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Welcome to the show notes for the Episode 66 of the OT School House Podcast.
Have you ever wondered what to do with your high school students? Did you there is such a thing as a Post Secondary Transition Plan that is required for every high school student on an IEP? If not, this is the episode for you! Today, I am welcoming to the podcast, Dr. Liz Abadiotakis, OTD, OTR/L to share with her experiences working with Post Secondary Transition Plans as part of an IEP team.
Key questions to be answered:
What is a Post Secondary Transition plan?
When must a transition plan be put in place?
What are the pieces to a transition plan?
How are IEP goals similar or different from transition plan Goals?
Who traditionally writes the transition plan?
How can OTPs support post secondary transition?
Links to Show References:
Transcript
Now you can read the transcript here or download it to read later!
SPEAKERS
Amazing Narrator, Dr. Liz Abadiotakis, Jayson Davies
Dr. Liz Abadiotakis 00:00
I know that they recently had a developmental disabilities sis open conversation, where they invited members and non members to start talking and it was about post secondary transition planning. This is definitely a population of students that oftentimes does not receive our services or if they are there, you know, consultative base, and it's hard for us as therapists to really be in the mix of the team.
Jayson Davies 00:27
Hey, everyone, my name is Jayson Davies. And that was Dr. Liz Abadiotakis discussing post secondary transition planning, which is what we are going to get into this morning this afternoon, or this evening. Whenever you are listening to this podcast, we are going to dive into exactly what occupational therapists can do as students start to get older. I'm bringing Dr. Liz on to the show today, because that is one of the most frequent questions I get on social media. That is, what do I do with kids? Once they get into middle school in high school? How do I continue it? Or is it time to exit students from ot at that point? So we're going to talk about that? Exactly. In this podcast. All right. So stay tuned. We're gonna cue the intro real quick, and I'll be right back. All right. Enjoy the music.
Amazing Narrator 01:14
Hello, and welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy, tips, interviews and professional development. Now to get the conversation started. Here is your host, Jayson Davies. Class is officially in session.
Jayson Davies 01:31
Hello, hello, and welcome back for Episode 66 of the OT school house podcast. Again, real quick. My name is Jayson, I'm so excited for you to be here today. Today we are talking about the post secondary transition planning also known as PTSP. For some of you in the know, that was a new term for me, I didn't realize that it had an acronym, but it wouldn't be special education and education as a whole if it wasn't an acronym. So that is just the case. Today we are welcoming on to the show Dr. Liz Abadiotakis also known as Dr. Liz, the OT, she has a website at DrLiztheot.com, Drliztheot.com Dr. Abadiotakis has been in the OT field now for 18 years or so. And she has really found that her expertise is in supporting and educating parents, this is really a love for her. And well in that process. She found that post secondary transition planning is also a huge part of that in order to support those parents of children with special needs. So she is here to talk all about that today. Personally, I am super excited for this because this is actually the population that I initially intended to work with. Back in occupational therapy school, I actually created a program that was about incorporating film, and engaging students in general education and special education together to kind of facilitate that, that balance or those those skills and, and friendships between students with general education and within the special education population. I never quite got to the point where I got to do much of that I have a combined about two years working in the high school. So it is not an area that I feel super confident in. But Dr. Liz does this interview you're about to hear has helped me out so much to understand post secondary transition planning, and how we can continue to grow. A lot of times therapists see this high school period as a time where we should be removing ot services. Well, maybe after this interview, you might see that in a different light. And you might see a way that you can even enhance and improve the services that you provide in the high school and adult population. So without any further ado, here is Dr. Liz the OT I really hope you enjoyed this one.
Jayson Davies 03:53
Hello, Liz and welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast. I'm so excited for you to be here today.
Dr. Liz Abadiotakis 03:59
I'm excited to I've been reading your emails and listening to your podcast. So I'm excited to get some information out there.
Jayson Davies 04:05
I love it. Yes. And you know, this has been one of the most popular questions I have gotten what we're gonna talk about today. And that is that transition program that Post Secondary Transition stuff. And I just love it. I get questions on social media, I get questions during my A to Z course office hours. And I have limited experience in that middle school high school range. So I'm excited to what you have to say. So to get started, how about you go ahead and share with us just a little bit about your background as an occupational therapist.
Dr. Liz Abadiotakis 04:38
Sure. I am primarily a school based and pediatric therapist, and I'm also a bit of an entrepreneur. So we have I started out in pediatrics at a clinic in Connecticut and moved up to be the clinical coordinator there and then moved to New Jersey once I got married to my husband. When I got here, um, besides dealing with the move and everything else, I decided why not open a private practice? That would be a great idea to some payoffs, right? So I did that with my college roommate. And we had a practice called the interactive playground and Wellness Center for about seven years, we were in schools, as well as having a sensory motor based clinic. And then, once I had my own children, I had to kind of move on from that, I went back to school to get my doctorate, and continue to be in school systems, because that worked out with my family life as well. And then, now I currently am in, again, a school system working for the Board of Education. In the teachers union, I know that's a topic that comes up a lot,as well. So I've worked actually as a contractor, as well as as an in house person. And I also now have a private practice that supports parents with one time questions or ongoing support. And that's for parents of kiddos with all different abilities. And that's via telehealth.
Jayson Davies 06:07
Gotcha. So, just upon what you just said, I actually have a few questions. So I want to ask you just these based upon your responses from just there. For those of us that have never been in a clinical role, what does it mean to be a clinical coordinator of a private practice?
Dr. Liz Abadiotakis 06:24
Sure. So in the I worked for center for pediatric therapy in Connecticut, which is Tara Glennon, who is one of the authors on the sensory pressing measure it was, and we, we had different levels of support there. So starting out in a clinic was really helpful, because it's primarily one on one treatments. And you have a lot of support around you, which is not always the case when you're in a school system. So we had contracts with schools. And we were also doing private therapy sessions in the clinic. So clinical coordinator was I was in charge, basically, of one of the four offices that were there. And then above me, was a clinical director. And then above that was obviously, the owner.
Jayson Davies 07:13
So you were kind of in charge of making sure everyone was a doing their job, but also that people had the development that they probably needed the mentorship that they needed.
Dr. Liz Abadi