachers do not feel that there is enough time in a day to work on this skills due to the other demands placed on them by the Common Core. 3) OTs have the skills required to not only assist students who need to build handwriting skills, but also to help teachers develop a plan to teach handwriting. The third takeaway is where, on this website, we can help make a difference. While I have not kept a detailed record of referral reasons at my district, I would guess that 80% of referrals are generated due to poor handwriting. And at the end of each of these evaluations I recommend "Daily handwriting instruction for at least 10 minutes." Along with that recommendation, I also have to add "OT consult with teacher once (sometimes twice) a month to develop a handwriting plan." I do this because I have seen how little time teachers have to instruct kids on items not directly related to "The Core" and as a related service we OTs are in the business of supporting our teachers as well as our students. Also, I know the term "Handwriting instruction" sometimes gets interpreted as "Handwriting practice" "Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent" -People much wiser than I So if a student forms an "i" with a giant dot sitting on the little line rather than above the line, practicing this is only going to reinforce the bad habit unless he/she is instructed otherwise. So having student a student trace or copy the letter 10 times likely isn't going to change the students habit. Instead, we have to instruct the student or students how to correctly form the letter ("small line in the gray, small dot in the white space" if using Gray Space Paper) and then we can have them correctly practice the letter. This can be done one-on-one, in a small group (IEP or RTI- Tier 2 group potentially), or in a whole classroom co-teaching Tier 1-RTI setting. The instruction can also take on many forms. Dancing, air writing, ipad games, stories, and visual demonstration can all be effective. I prefer the whole classroom setting because teachers have told me that their students are much more attentive when they have a guest and also, the teacher and I get to learn from each other. Oh, and we get to help more than just 1 or a few kids at a time which is truly the best part. One other thing I often do is create a personalized worksheet for a kid directed toward the letters the student is having the most difficult with. While it does entail tracing and copying, I do not let them do it independently until they have proven to do it correctly. I also include visual cues such as a starting dot and/or arrows. The ipad applications, Letter School and Writing Wizard can help in this manner as well. The teacher can then have the student correctly practice these letters daily. The above links to the iTunes store are Affiliate links that help support the OT School House at no additional cost to you. We thank you for supporting us by using these links to purchase apps. You can find a list of our other favorite Apps HERE! Alright, that's all for today, but I really wanted to share that article with you. And if it seems like more and more kids are struggling to write letters, it's not just you. Many people are noticing this and many are doing their best to help students just like you and I. So keep on instructing and make sure your students are practicing the write way. And please, be sure to read the article I referenced to here on AJOT (Click here). I don't get anything for you reading it, but I just think it's that good of a read for OTs, COTAs, teachers, and administrators. And finally, let us know how you are helping your teachers and students improve handwriting skills for all. Tweet us @OTSchoolHouse or find us on Facebook See you next time! Looking for more on RTI see the Tier 1 interventions we use to help our students and teachers!

Launching only a short three months ago in October, OTSchoolHouse.com has already been a tremendous success in our opinion. We have received feedback from so many of you and nearly over 300 of you have subscribed and downloaded our Gray-Space paper. More than 400 of you follow us on Instagram and still others follow us on Facebook and Twitter. For that, Abby and I are immensely appreciative of each and every one of you! Thank you for your support! It means the world to us. Going forward, we of course want to continue to bring you more stimulating conversations and information you can use at your school sites. But before heading into 2018, we wanted to take a moment to recap what we have learned in our short three months since starting this project and also what you can expect from us going forward. So let’s start with the 3 things we have learned thus far on this adventure. 1) This project that we have embarked on is possible to maintain. Abby and I both work full time in a district in southern California. As you know, work never stays at work. We work 7:30-4 and work follows us home after that. However, we set aside Tuesday evenings and at least one other day to put in time toward the School House. While time consuming, this project has given us new life at our "day job" and we could not be more happy when we get to work on a new blog post or other project. We love putting our thoughts out there and hearing back from you all. 2) Although titled the “OT School House”, We have more than just OTs and COTAs interested in what we have to say. My goodness, yes! We have had teachers (general and special education) PT’s, BCBAs, Speech Therapists, APE teachers, and others subscribe and read our content. Many want to know how they can work with OTs to helps their students. It’s great to see that professionals in other spheres value our opinion and want to team up with us. Call us bias, but we feel that OTs can be an integral part of many IEP teams and other school site planning committees. 3) We have an active reader base that is hungry for more information. For any of you who have reached out to us, you know how much we like to talk and work out problems with you. Whether on facebook, instagram, email, or twitter, we love it when you take a minute to chat with us. This is how we know not just OTs are following us, you all have told us. Even some of the teachers in our own district have found us online and stop us to talk at the school site. What we are hearing from you! Your comments and feedback are helping us to shape the direction of the OT School House. So, we wanted to let you in on the top three questions you have asked and the ideas we hope to cover in the coming year. 1) What is RTI and how can OTs and other educators use it on a daily basis. This is one of our main focuses on the website and we have heard from many of you that are starting to use RTI in your schools. One thing about RTI that makes it so special is that it takes a team and that is why we look forward to talking to experts outside of OT to discuss this topic with us. If you want to talk RTI, we would love to hear from you. Email us now! 2) Many COTAs are asking for content geared toward COTAs in school based OT practice. Alright COTAs, we hear you! And we want you to know that you can absolutely partake in RTI. In fact a few weeks ago, an previous colleague of mine who is a COTA convinced her site administrator to purchase the HWOTears.com Mat Man for all of their preschool classes. Now, she is working with the teachers on how to use mat man in a variety of ways. That was really cool to hear. We also know how important communication is between an OT and a COTA and will be focusing on this topic in the coming months from both the OT and COTA perspective. 3) And finally, many of you expressed your concern for the lack of consistency in our field across states, counties, and even neighboring cities. This right here is a huge problem. It is why we made our map of OT guidelines and it is one of the many reason why we want to continue the OT School House project. Right now we have a long term goal of improving this and breaking down some of the barriers that cause this, but for now we are going to try and take one small conversation at a time. Who knows, with your maybe maybe we will get there. Please help us by sharing us on twitter, facebook, Instagram, or via email. That is how you can help to unite OTs and other special education providers. Thank you for taking a moment to share us. Looking back at the last 3 months, we find it amazing that you all have had so many of the same concerns that lead us to start this site. We know our concerns are also your concerns and we want to address these as we look forward to 2018. With that said, here is what you can expect from us this year. 1) Continued stimulating blog posts geared toward all special educators. We absolutely look forward to continue posting content 2-4 times per month. Topics we want to focus on are RTI, legal IEPs, Collaboration between providers, and evaluation and daily treatment documentation. We feel that these are areas that can be utilized by OTs, COTAs and other educators of all types 2) A podcast with a mixture of “solo” episodes and interview episodes. The podcast is in production and we are only a few weeks from our first episode - “Putting Occupation Back Into OT” I won’t say too much, but this title isn’t just in reference to treatments. There are many ways that we can assist in schools without treatment and we hope to help you discover these ways. We will be hosting two types of episodes. One type will be “solo” episodes which entail Abby and I discussing a hot topic such as difficult IEPs or treatment planning for instance. Other episodes will feature an interview with someone we work closely or another person who is making a difference in the school based OT and special education world. We have an entire year’s worth of interviews already lined up with people who we know you will benefit from hearing their stories. We can’t wait to bring this to you! 3) A course on tiered interventions (RTI) and how to incorporate successful interventions through collaboration with other educators. This here is our newest project. While just an idea plotted on workflowy (a free tool we use) currently, we will be bringing this video based course to you this summer so you can start implementing RTI based strategies with your colleagues when the 2018-19 school year gets started. Don’t worry, we’ll be there to guide you through it with pre-recorded and live video sessions as well as handouts that you can use to get up and going. Be sure to subscribe to get the heads up when the podcast and class are ready for you. Subscribe Now! Man, I’m excited! After writing that last paragraph, I can’t wait to finish up this post and get back to work on 2018. I hope you are excited to hear more from us and I hope you know how much we appreciate your support. Even more importantly, I hope you realize how much your students appreciate the help you provide them everyday! I’m sure they’re excited to see you come January. With that, I hope you all have a great and safe New Year and enjoy the rest of your break if you are lucky enough to have one. Until Next Year, Cheers! P.S. Please help us grow by sharing us. Just click on your prefered social media emblem below! Thank you so much!

You likely recognize the graph above as the RTI2 Pyramid and understand that OTs typically work with students who fall into the smallest point of the pyramid; those who require an IEP. Well, lets flip that upside down! Today I want to put aside that tiny purple section at the top and the slightly larger pink section to focus on strategies that can help the 80% of students; also known and your "typically developing" students in general education. For many of them could easily move up a tier and require much more assistance. If you are not yet familiar with these programs, I suggest you first read our post titled Reducing OT Referrals: Using MTSS and RTI-2 to Better Assist You! Then head back this way to learn about a few specific tier 1 strategies you can get started with ASAP! I want to share with you three specific ways that Abby and I are providing Tier 1 RTI interventions in our schools to help our entire student body, while also helping the kids on our direct caseload. That way, you too can help more than just the 5% of students at the top of the pyramid. These interventions do take some time to put into place. They take some planning that may eat into your assessment writing time or other areas. However, in the long run they will help to cut down some of that assessment time and help to build a rapport with the teachers and the administrators at your site. Also, make sure you speak with your supervisors to make sure that in your department, district, and state that this is all legal and appropriate. When writing these posts, we consult the IDEA website and the California Practice Act website which does have some of the more strict guidelines. Be sure to check your state's guidelines using this interactive map. So let’s dive into the three tier 1 strategies you can use to help replace some assessment time with intervention time. 3 Steps to Getting Ahead of Future Evals! 1. Email your teachers and let them know you are available for classroom observations If you are a district employee, this one can typically be implemented pretty quickly. As a contract therapist, there may be a few more hoops to jump through, but it can be done. About 2 years ago, I put together a screening form that a teacher could fill out to essentially ask me to come in and make simple recommendations for a specific student; general or special education students. The outcomes of these screenings ranged from me recommending some Theraband around the student’s chair, to a teacher/OT collaborative handwriting lesson for the entire class Sometimes they even led to a full blown OT assessment for a specific student. That screening process lasted for about 3 or 4 months before I realized through attending conferences that other OTs doing similar screenings were being told that these screenings were essentially “very poor assessment” and not defensible when it came to due processes. So... we simply ceased doing these individual screenings. Now, some of you may be saying “well...duh!” And to be fair, we were skeptical of the idea, but were trying to prevent ourselves from becoming exhausted. That being said, this “failure” led to a more legal screening concept, that I can now share with you. While screening an individual child may not be the best idea, observing an entire class is very possible and logical. After all, you are an employee/contractor at the school and should collaborate with your colleagues. So, we put together a classroom OT observation request form. On this form, we laid out exactly what this form was for and what is was not for (individual screens of a child - no student names allowed on this form). We made sure to explain what school-based OTs could look at (routines, chair/desk fit and layout, a variety of barriers to handwriting, sensory stimuli, etc) and how an OT observation could benefit the teacher and their students. Likewise, some of the possible outcomes of this observation are defined on the form. Ranging from a short collaboration with the teacher, to co-teaching a lesson with the teacher, to starting the SST process or calling and IEP for a specific student may result from this observation. In most cases, the observation leads to a collaboration meeting between the OT and teacher. Occasionally, it will lead to a collaborative handwriting or self-regulation session. On rare occasions, it leads to an occupational therapy evaluation of a student already identified as having a qualifying disability. We have not yet come across a situation where we recommended a Psycho-educational evaluation for a student. So download this form now for free! Click here to download the Classroom Observation Form! Check out the form and see if it might work for you. Here are a few pointers as to rolling this process out. Start with familiar teacher at a school with a supportive administrator. You may not even need the form at this point, but make sure the teacher and administrator know what to expect. If it goes well, the admin help you with materials and spreading your idea. Expand to the rest of that school before moving on to others. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin before knowing how much time this is going to take. At some schools you may only get one teacher interested in an observation while at others you have the entire k-3 team wanting you to come in. At other schools, you can start the process through an in-service (which we are about to talk about). Talk to your admin about scheduling a day that you can have 30 minutes or so to present to the teachers how you can help them. 2. In-Services Like I said earlier, OTs have a unique knowledge and skill set that can benefit teachers and students alike. Unfortunately though, we often forget how beneficial collaborating with teachers can be in facilitating a student’s access to education. Instead, we sometimes think we can see a student once a week and make significant changes in this student. But imagine the impact you could have if you give an in-service to not only that student’s teacher, but all of the school’s teachers. You could have helped that child and maybe several others. Here’s an example: After 5 weeks Johnny begins using a tripod grasp in OT sessions, but the teacher says he is still using a fisted grasp in class. So you do and in-service for the kinder and 1st grade teachers about how to facilitate a tripod grasp and in-hand manipulation skills. Now all of the teachers start their morning writing routine with a 5 minute pre-writing warm up, complete with a quick, cute, and effective pencil grasping story. Now Johnny and his peers are all using a functional grasp in their natural environment. The great thing about in-services from an OT, is that it can typically benefit both general and special education teachers. It also gives you a chance to introduce your classroom observation idea and the forms we are going to talk about next. 5 easy to do in-services that can have a big impact on all students! Cheap tools to help calm your fidgety students GoNoodle and how it’s more than just indoor PE Why recess should never be taken away. Especially from the kid who loses his recess every day How complex writing really is and how to make it easier for struggling students. Gray-space paper can help with this one. The importance of ergonomics for the students and teacher I also want to encourage special education teachers and other related service providers to do in-services as well. As a teacher of children with special needs, you have had to learn many behavioral and developmental strategies that I am sure many general education teachers could benefit from. 3. Provide forms to help teachers know when they can expect a student to complete skills. Simple, yet effective, these reproducible documents are worth creating because you can easily send them out when you get an email about a general concern. Or if a teacher approaches you on campus, you can respond with you “Staff Room Response” My guess is you probably have some sort of document you either created or have found that shows when a student should have met many fine motor developmental skills. Use this to your advantage by sharing it with your teachers. I have found that many teacher referrals come from simply not knowing what skills a child should have developed by the time they have gotten into their class. Along with this info sheet, I attach copies of adapted paper (Gray-space paper) and a list of simple tricks to help out with commonly seen difficulties. Actually, I have a packet of these all put together for any SST or IEP I attend. Parents also appreciate the reference. These forms in conjunction with an in-service are optimal. That way you can quickly review them and answer any questions the teachers have in the moment. These documents will also play a big role when it comes to the OT referral because we can ask the teacher if they have referred and tried any of the strategies and tools outlined in these documents. More on that in a future post and podcast (yep, the podcast is coming soon!) So those are my 3 most frequently used Tier 1 strategies to help prevent future OT evaluations. What are yours? Do you use these same strategies, or do you employ completely different strategies in your district(s)? We would love to hear your take on RTI and MTSS in the comments below! Also, do you know someone who could benefit from this post or others on our page? We would be so grateful if you could share us with them; verbally, in an email, or with the social links below. Thank you for reading and keep a look out for some more specific tier 2 strategies coming soon. See you next time at the School House! -Jayson

Have you ever heard the term FOMO? FOMO is the: Fear Of Missing Out And with 2.2 million plus apps on the app store, how can you not experience at least a bit of FOMO? Especially when you realize new apps are being added everyday! I mean, I’ve had my ipad for more than 4 years, and I still download new apps a few times a month that I feel could benefit my students. Aside from having a FOMO on new apps, my other biggest fear is paying for an app and then never using it. Yeah, they may only cost a dollar or two, sometimes ten, but it adds up. That’s why I decided to put together this resource of apps that work on the foundational skills needed for writing. Here, you will find the apps I use specifically for treatment. Along with the name of the App, I have also made a video of the app so you know exactly what to expect when you purchase and/or download it. So, I hope these videos help you decide where to spend your time and energy. Quick note: Links included are Affiliate links. This means that the OT School House may earn a small commision from paid apps at no additional cost to you. We appreciate your support by using our links. Let’s get started. 1) Montezuma Puzzle Price: Free Montezuma Puzzle, like many of the games below, is a great reward game that still works on many valuable skills such as problem solving and planning. Add in a stylus and you can also work on pre-writing skills and a pencil grasp. Get it here! 2) On The Line (OTL) Price: Free OTL is a fantastic game to work on pencil and visual-motor skills with a stylus. Super simple, just stay in the white area while the screen moves downward. I have sped the video up here for times sake, but it is very child friendly. Highly recommend this one. Get OTL Now! 3) Letter School Price: $6.99 Free "lite" version also available Here Letter school is my first go to for a letter formation learning app. Students (and adults for that matter) really love the challenge of the "ghost letters" as I call the 3rd step in the letter writing process. Check out the video to see how the app progresses from teaching the starting points, to tracing, to independently writing each letter and number. Be sure to use a stylus! (Noticing a trend with a stylus) Get it here! Need a stylus? Click on the picture to the right to get a pack of 10 for about $5. That way you have extras when give them out to teachers =) 4) Writing Wizard Price: $4.99 To mix up the writing apps for my students, I also use Writing Wizard. What is great about this app is it's ability to customize settings and words. You can put the student's name in or even their entire spelling list. Like Letter School, Writing Wizard keeps the students very interested in writing. Stylus, you ask? Of course! Get Writing Wizard Here! 5) SnapType Pro Price: $4.99 Free Version Here Snap Type provides a great alternative to those students who are limited by their writing and can type more efficiently than they can write. Snap Type allows the user to take a picture of anything, click anywhere on the picture, and begin typing. Pair a Bluetooth keyboard for even more functionality. Forget SnapChat, Get SnapType Pro! 6) Little Finder ABC Price: Free Little Finder ABC provides a fun way to assess and practice letter recognition. I often get referrals for students who can copy but can't write letters without a model. I refer this game to teachers to help the student identify letters before we start working on writing without a model. Check out the video. Get Letter Finder! 7) Ready To Print Price: $9.99 At first I was turned off by this app, but as I learned how powerful it is, I fell in love with it. It is so adaptable and the settings can be changed to make it fit your needs. It also keeds data for you so you can see progress made by your student. Print Now! 8) Dexteria Jr. Price: $3.99 Dexteria Jr. is my favorite Pre-writing skills app. After the student completes tracing and erasing the lines, they get to take a SELFIE! And not just any selfie, a distorted selfie that is so much fun! Along with the pre-writing skills, there are also two fine motor games: Squish the Squash & Pinch the Pepper game. Check out the video! Get Dexteria Jr. Here 9) Dexteria Price: $4.99 On to Dexteria (senior). I'm not the biggest fan of their tracing game, but the Tap it finger separation and sequencing game is very cool. Keep your thumb on the blue circle and tap the triangles in the correct sequence with your other four fingers. Get Dexteria 10) Vision Tap Price: Free with in-app purchase available Another one that confused me at first with it's several games, Vision Tap has a lot of great things going for it. It may look a little dry, but it is powerful as a vision skills assessment and tracking tool. Good for those students who you think has some poor ocular-motor skills. Click Here for Vision Tap! 11) Spatial Line Puzzles Price: Free with in-app purchases available for more levels Possibly my favorite of the 12 games, Spatial Line Puzzles is simple to learn and fun to master. Start with connecting dots to match the sample and move on to memorizing a picture to copy when there are no dots. check out the video to get the best idea of why I like it. Complete The Puzzles! 12) Piko's Blocks Price: Free Piko's Blocks is another visual spatial game, but in 3D. Better for the older kids, they like it because it reminds them of Minecraft. Not only do you have to match in this game, but you also have to create a mirrored image, which can be a tricky, but necessary skill. Start building now! So that's it, my Twelve favorite apps for working on visual motor and spatials skills related to handwriting. Oh and don't forget the Stylus Let me know what you think of my list. I tried to make sure there were some free ones in there, but some of the 3, 5, even the $10 one pays off in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't think they would help your students. What Apps do you use? Did I miss any good ones? Do you know someone that could benefit from this list? please share us with them. We love to help as many people as we can! Thanks for visiting! -Jayson

Over the last several years, state after state has adopted what is called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These standards are research based and have been implemented in large part to develop critical thinking skills in students at an early age. Each grade has a set of Mathematics Standards and English Language Arts (ELA) Standards starting in Kindergarten. By the end of their kindergarten year, our first year students are expected to: There are a lot, so I am going to summarize and condense the best I can. For a full list, visit the CCSS Website Mathematics Count objects and compare different whole numbers up to 19. Understand simple addition and subtraction. Compare and sort objects by a measurable attribute. Identify shapes as well as compare and compose them. English Language Arts (ELA) Ask questions regarding a text as well as identify key concepts and details such as characters and setting. Derive the meaning of unknown words from a text. Compare illustrations and stories. Scan a page from left to right, top to bottom, and page to page. Understand that words represent text. Recognize that words are separated by a space on paper. Identify and print all upper and lowercase letters. Pronounce and count syllables in spoken words. Produce the primary sounds of each letters. Read similar, yet different, sight words. Use drawings, text, and dictation to compose stories, opinion, and explanatory pieces. Use commonly used nouns, verbs, prepositions, and question words to form complete sentences. Use capitalization for first word of sentences and use punctuation at the end of a sentence. Spell simple words phonetically As you can see, in kindergarten our students are learning the foundations of their educational careers. For this reason, it is important to ensure they are using the most efficient methods and mechanics so that they may continue to learn and achieve for the rest of their lives. Development: Students typically are enrolled into kindergarten at the age of five; thus, I will be focusing here on the development of fine motor development that occur as a student reaches his/her 5th birthday. These skills will be geared toward beginning to compose written work including shapes, letters, and numbers. Before a student reaches school, much of what they do is unstructured and “free play.” As they start school, they will learn strategies to further their scribbles into shapes and letters. One of the foundational developmental skills that I tend to look for first is whether or not a student has established a clear dominant hand. By age 5, hand dominance should be established. While some students may appear to be ambidextrous, at this age they should really be favoring one hand over the other. Developmentally, it is more functional to have one hand that works really well, rather than both hands working moderately. At this point, our students should also be able to use their non-dominant hand to stabilize the paper they are writing on, even if they requires a cue from the paper moving to do so. The second skill I look for is their grasp on a pencil and how well they are able to manipulate the pencil. Research has indicated that both a 3-finger grasp and a 4-finger grasp are considered functional (Schwellnus et al.). The key points to emphasize here are encouraging the student to hold the pencil with the tips or pads of their fingers and to keep an open web space between the thumb and index finger. Examples of functional grasps. Top Left: Dynamic Tripod grasp; Top Right: Quadrupod grasp; Bottom Left: Unconventional Tripod; Bottom Right: Tripod Grasp with Thumb Wrap (Mickey is clearly interested) Finally, once I see that they have an established dominant hand and appropriate grasp, I look to see what muscles they are using to manipulate the pencil while writing. They should be using their fingers and wrist to manipulate the pencil rather than their entire arm. If a student is holding the pencil with a fisted grip it would be unfair to expect this because they would not be able to use their fingers to manipulate the tool. Writing on a vertical surface (wall, chalk/white board, easel) can sometimes facilitate a more dynamic grasp which will then likely transfer over to other pencil and paper tasks. Quick pause: Here is one fun and easy DIY activity I use to promote a pencil grasp while working on some academics skills like colors, shapes, and sequencing. Okay, back to the article: By looking at these three prewriting skills in a student, a parent, teacher or guardian can help a student get a good start to kindergarten. If a student appears to have these skills down and is still struggling to trace simple shapes and letters as they progress through school, it may be an indicator that an Occupational Therapy evaluation is appropriate. Be sure to follow the RTI Process Bringing this back to the CC state standards, I want to let you all know of a trend I am beginning to see. More and more district are starting to add in on their goals pages what specific CCSS the goal is aimed toward. I feel like this used to only be for “educational” goals, but as the lines dissolve between traditional “educational” and “OT” goals, I am seeing more and more OTs include the CCSS their collaborative goal relates to. Are you all seeing this at your district? We would love to hear your thoughts (or perhaps your district’s lawyers thoughts) on this topic. Comment below if you have an opinion or any other info related to this. Well that wraps it up for this one. Thank you all for stopping by again. Until next time, Jayson

Like myself, most occupational therapists will experience a difficult IEP meeting where IEP team members disagree with each other. A parent or teacher may not agree with your recommendations for the student or maybe you feel that an educational goal is just not at the “just right challenge.” Through my experienced challenges, I have learned that oftentimes the best way to resolve these situations is to pay attention to those things that I can control. When a meeting starts to develop into a contentious situation I try to practice some strategies to maintain my cool. I’ve compiled a list of ten things that may help us OTs get through difficult meetings and disagreements. Hopefully, this will help us to foster good relationships with the IEP team and can lead to better outcomes for our students. 1. Be aware of your own feelings and behaviors. When I say “be aware” what I mean is check in with yourself before, during, and after the meeting. Are you feeling anxious? Are you feeling defensive? You may not realize it, but when you are experiencing these feelings it can come out in body language, tone of voice, and it can impact our ability to hear the concerns of the IEP Team members. When you are clear about how you’re feeling you can see an opportunity to ask questions, clarify, and address the concerns of the parent or other IEP team member. Often times it can be beneficial to recognize why you’re feeling that way. Am I anxious because I feel my report is inadequate? Or defensive because I feel my character is being called into question? If you can be aware of your own defensiveness or nerves you can better respond to the situation that’s causing them and hopefully this will allow to make better recommendations to the team. 2. Prepare as best you can If you’re an occupational therapist like myself working in the public school system, you might have an impacted schedule with more students and work than you are even able to handle in a school day, so DO YOUR BEST! Showing up for IEP meetings prepared whether it is a triennial or an annual will help you to field unexpected questions and concerns. If you are unaware of the concerns it’s time to go searching for what they might be. Call the teacher or the parent at the very least and if you are able get in there and observed them in action! Having a clear understanding of what is impacting the student’s occupational performance in the classroom will better lead the IEP team to interventions and solutions. 3. Maintain transparency Whenever I’ve felt anxious or defensive in or out of an IEP meeting my first instinct is to close off and try to protect myself. It may seem counterintuitive to share your mistakes or difficulties, but it is necessary in developing a plan and fostering trust with the IEP team and parents. I’m not saying you should disclose every little mistake, but if you are needing to make up missed visits due to a heavy caseload or a student has not met their goal it is best to address the situation in the most open and honest way possible. In a perfect world I’d be able to get all students to meet and exceed their goals and maintain a regular therapy schedule without interruption. I don’t live in that world. Most of us do not live there actually, so let’s try to maintain transparency when it comes to communicating with the IEP Team. This may feel uncomfortable, but it will lead to trust and better outcomes for the students you serve! 4. Address the parent’s concerns and ask them for questions This is so very important. It is surprising how many times this is overlooked in an IEP. IEP meetings are often intimidating and can be long in length. If you feel that they are long think of how long our parents feel these meetings can be. I am for sure an OT nerd. I know I can go off on tangents if I’m excited to have figured out an intervention or treatment strategy. Checking in with the parent keeps me grounded and allows me to see what I need to better explain in regards to OT or whether I can move forward as the parent is already familiar. Most parents I work with want to support their child at home and in school. Not to mention they are an invaluable member of the IEP team so forgetting to check in with their concerns can leave off valuable information that the team needs to make the best decisions. Addressing the parents concerns serves a secondary function of fostering trust and communication between the parent and the other members of the IEP team. I have heard parents state how intimidating their first IEP meetings had been. Including them for more than their signature on the final draft of the IEP will help to prevent unaddressed concerns from ballooning into major disagreements down the road. 5. Pay attention to your tone of voice and body language I have found that keeping engaged during meetings is important. Convey this through your tone of voice and body language. Try to keep side conversations to a minimum as to not alienate the parent or other team members. I have been guilty of trying to work out potential ideas with a side conversation in the past as well as have glanced at my phone on more than one occasion. Avoid doing this! Put your phone on silent and hide it deeply in your bag if you have to. It is very important to stay engaged throughout the meeting and convey your engagement through eye contact, body language and tone of voice. 6. Remember you’re the occupational therapist Not everyone in the room will know what “OT” is and most people do not understand school-based occupational therapy. Most people see occupational therapy as working with the small muscles, sensory activities, teaching handwriting, and fine motor skills so it is important to explain what it is OTs actually do. It can help to use more language around occupational performance in your reports and assessments. The fine motor, visual motor, sensory, handwriting, etc… is one tiny piece of your recommendations and it is important to Occupational therapy is so much more involved than to only look at these performance areas. Clearly defining occupational therapy will help the parents and team members during difficult IEP meetings to view OT services more accurately. 7. Apologize for your mistakes when you need to A school psychologist I once worked with told me once “I can’t un-ring a bell”. When you have messed up I find that it is best to own it and move forward. There’s no need to be defensive if you own it and apologize. Avoid blaming other team members, explaining about the caseload, or trying to redirect the conversation. Owning your mistakes and apologizing will help you to build trust and credibility. Mistakes can only be corrected when addressed head on the IEP team and your student will thank you for it! 8. Always return to the needs and best interests of the student When a meeting or conversation begins to get heated it is very important to redirect yourself to the point of the meeting and that is the individual needs of the student. By keeping the best interests of the student in the forefront of each meeting and you will be able to clearly relate each recommendation and strategy to the child’s access to the educational program. This seems obvious; however when we get into difficult meetings it can be tempting to talk about outside influences (i.e. caseload, teacher, other students). Outside influences will always be a part of the student’s life so better to explain them from a student first point of view. For example if a student’s behavior is described as disrupting another student’s learning or the classroom it can be better to explain how the child’s behavior is limiting his or her access to their current program or socialization and develop a strategy or goal from that point of view. 9. Take a break if you have to If a meeting is getting heated or you’re unable to articulate your point clearly take a deep breath or even request to be excused (use the bathroom as an excuse). I have sat in three hour meetings where I had to review and defend my assessment report findings for the full length of that time. In retrospect it may have been better to request to reconvene the meeting or to have looked into the alternative dispute resolution process my district offers. I have found that during heated or contentious meetings taking a break allows the whole team to return to the table with a clear head and get things accomplished. 10. Show you care Most occupational therapists got into this field because we identify and enjoy with helping people. I personally love the challenge of working in a school-based setting. I enjoy seeing when a student has made progress or achieved a goal. Human beings have a negativity bias and it is important to bring up the strengths of the student even more so than the child’s weaknesses. We need to be reminded ten times how “good” we are for one criticism we receive. Children and parents need to be reminded sincerely of the good things and achievements as much as if not more than the weaknesses. IEP meetings are a great opportunity to show empathy, leverage a child’s strengths, and gain face to face time with the influencers in that student’s life. Practice empathy during IEPs and do not be afraid of showing how much you care about the work you do. So tell us what strategies are you using to get through difficult IEP meetings? Did you find these strategies helpful? Please comment and share on Facebook to keep the conversation going. Being an occupational therapist is amazing but it can be challenging. The more we share and support each other the better will we become! Thanks for stopping by and come back soon! Abby :-)

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have already subscribed and downloaded our 9-page Gray-Space Packet. It means the world to us knowing that you are willing to try it out with your kids. If it helps even just one of your kids learn to space and place letters correctly on the line, then it was worth the time and effort on our part. If you have not yet received your digital download you, you can click HERE to subscribe and get your own copy to use with your students. WHERE DID IT COME FROM? Now, I'd like to take a few moments to share with you why we created it and share some of the features that make it worth using. While working with our students, we often found ourselves using DoToLearn.com's "Stop & Go Writing Paper" for kids who required help spacing and Abilitations Integrations "Hi-Write" paper for kids who required assistance with the sizing and placing of their letters on a line. After switching the type of paper on students who really required consistency and looking all over the web for an adapted printing paper that would suffice, we finally decided to create our own. We have since witnessed several students succeed with one type of paper and both teachers and parents have requested more for their students. Over the past year, we had been selling this paper solely at TeachersPayTeachers.com and have received great reviews and, more importantly, thank yous from parents and teachers alike. But now, we want to make sure everyone has access to it. "Great RTI resource!" 4/4 star review on Teacherspayteachers.com -Gingerly loving second grade Looking through the previews above, you can see that the Gray-Space Paper is designed to grow your students as their writing develops. As a student progresses, we hope to see them require less space to write in and fewer visual prompts to help space and size their letters and words. In the bottom right hand corner, you will find the grade(s) related to the paper size as well as the line spacing. This numerical identification may assist you in goal writing if the IEP team would like the student write smaller. GOING FORWARD I hope you will find this paper helps your students to focus more on what they are writing as opposed to how they are writing it. If they require a bit more visual cues, stickers can be a great way to help students who still do not understand cognitively or spatially the process of leaving space between words. You can see other ways we use stickers here! So to wrap this up, Abby & I would like to once again thank you for stopping by the OT School House and subscribing to receive our Gray-Space adapted paper. We can't wait to hear back from you! So please, leave us some feedback below and let us know how your students are responding to this free download. If you really like our paper and think others would benefit from hearing about it, we'd love it if you could click on your favorite social media icon below and share us! Until next time, Jayson