Episode 107: Using PLAY as an Acronym to Support Students

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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 107 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.

Our guest today proves how it is possible to make the best of a situation when unforeseen circumstances happen. The Covid Pandemic derailed Alvin from starting his private practice. Still, it allowed him to build up his social media and do something he enjoys, video editing. He has created videos to share with others about occupational therapy and his “P.L.A.Y on the Go Approach.” He shares content about treatment approaches, occupational balance, self-care, and even has “Toy Tuesday,” in which he shares different ways to use games that have easy accessibility in therapy rooms or clinics.

Tune in to learn the following objectives:

• Learners will identify what P.L.A.Y stand for

• Learners will identify ways to help a child feel successful and confident

• Learners will identify the difference between adaptions and modifications

• Learners will identify the importance of incorporating students' interests during therapy sessions

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Guest Bio

Alvin Pineda MS, OTR/L

Alvin Pineda is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist based in the San Fransico Bay Area. He is the owner of Alvin P. Occupational Therapy Services and Outside The Box Treatment Solutions LLC. As a pediatric OT, he has experience in multiple settings from home health, school-based, and currently outpatient private practice. He specializes in child-led therapy in sensory processing, developmental delays, and self-regulation with experiences with a wide range of abilities and age ranges from 3- 21+. Aside from his clinical work, Alvin is the online content creator behind OT.Outside.The.Box on Instagram and Facebook. He has created his platform to inspire other pediatric practitioners to be confident and creative therapists. To facilitate creative clinical reasoning, Alvin created The P.L.A.Y on the Go Approach to guide practitioners to adapt and modify any activity to meet their client’s just right challenge.

Notable Quotes

“We need to think on the go, on learning how to adapt, learning how to modify and meet each child's needs within that just right challenge. So it's really working on facilitating that ability to really kind of look at an activity and look at the task analysis” -Alvin

“I think that's so important to advocate that and really showcase that decreased core can also impact handwriting ability, not many kinds of educators know that, so that's where our OTs lense in development comes into play.” -Alvin

“In all of our evaluations, we have to tie the overarching occupation to those component skills, and vice versa. You’ve got to tie it back and forth” - Jayson

“Sometimes we have to do what we have to do. We have to make sure we're 100% for ourselves because then our sessions and our evaluations, and our reports will be 100 times better.” -Alvin

Resources

• P.L.A.Y. on the Go Approach Handout

• Occupational Therapy Practice Framework

• Alvin's Instagram

• Alvin's Facebook

Episode Transcript

Expand to view the full episode transcript.

Amazing Narrator   

Hello and welcome to the OT school house 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   

Hey everyone. Welcome to Episode 107 of the OT school house podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you so much for hitting that play button. Speaking of the play button, play you are going to hear that word a lot in the next hour or so, and I will tell you why in just a moment. Well, you might already know, considering you saw the title when you hit that play button. So today, we are doing something we haven't done in a while. We are actually offering continuing education for those of you who decide to listen to this podcast episode and would like to earn a certificate of completion for doing so, and you can learn more about that. You can go ahead and get that certificate of completion by using the link in the podcast description, wherever you're you are listening, or by heading over to OT schoolhouse.com/episode 107, over there, you'll be able to learn how that process works, what it cost and yeah, how simple it is to learn on your own time and earn some professional development while you're heading to work, heading home from work, or maybe even at the gym. It's the easiest way to earn professional development, and I hope it helps you out, and I hope it makes your life a little bit easier and saves you a little bit more time. So what are we talking about today that is so important? Well, I already mentioned it play. We are talking about play, but we're not just talking about it as a noun or a verb, which as occupational therapy providers we know is so important for our students, for the kids that we work with, maybe even for your own little ones at home. Today, we are talking about play as an acronym that you can use to guide your therapy. Joining us today is Alvin Pineda, and you may better know Alvin from his instagram handle, which is ot outside the box. He loves to create reels and marks again, to talk just a little bit about his real creation today, but we are going further into his play on the go approach, which he uses to support his clients. By the end of this episode, our goal, Alvin and myself, our goal for you is that you will be able to identify the following, what the acronym play, P, L, A, Y stands for a few ways to help children feel successful and confident. The difference between adaptations and modifications and the importance of incorporating students interests during therapy sessions. Of course, we're going to talk about play, using Play to support our students and keep their interest. We're going to do all of this through the structured interview that you know and love from the OT school house podcast. We're going to have fun doing it. So let's go ahead and jump right into the heart of this episode with Alvin and discuss the importance of play as a noun, a verb and now an acronym to help support you. Let's do it. Alvin, welcome to the OT school house podcast. How are you doing today? 

Alvin Pineda   

Hey, Jayson, I'm doing pretty well. Pretty well. I'm glad to be on and thank you for having me. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, thank you for being here. Man, it's been amazing watching all of us kind of grow together on Instagram, on podcasts, just on the web as a community of occupational therapy providers that are supporting people. So thank you so much for being here. 

Alvin Pineda   

Of course, and that's what I love about kind of social media, just the growth in the community that we have, supporting each other. I think it's awesome. And just to see the growth of everyone within their businesses and just advocating for our profession is amazing. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, 100% and, you know, as as occupational therapy providers, you know, there's kind of that we have two sides of it. We have the social media side, which is very much like marketing, getting ourselves out there. But as occupational therapy providers, we can't just say whatever the heck we want to say on social media platform. We really have to have the research behind it. We have to know what we're actually talking about a little bit, and we can't just say random things. So I know that both you and I put a lot of hard work into making sure that what we're saying is actually accurate, and not just putting anything out there. So we're going to talk a little bit about that, but I first want to invite you to just share a little bit about how you got into OT and you know why you went down the OT route?  

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So I think one of the biggest influences I have is my family. So I grew up with a huge family. When I say huge, it's my mom had like 12 brothers and sisters. My dad had 13 and yeah, so I had a whole bunch of cousins, kind of growing up, and I was that person, kind of just hanging out with all the little kids, kind of as I grew up. So I was kind of like working in peds already as a teenager. It was very natural for me to just. Just jump into that role. So I've always had this passion for peds, and then I just slowly, kind of expanded my way into the special ed realm with ABA. I know OTs and behaviorals kind of clash, but I think it was a good foundation for me to get that experience and figure out what works and what doesn't work with kids. So it was a good learning experience, because with the OT realm now, like I understand how all of these other aspects, like sensory and actual motor development can impact performance as well. So I started out working as an ABA therapist. I worked with preschool, elementary age kids and then a middle school range to do an ABA, both in the classroom and in a home setting. From there, I went to OT school. I actually went to a weekend program. So it was a different type of OT program. I worked throughout ot school, and I was in school Friday night, Saturday, all day and all day Sunday. So yeah, and that we met every two to three weeks. So it was a big kind of learning curve of understanding what I needed as a student, to be independent and to be successful. It kind of just threw you in the realm of being independent. So I think that helped in my own kind of learning experience, in advocating for my needs and my learning needs as well. So, yeah, let's see. 

Jayson Davies   

Can I, well, first, can I ask you two follow ups on that? Actually, first of all, because I do have a lot of people that are kind of in a similar situation that that approached me and asked, you know, I'm working full time. How do I do OT school? Would you mind sharing the program that you went to? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, so, so I'm East Coast based. I grew up in Jersey, and then I went to school in New York. It is a small university or college called Dominican college. They have one in California, Dominican University. 

Jayson Davies   

Dominican University.  

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I don't know if there's a relation, but, but yeah, they do have programs like that there that are like these bridge programs for individuals who have a bachelor's degree and individuals who have who are codos as well too. So you can work full time throughout, and then you can kind of work on the weekends throughout that. 

Jayson Davies   

Very cool, very cool. And then the other question is, you mentioned being an ABA therapist, although it doesn't sound like you went to get your BCBA. Where did that decision process come in. And when did you decide? You know what? Hey, I'm an ABA therapist now, but I want to go the OT route as opposed to the BCBA route. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. Well, I think I initially just jumped into it because I wanted experience. I knew I wanted to work with kids. I considered being a teacher, and people were like, oh, you should work with special ed. You have all this patience and everything. So I think that was my foot in the door, just to get some experience. But having that experience, I considered all these other areas, like PT, OT speech, and I did consider being a BCBA, but it was just so systematic. I didn't fully agree with all the approaches, but I love the kind of holistic views that ot has, the again, the motor development, the sensory aspects, and the approach we have where we can engage in natural occupations like play. I love that I'm not like a sit down the table type of therapist. I'm on the floor with the kids. I'm following their lead. So I thought that was more my realm than anything else, and compared to speech, PT and PCBA. So.  

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, very cool. Awesome. All right. Well, let's jump ahead then. So you you've got your ot degree. What happened after that? What kind of settings have you worked in since graduating?  

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, so I had a couple field works in a school based setting, and then I had field work in a sub acute. And I actually loved working in a sub acute I think the the adults have a greater appreciation for for what therapist than the kids do. So I love that, but my true passion was with impedes. So my first job out of OT school was actually like a non public school in the Bronx in New York. So I worked in a visually impaired school with visual impaired students and blind students as well. So it was just a great experience. I had an awesome team to support me throughout that time, and it was just an awesome experience of learning and adapting all these activities to meet each of those students needs. So I absolutely am so grateful that for that experience and for all those therapists, let's see. But from there, I started out as a travel occupational therapist in the school system, so less than a year out of school, I decided to travel cross country, and I worked for multiple non public schools in the California Bay area. So I got to jump into all of the IEPs. I got to do all those evaluations and whatnot. So a lot of these schools were very much kids who don't have proper placement at their local districts. So these were kids who needed more behavioral support. So I think being a male therapist, you kind of get those tougher kids most of the time. So that's where kind of that ABA get. Kind of came into play, and it helped support me and figure out what worked. And I just kind of used the combination of that, ABA plus OT and really helped build each child skills and further increase their independence throughout that. So yeah, I did three years of that, and then right before COVID, I decided to go private practice, and everything blew up because we weren't working, yeah. And then it kind of turned into social media. I was able to start off a little platform and then kind of build from there, yeah, 100% Yeah. I think it, it timing wise, kind of stars aligned in a way for me, for for me to start that up. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And you know what, let's, let's let's talk about that, because we are going to talk about the play on the go approach that you kind of developed. But I know that your social media world played into that development a little bit. You learned a lot as have I from communicating, from talking with people, and so, you know, you talked about the pandemic kind of leading the way. I think you had the account before the pandemic actually started, right? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I had it. I think I started January 2020. Just started, yeah. 

Jayson Davies   

All right. And then so kind of at the same time that you were kicking off your IG account, reels came into play, and Instagram started saying, Hey everyone, let's rip off Tiktok and Snapchat, and let's start putting together reels. And so you, like, dove full force into reels. Talk a little bit about what kind of inspired your reels and maybe how you developed those a little bit. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So I think one of the best ways I kind of leaned into reels is because I'm like an older millennial who loves technology, who grew up with technology. I had my space. I was all into video editing. When I was in OT school, I was actually voted, like most likely to utilize technology within my practice. Like I'm not gonna say, I'm not gonna say what videos, but there are videos on YouTube which I have, like, ot wraps, and I have, like, all of these things. And like, those are all my projects. We will find them. If you scroll hard enough on my IG, you'll find it. Yeah, but I was always doing these video projects throughout ot school. So I love video editing, I love technology. I love social media. I mean, I was part of the first generation with with MySpace Facebook, so it was just a natural way for me to incorporate my passion of technology, just growing up in it. So it was very easy for me. I know I'm looking to teach other people about Instagram and reels pretty soon. So I'm looking to kind of share that passion and start to help other people kind of find their way for Instagram. I know it can be a lot, but in terms of your question of, how do I kind of find that inspiration, you know, I just, I'm just scrolling kind of throughout Instagram, I see other accounts, especially teachers or other kind of nurses or physical therapists, and then you kind of figure out a way how to relate it back to what your niche is and what your area expertise is. So I always find my inspiration for other people, or I'll look to adapt that. Or if I have an idea, I'll just figure out something that's trending, and I'll trending in terms of a music or a little voice grip. So, yeah, I'll figure out a way to kind of adapt that and then showcase that on my on my page. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And so when it comes to actually incorporating the occupational therapy side of it, are you, I mean, do you primarily focus on evaluations? You promote focus on therapy or what? What's kind of your niche? What do you really like to focus on? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, so I think my main kind of niche is very much a treatment, treatment activities and really helping other practitioners feel confident and creative in their treatment approaches. So what you'll find on my Instagram account is a lot of like, multiple ways to play. I have therapy toy Tuesday, and I talk about different ways to use different games that are easily accessible within most therapy rooms or clinics. So I like to change things up and break the rules of different games and play in different ways. So you'll find a lot of that, and you'll also find a lot of kind of confidence, kind of building, or mind mindfulness activities throughout and then I also like to kind of really promote occupational balance and self care within our profession. I think it's important that we remember like mental health and physical health is so important, and if we're not putting ourselves first, we're not going to provide the best service for our clients. We're constantly putting our students first, but we have to learn how to put ourselves first too. So I think that's super important.  

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And, you know, before we hit record today, we're talking a little bit about your vacation, and I know that you recently posted a reel that was literally just telling people, remember to use your PTO your paid time off. You know. Yeah, as most of my audience are, we're school based occupational therapists, and so a lot of us do work es y extend the school year, but we still, you know, have maybe two weeks here or there. And absolutely we gotta, we gotta use that time. I mean, we're so busy during the school year, we gotta use the summer and go out and have a good time. 

Alvin Pineda   

Exactly. And I know, like, when I worked in the school system, I always, like, felt a little guilty, like taking, like, a mental health day or like taking a little three day weekend, but like, sometimes we have to do what we have to do. We have to make sure we're 100% for ourselves, because then our sessions and our evaluations and our reports will be 100 times better. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, I know I don't want to get too far into this conversation today, but I always talk to those people, you're right. They feel guilty. They feel guilty about taking a Friday off. And it's not just OTs right. Teachers feel the same way. Because, I mean teachers, if they take a day off, they had to write sub plans, so it's almost like they have to do more work to take a day off. For us as occupational therapists, a lot of times, we don't have subs, period. And so if you miss a day of treatment either A, those kids are never going to get made up, depending on how your district policies are, or B, you have to find time to make those kids up the following week, or whatever it might be. And you don't get paid extra for it, but you do get your day off that you took. So yeah, but definitely take your time during the summer, enjoy it, and even during the school year, I'm right there with you and saying, You know what, if you want to take a Friday off, don't feel bad about it. Take that Friday off. And you know what, if your district is saying, well, when are you going to make those up? We have to remember that it's also the district's fault for not putting something in place for you to take a day off. You know, teachers have substitutes. There needs to be a system in place for OTs. 

Alvin Pineda   

Exactly. And that's definitely a missing piece in the puzzle, I think. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah, all right. So play on the go approach. I want to get into that. So my first question about that is, we're going to dive deep into it. So give me a second. But what inspired you to develop the play on the go approach, and also, did your social media world play into that inspiration? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think it definitely did. But in the foundations of everything, when I first had an OT student, as a school based practitioner, this individual was kind of struggling, and I think that's when the framework kind of was structured in my mind. When we talk more about the approach, I'll talk about like different body positions we can do activities and different ways to adapt different activities. So I started to teach this student the various ways to look at an activity and to think about different ways to play a simple board game and incorporating in goals. So I think that's where the foundation started. But once I developed this social media following, and I wanted to somewhat monetize it and teach other ways, the same kind of mindset in the same way, I think within treatment sessions, is when I was like, Okay, I think I need to really start putting an effort into structuring this approach and really developing it. So I think when we talk more about it, you'll see how the different ways we can play and ways we can adapt that. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. I really just want to take a second though to to appreciate what you did though, because you literally took what you already knew that you were doing, but you hadn't, kind of compiled it into something nice and clean, a manual per se, and by bringing on an OT student, that's what allowed you to really have to think about what you do on a daily basis, and to, like you said, kind of clean it up for that student, so that they had an idea of what you were doing. That's great. Because, I mean, you helped that one student, and that one student helps you to really, kind of, you know, put it into a nice, clean, you know, this is what I'm doing, and now you have the ability to share that that's awesome. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. You don't even realize what how it how you're doing it in the moment, but in reflection, I'm like, Oh, wow, yeah, so. 

Jayson Davies   

Right. We help students, but they also help us. So it's a two way street. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. 

Jayson Davies   

All right, so let's start by saying, Why is it called the play on the go approach, and then we'll dive kind of into the individual aspects of it. 

Alvin Pineda   

So it's called the play on the go approach, because it's kind of like a little acronym. We'll talk more about what P, L, A and Y stands for, but it's something we need to remember that kids, for kids, their daily occupation is play, and for us to make it therapeutic, we need to be quick on our feet, and we need to think on the go, on learning how to adapt, learning how to modify and meet each child's needs within that just right challenge. So it's really working on facilitating that ability to really kind of look at an activity and look at the task analysis and feel really confident in being able to downgrade. You upgrade that activity. 

Jayson Davies   

Awesome. So we have PLA and why, and was there as you were developing this. I mean, I know we talked about how you kind of started with this student, but what is some of the research that kind of influenced the way that you developed this? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, so when I was like looking back on kind of all my information, I think, as I mentioned, one of the first things we learned in OT school was task analysis and activity analysis, right? So I think having that experience and being able to modify it for multiple levels of students that help my transformation of this mindset. So just all of that research and how important task analysis is and activity analysis it's, it kind of helps shift that. And then when I was looking at the different kind of models and the different frameworks I was trained in in multiple areas, like dir and floor time, and then, like sensory integration in the star Institute, sensory process of sensory processing. So all of those kind of models are very child led, and sometimes we forget how important it is to kind of follow a child's lead. So a lot of those models and those frameworks kind of help influence that as well. And then looking from like another, like ot school perspective of like theory and models a big factor, I think, was like the PEO and the peop model, because we're looking at the person, we're looking at the environment, and we're looking at their occupation, and how it's impacted with all of those factors. So sometimes we learn about all these theories, but we forget how it's impacting our clinical reasoning. And I was able to look back, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this can be correlate back to this theory. This can correlate to back back to that theory. So we're kind of thrown all these things in our in OT school, and we forget to use it. But when we think about and we when we reflect on it, it's ingrained in our mindset, and we're using all of those items within our clinical reasoning already, I think so it was good to see that. 

Jayson Davies   

Absolutely, that's awesome. And so you talked about play as an occupation, and that's part of what played into the whole play on the go approach, the OT practice framework, it lists many other occupations. We have education, we have mental health, even this kind of worked into there. Now, all right, would you say your this approach solely focuses on play, or do you think that it uses play as a means to also focus on other potential occupations? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think it could definitely be related within kind of multiple layers of occupation. It's all about kind of that adapting and modifying. So whether it be like realizing what can impact like sleep or like leisure and social participation, and being able to modify it, and being able to meet that just right challenge within those other occupations is is super important, and it takes that clinical mindset to figure out how can I adjust it, and how can I figure out what exactly is impacting this individual's performance. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we we so much of what we do has an impact on other areas, whether we want to or not. You know, you work on one thing, and you have no idea some of the things that it could impact later down the road. And so play is such a huge area. In fact, I recommend that everyone, no matter, or every pediatric OT, you need to learn about play, because play is just so important. So then you're a pediatric OT, you work in a clinic, and I think you do, do you do home based as well? Are you mostly in a clinic? 

Alvin Pineda   

I'm mostly primarily now in a clinic. 

Jayson Davies   

Okay, so would you say that the play on the go approach as we dive into it? Is it very specific to a clinical based model, or could it also be used within the schools or a home based model as well. 

Alvin Pineda   

I think it can definitely be used in multiple settings. The main thing is really identifying what performance skill you're working on. I think especially if you are in a home based setting, you're working with whatever the client has in their home. So learning to adapt a toy they have in their home to their skill set. Meeting them where they are with a specific activity is super important. So just looking at one thing, okay, this was too hard. I'm going to adjust it, maybe change the body position, or maybe incorporate something that they're motivated with, incorporate a character or a song, and figuring out how you can increase their motivation to engage and increase participation. So whether you're home, home health, school based, I think it'll, it'll adapt within any setting. So. 

Jayson Davies   

absolutely, I'm right on there with you. When that, when I first watched a little bit about the play on the go approach, I was like, yeah. This absolutely applies to, you know, every session that I'm working on, especially in a pull out model, it's a little bit different, I think, when you push in, because, you know, you're in a more structured setting. But anytime that you are in a pull out model, definitely, although I think that when we get to letter A, we'll also talk about potentially going in to the classroom a little bit. So let's dive into the four letters, then P, l, a, y, let's start with P. Go for it. I'll let you dive in. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So breaking it down, the P is in terms of positioning, right? So one of the things we want to ask ourselves is, can you change the body position in particular, and then can you change the position of the various manipulatives? So I like to think of this as like, if you're doing a puzzle, if you're doing some writing activity, if you're doing a craft, if you're playing a board game, do you have to work on the table? Do you have to do do it a sit down work? Or can you shift their body position? So some things you can take into consideration is taking it to the floor. You know, work prone, prop on your elbows. Work seated in a criss cross position, you know, so they can get a little bit of that kind of postural challenge. You can work in a tall needle. You can work in a half meal, I mean, OTs, go to like that vertical surface, right? You can put things up on a wall. Go in that tall meal position. Work on a lot more of those postural control muscles. You can work on a therapy ball. You can work on an air discs, just to get a little bit more input. So there are so many different ways you can, kind of shift your body into play. It's not just sit down work. I think maybe school based therapist. It's a little bit harder to think outside of that box. And we usually go to, hey, let's go to the table. Let's do this because we're working that school based model. But one of the things I want school based therapists to take into consideration is that, yes, your outcomes have to be educational based, but your treatment approach does not have to be educational based. You can still work on facilitating play and work on those underlying skill sets within your treatment, because in the end, your outcome will still increase their educational outcomes as well, too. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and that's exactly what we talked about a moment ago. How, you know, using this as a means to more of an educational end, per se, using play as a means to increase that educational access, that's awesome, you know, as you're talking about that, you know, I hear all this, all the things that you're saying when it comes to maybe you're working on a one on one session, and you're working on posture specifically. But as school based occupational therapists, we can do that in the classroom as well, through accommodations, through recommendations for the teacher as well. You know, I have had students that I have talked to the teacher and let them kind of understand, hey, he works. This student works so much better when we get rid of the chair and he's just standing up and he's doing his work standing at his desk, and at the end of the day the goal is for him to complete work. What's the difference whether he's sitting down or standing up? So I think that it can go both ways. It can it can be that pull out model, focusing on on the positioning, but then in the classroom, you're focusing on the work, and using whatever position facilitates, facilitates that work, I guess so. Yeah. I think it can kind of be used in both, both areas. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. And if we're taking, like, the next letter into play, l, which is going to be body language, we can read their body language, and it can tell us they need movement right so we can change their body position into something where they are meeting that just right level of like movement, and they're at that just right level of arousal so that they can attend, so that they can participate in A classroom based activity or lesson. Even more so kind of just incorporating that and teaching teachers how to read their body language too, and figuring out what they need is super important. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, absolutely. And so staying with that. L, what do you really look for when you're looking at the body language? Are you mostly looking at, you know, facial expressions? Are you looking at the entire body? What are you looking for? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. I mean, we're looking at everything, right? Whether you're working with a speaking or a non speaking student, you're looking at their facial expressions. Are they kind of overwhelmed? Are they overstimulated? Is are they transitioning from a very busy, over stimulating, auditory classroom. Do they need some a couple minutes to just re regulate, kind of decompress? Are they like well regulated for the activity? Because if you don't have a student who is well regulated, you're not going to have that maximum potential to engage in whatever activity you need. So you need to figure out what their body language is telling you, like kids can just come into a classroom frustrated because maybe there was like a social interaction, so it's important to remember that and then just be there for them and read their cues. In many ways mean we teach students to read body language and to read social cues, but sometimes. We forget. As therapists, we need to be there for them. We need to figure out what they need, too. So it's not just about work. It's not just about goals and outcomes. Sometimes you need to build that rapport. Take a second, take a minute to be there, ask them what they need, or problem solve together and figure out what their body is telling us. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. And you know, when I when I hear the term social skills and body language a little bit. I 100% think that OTs work on social skills in that, however, I know there is some perception out there, especially when you get out of the world of OT that when you discuss social skills, that might be more aligned with the speech pathology world, per se, I think as OTs, we are constantly trying to share with our administrators and whatnot that, you know, we can do social skills as well. But I know for a lot of places that it's kind of social skills are within the realm of SLPs. So I guess what I'm trying to go down is, have you worked with SLPs collaboratively at all with social skills, or even working on language skills alongside of a speech therapist? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, a lot of my num non public schools, I've very much kind of CO traded and worked hand in hand with them. I think where our expertise comes into play is understanding body language in terms of regulation and arousal level. If they're like, moving around, if they're bouncing off on their chair, that's their way of telling us they need movement, right? Whether they are kind of feeling a little silly, like in that green zone, or if they're like, over stimulated with auditory input, that's where we come into play of recognizing what kind of the sensory environment, how it can impact their participation. And I think in collaborating with speech therapy, you can kind of intermingle a lot of those two and kind of figure out what their actual like language is telling us as well, plus understanding their their sensory language and what their body is telling us. So I think taking both into perspective is super important when looking at body language. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah. So before we move on to letter A, I want to kind of talk a little bit about evaluations as it regards to P and L, the positioning and the body language. So when it comes to evaluations, how might you evaluate that positioning? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, so when I do my evaluations, I'll typically go to, like the standard kind of the seated position, see how they do in that body position, and then just shift it up if see how long they can kind of maintain that before displaying fatigue. And then you can kind of bring it against gravity, or you can bring it to the floor to see what other areas they're having difficulty with. Say you go prone, prop on elbows. Do they have enough shoulder support and shoulder stability to maintain that position? If you're working on a vertical surface, are they able to have full range to maybe reach for something up tall? Also, when we're talking about like position as well, you we're also talking about positioning of manipulative So are they able to cross midline, if you're working with different kind of like, if you're working on the bot, if you can put the pennies somewhere else, on another side, are they able to cross that midline? Are they able to reach down to the ground, if we drop the pennies on the floor. So, like, even just little things like that, like, if we're cleaning up the pennies for the bot, right, we see how they shift. We see how they reach down. So it tells us a lot, even just with simple clinical observations like that. But yeah, whether you're you're changing up the body position on the floor, you are working at a toll needle. You're looking at those transitional movements, and those transitional phases from seating to standing to going in into a crisscross position on the floor. You get it can tell us little things about their motor plan. It can tell us little things about what position they may work best in, and what actual skills like strength in core, upper body, even lower body. Are they lacking within their overall engagement? 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, yeah. And so I want to ask you a little off the cuff, challenging question here You talked a lot about more of those personal skills per se, right? The individual skill to cross the body, the individual or to cross midline, the individual skill to not fatigue in school based OT, we're always trying to relate it back to education. And so if I can challenge you really quickly, how might you, within your actual report itself? Use what you kind of just maybe you you know, you report that the student's not crossing midline. You report that the low fatigue, or whatever it might be, how might you relate that back to education when you're reporting for the teacher, the administrator and the parent?  

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I think in particular, with like postural stability and postural endurance, can relate it to stability to attend like when a student is. When a student demonstrates decreased kind of postural stability and they fatigue very easily, their ability to attend to a lesson will be much more difficult. Their ability to write legible work will be much more challenging. So really advocating the importance of the developmental approach of core to shoulder stability, to find motor ability and how it can impact overall engagement, like attending, and how it can impact handwriting as well. I think that's so important to advocate that and really showcase that decreased core can also impact handwriting ability, and not many kind of educators know that. So that's where our OT lens in development comes into play. And then when we talk about, like, bilateral coordination, when we talk about difficulty with crossing midline, we make it we make it more functional, we talk about how it can impact legibility. When in terms of when we're writing, they may not use, like, their stabilizing hand and how it can impact legibility, maybe difficulty with dressing or buttoning or zipping, and their various manipulatives, kind of throughout the classroom setting, so making it more functional and relating it back to how it can impact an individual's performance within the educational model is just super important. And that's where it takes that clinical reasoning to realize, okay, this can impact this. This can impact that as well. So remembering that is something we have to start doing a lot more and advocating and educating various professionals with. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, you know. And I like to tell school based OTs a lot of times I find that school based OTs focus on one side or the other. They focus on the big picture, and they might say that a student is not able to hand write legibly, or on the flip side, they might focus on the individual skills and say that the student has poor fine motor skills, poor crossing the midline, but they don't tie it back to the handwriting, or they don't tie it back to the attention. And I think that is something that is key in all of our evaluations. We have to tie the overarching occupation, the overarching activity, to those component skills, and vice versa. You gotta tie it back and forth one way or both ways. So, yeah, I like that, that you use the postural and all the other things to then talk about how that impacts the occupational performance. And what about language development? Or, sorry, not language development, body language. Are you actively evaluating body language, or is that more on the treatment side that you're looking for that as you treat. 

Alvin Pineda   

Um, I think in terms of evaluating, like I would see how they react to certain things, like if they are, if they hear a really loud noise, or if there is, You're doing your evaluation with a busy classroom next door, are they able to attend? Is that noise distracting? Is that sound of the lawn mower distracting? So during my evaluation, I'm going to note that and talk about and discuss how it may impact their performance, because in the end, if they're in a busy classroom and that auditory stimuli is just too much and too overwhelming, it's going to impact overall engagement. It's going to impact their ability to attend to the teacher led discussions. So little things like that. It's those are just clinical observations that I'll note, and then I would note, how can impact, then that occupational performance, and then how can impact overall engagement as well. But yeah, little things like that. What else? Um, yeah. If I if we see difficulty with kind of overall strength, then I would also kind of talk about how the strength can impact overall engagement as well, whether it be like engagement in kind of PE or any physical activity, or engagement in a lot of my middle schoolers just demonstrated a lot of fatigue, of carrying their backpack or carrying their books from one classroom to the next. So like simple accommodations, like having those books in the classroom already, so that they don't have to carry them throughout classroom to classroom, just so that they don't have to fatigue, and then they can increase that attention level throughout lessons as well. So just understanding how those impacts of body language can also kind of impact overall engagement and and correlating it back to that again, is super important, especially in that school based model. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and I, and I earlier, you kind of started to talk a little bit about training the teachers, and I think that's important, especially for the body language, you know, training the teachers to understand what they're really seeing when they see a student act in a certain way, right? That goes back to some of the behavior components, some of the kids who are falling asleep in class. You know, what does that mean? And does it mean that we should be mad at them for falling asleep? Or it doesn't mean that. Need to work on something else. So 100% teaching teachers and paraprofessionals a little bit about what to look for within their students. So yeah. 

Alvin Pineda   

I think that's especially important with kids who are in that that Gen Ed kind of settings with typical peers, right? I'm just giving them reminders of what this can look like, and then how we can help facilitate that, get them to that kind of just right arousal, so that they can engage. So, yeah, it's super important in a gen ed setting. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, when it comes to, you know, a popular term, it's not as popular now as it was a few years ago, I don't think, but sensory diet. And a lot of people teachers, they wanted a very prescriptive sensory diet, and I was kind of against that, because we can't just say this student needs five minutes of trampoline time every hour. Like that completely takes out what you're talking about, the body language. We're not looking to see what their body language is. We're just saying every half hour, every hour, they need five minutes on the trampoline. Well, what if the students engaged in an activity and it's like all right time to jump on the trampoline, because it's the hours up, right? And so when I create a quote, unquote, sensory diet, I actually don't call it a sensory diet. I call it more of like a sensory preference sheet. And the way that I will format it is I will have that body language per se, that like what this looks like. So if the student is more lethargic, this is some body language things that you might see. And here are some activities that you might be able to use when you see that body language. And same thing when they're over stimulated, what you might see. And here's a few things that I've done with the student that helped bring them back down a little bit. So I really like that body language aspect that you're talking about. I don't think it's something that we use very often As occupational therapists, or at least not mindfully. We are always looking at it, right? We know that we have to look at body language within every treatment, but we don't talk about it, so. 

Alvin Pineda   

We definitely, we definitely have to take the next step to advocate and teach educators and their power professionals how to read that body language too, because we know exactly what to do in those environments and know what to do in those settings. But we need, in the end, we want them to be fully engaged all across classroom settings. So that's something we as OTs definitely have to have to work on. Whether you're school based, you're at home, working with the families, or you're working in a clinic setting. Yeah, that's some we want to see generalization in the end. That's our goal. 

Jayson Davies   

Absolutely. All right, we talked P and L pretty extensively. Let's move on to letter A I mentioned this earlier. I think this is a super important one, so I will let you have at it. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So A is called areas of interest. So things we should be asking ourselves, is this activity client centered? Does this activity include something that they're interested and then are they motivated to participate in this activity? So different ways you can include their area of interest is to just make it fun. Include a game. Add different challenges, like, Oh, we're going to do we're going to do exercises, but so and so did 30 in one minute. So adding a little bit more motivation to that. You can incorporate themes, especially with holidays. Kids love holidays. So different themes and different characters are another way to include something motivating and then just including a preferred task. If there's a game that they really love, include that into therapy. And then you can change the body position. You can change the position of those manipulatives. You can include, say there are small manipulative. Say they really love Connect Four. You put those chips into like putty, they have to pull that out, and then they can play Connect Four with that. Or you can write letters on the chips, and then every time they get a Connect Four, you have to write out those letters. So just being able to take whatever they're interested in and then include it within our therapy sessions, and then use that clinical mindset to adapt and modify that activity, whether you're using body position or changing the manipulatives, is just super important to just increase that motivation. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and so when it comes to being school based OT, oftentimes we do have that pull out setting where we can do a lot of that. But how might you recommend to a school based ot that is using more of that collaborative consultation model. How might they incorporate areas of interest? Do you have any ideas on that? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think especially just having in terms of a writing aspect, maybe just having special kind of paper available? Maybe you can just spend time to make their specific adaptive paper a little bit more motivating. Maybe add some characters or some stickers on there. Maybe you can just add a little once they write it on a piece of paper, they can cut it out. They can put it on a construction paper or something with their their favorite color. They can write. With their favorite color as well. I think any fun way, maybe you can do it. Or even just if they have to write sentences, or they have to write a word, make it a word based off of a TV show they like, yeah, so just including that into writing can definitely be beneficial.  

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, you know. And just like you were talking about how you get inspiration for reels by looking at what other people are doing on Instagram. I think the same thing comes for for therapy too, right? Like it's died down a little bit now, but, you know, a few months ago, Wordle was huge. And so using Wordle as a therapeutic activity, you know, you come up with a word and then you have some green and yellow tiles, and based upon what were there, right? You put some green and yellow tiles on it, or something like that to, kind of to help them out a little bit. So, yeah, you know, I think just trying to make it fun in any way possible, obviously, like Pokemon, huge, several other other areas, Minecraft, Roblox, all of those can be used as a therapeutic tool. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, especially with, with those therapists working with like the middle school or high school ages, you got to figure out ways to motivate them. So figure out what's interesting, and then, like, you can write stories about their minecraft adventure or whatnot, so you don't have to just write random stuff that they're working on in school. Make it more motivating, engage their interests and whatnot. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and if you were talking to a teacher, how might you explain to them the importance of areas of interest, even within academics? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think when incorporating that with teachers, just using kind of our evidence and showing that look so and so was able to write five sentences and look how legible it was. It was because he was actually really motivated. We wrote and we talked about his favorite game. So really just showing evidence that he can actually do this skill, it's not a lack of motivation. I think is super important that that underlying foundation is there, and they just need to fine tune what they're working on, and then they'll find that, hopefully, that generalization within the classroom setting as well. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and you know, it's easier when kids are younger, when they're older, you know, the the task demands get a little bit tougher. But I think at any level, teaching teachers, or working with teachers to help them to actually develop curriculum that is interesting for your child, for your student that you're working with, and they may need help with that. Like you can't put it all on the teacher, but if you do meet with that teacher once a week or once a month, and you're just meeting with them and saying, All right, what's coming up? What can I help you with to help this student be more motivated, even you may need to do it more upfront, but as the teacher has more experiences with you, more experience with a child, they may start to realize how they can adapt an assignment to make it a little bit more motivating for that child, and it can go much further, and the student might actually complete work. So yeah, always gotta keep it motivated for the child. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I think even just when having accommodations in place, it's like really educating the teacher of what kind of his skill set is like he will fatigue after three sentences. So yeah, educating them where their skill levels is at, and then determining when they need a break and what that looks like when they need a break too. So, but that's where that body language comes into play as well. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, all right. So quick recap before we dive into letter Y, we have P for positioning, L for body language, a for areas of interest, and now letter Y. What do you have for letter Y? 

Alvin Pineda   

Letter Y is, yes, I did it. 

Jayson Davies   

All right, go for it. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So we want to make sure kids are walking away from whatever activity feeling confident, right? So this is where we think about, are they meeting the just right challenge? Because if an activity is too easy, it's too boring, they don't want to do it again. If an activity is too hard, they're not going to do it again, because it was just too hard, and they don't have that growth mindset to try again. So certain things we're asking ourselves, do they feel successful in the first 10 to 15 seconds? Are they walking away feeling confident? And then one thing to realize too is, are we reinforcing the process or kind of the end product as well? I think that's super important in terms of walking away from a treatment session or finishing an activity as well, too. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Explain that a little bit further. Yeah, just or sorry, you said the process versus the end product. Dive into that part a little bit more. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah. So say we finished an activity. We finished some writing from there. So sometimes I'll hear, Oh, good job. That looks amazing. So that's. Kind of reinforcing the end product, versus if I were to say, oh my gosh, you did awesome at keeping those letters on the ground. I love how you kept the size of those small letters, or, like, Good job problem solving when it got hard, and figuring out what errors you made. So looking at kind of the whole process of of their problem solving and really reinforcing that is really important. Because if we're constantly saying, Good job, good job, what are they being reinforced for just their work or their the end product, versus their ability to problem solve when something went wrong, or good job at keeping those letters nice and straight and keeping the appropriate size. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, so being mindful of praising the skill, not necessarily the outcome. Yes, that makes sense. All right, cool. That makes sense. And then you also mentioned, and I want to dive into this, because I had never heard you mentioned the first 10 to 15 seconds, making sure that they're feeling confident within the first 10 to 15 seconds, even that's very quick. Why? Why is that short period of time so expensive, so important? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think it's so important because then you want to build that momentum right? If they are kind of lost or unable to complete the activity, that momentum is going to be lost very easily. So if within the first 10 to 15 seconds, they're having some difficulty figuring out what cues or what assistance they need within those first few seconds to be successful, for them to kind of engage within those activities, even more so let's see. That's where I think our therapeutic use of self and that just right challenge comes into play, we can really determine okay, this kid is having a lot of trouble, and okay, I can give some verbal cues or just give a little prompt for him to get that initiation. I think something to consider is whether your client maybe have some difficulty with some processing and they're processing skills and their own abilities. So that might be a little different for those type of students who have difficulty with task initiation or ideation. So that might range a little longer, but I think again, that will be behavioral momentum, and just finding success will increase that independence overall within those first few seconds. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, absolutely. So yes, I did it. That I love that you finish up with that. We still have to talk about the on the go part. But what do you hear when you hear a student say, Yes, I did it. What does that mean to you? And what should it mean to other people who are constantly working with that student? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, yeah. I think to me, first, that means that they feel proud in their work, that I met their just right challenge. And one of the things I asked them, was that easy? Was it hard afterward, too? So that if they say it was hard, they recognize that, and then that increases the likelihood of them engaging activities that they perceive as difficult, because a lot of our kids might have a lot of difficulty with that growth mindset, like, if something's really hard, they're going to give up really fast. Yeah, and I think again, that's where the 10 to 15 seconds comes into play, because after a kind of learned behaviors, I'm not good at this. I'm never going to do it. We want to give them that success. We want them to feel really successful in that activity. And that's where our therapeutic activities come into play. I mean, I've seen therapists just practice writing, writing, writing here and there. But if we think about the actual activity we can have like para professionals practice just writing worksheets all day. What makes it therapeutic is them feeling confident, knowing that we are reinforcing the process, knowing that they are doing proper, legible work, and that they're again feeling confident, and they know what areas they're having difficulty with, and they know that they can do hard things walking away from an activity. 

Jayson Davies   

Absolutely, yeah, that's great. And I think it's so important for us to share those Yes, I did it moments with the teacher, with the parent, let them know about, you know, send a quick note home, or send a text message, an email and just say, hey, you know what? This is what we did today in therapy. And Johnny loved it. He was successful at it. And I would highly recommend that, that maybe you use that in the classroom by doing this and share some ideas with the teacher that they can do to get that yes, I did it moment. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, one of the things I loved, I took this star training in Colorado, and they have these aha moments where parents realize, Oh my God, you did this, you did that. And that model is very parent friendly. So they have parents included. So it's good to see for them, to see the actual progress, and they're like, Oh my gosh. They have those, those aha moments. So it's, yeah, definitely so important to share. That, because then they can start to generalize that, and they can hopefully start to see those little moments as well too. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, all right, and so the last part of the framework, it's play on the go approach, on the go. We don't want to forget that piece. And I think this really resonates with school based OTs, because we never have one place. We are constantly moving. We may or may not actually even have a therapy room. We may have a therapy closet, a therapy stage, a therapy bench, outside in the hallway, whatever it might be. So share a little bit about that on the go, approach. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I definitely think as ot practitioners, we are always constantly on the go. So whether you are in a school based setting, you have one therapy bag of items. You are working in a hallway, in a stairwell, you're working in the client's home, or you are working in a busy clinic. You are always on the go. You have students to see, you have IEPs to write and reports to write. So we are constantly in that mindset being on the go. So within treatment, specifically, we need to be able to take whatever's in our therapy bag and use it with an individual in kindergarten to first grade, all the way to like, fourth and fifth grade, so being able to think quick on your feet and feel confident in adapting and feel confident in modifying that activity to meet that client's needs and meeting that just right challenge so that they feel all of those things of feeling, yes, I did it after they complete the activity, so. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and it's, it's so hard to adapt, because, you know, you could be at a kindergarten class, you know, in the morning, and then you could end up being in a middle school or high school. And I totally recommend, and and hope that, hopefully you can put together a separate bag for some of the but you're right. We need to be able to adapt and we needed to be able to modify. In the school, you know, a lot of times adapt and modify are used interchangeably. I think in the schools it is a little bit more defined. The difference between an adaptation versus a modification, because they actually use those terms for curriculum. An adaptation is changing the activity to where it's still the same activity, but it's slightly maybe we're allowing them to type instead of handwrite. That would be an accommodation or an adaptation, but when we get to a modification. Now it's a completely different activity, per se. So now instead of being expected to write an essay, they're expected to maybe write an outline, so it still shows that they have the ideas there, but they're don't have to put it all together into an essay that might be more of a modification when you're changing the actual standard. So I think in education, those those two words are a little bit more defined than what they might be in a clinic therapy world, right? We kind of use them a little interchangeably, talking about how you're going to adapt in a therapy tool or whatnot. But either way, you need to be able to do both. You need to be able to understand accommodations versus modifications, and be able to use the terms that the teachers might use to best resonate and get through to teachers. So on the go, man, we are always on the go. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, you definitely are, I think, just to kind of full circle moment where it's like, yeah, when we're thinking on the go and modifying, we then have to consider all of those things. So consider, how can we change their body language? How can we shift and manipulate the manipulatives so that they can work across the midline, they can do all of these little things, and then we can figure out, okay, if they're not motivated, how can we make it more challenging by including areas of interest? And then we're just reading their body language again, so figuring out what their body is telling us, are they aroused? Are they able to attend to the activity? So and then figuring out, are they walking away with activity saying, Yes, I did it. So all of those four things kind of come into play, especially with adapting and modifying and thinking on the go. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, would you say that? I mean, it's a lot to think about when we're in a therapy like when we're in a therapy session, it can be hard to remember P, l, a, y, on the go, all that good stuff. Do you think that at the heart of it, we need to always be thinking about all of these? You think maybe one session we could be focusing on the positioning, and another session potentially focus on this. I know it can be a lot to take in and and learn everything. Ultimately, we want to know everything, but yeah, what's your take on that? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, I think taking it step by step, this way of thinking definitely, just like as regular practitioners, we have to go on a learning curve, take little steps and adapt and making sure we're meeting our own just right challenge, right we're not overwhelmed ourselves with trying to put things into perspective and work on implementing certain things. So take things little by little and make progress in small, little steps. Is. Important, I think. 

Jayson Davies   

Absolutely, 100% you know, we, I like to say, you know, as an OT, we have to know what we can do, but we also have to know our own limitations and what we potentially will struggle with, and how to we, for lack of a better term, combat bad and how do we, you know, take it slow and get to the point where we are ultimately a better therapist, but getting there one step at a time. All right? Alvin, well, go ahead. What was that? 

Alvin Pineda   

Yeah, we definitely do. We have to give ourselves Grace within that. So,  

Jayson Davies   

100% all right. Alvin, well, first of all, before I let you go, thank you so much for coming on here, and I want to give you one last opportunity. Well, two more things, actually, I just want to ask you to share a word of wisdom with anyone who is out there who's maybe struggling with seeing progress with their students. You know, just a little bit of Word, words of advice from one ot to another ot that might be struggling with having some some progress. You know, maybe they're taking some data and they're just not seeing that progress that they'd like to see with their student. What's a little word of encouragement or advice that you have for them? 

Alvin Pineda   

I think, first and foremost, take a second and forget about data like build that relationship within the next few sessions and really start to incorporate their areas of interest for me, relationships are so important. Within my therapy sessions, you have to have a strong relationship with your client to push them past their comfort zone. So reflect on your relationship with your clients and see if you have a strong relationship where you can kind of push them past their limits. Then once you realize you have that give yourself grace to all your work, because your students are just so lucky to have you, and then slowly start to determine what is truly kind of impacting their students. Performance, is it one performance area? Is it just the fine motor? Is it the visual motor integration? Is it the core strength? Take things one step at a time, look at one thing and just build on it and determine, Okay, is this what I should focus on? And then if that found it, check the next thing off our clinical reasoning hats or our checklist. So just take a second, give yourself grace, and then just rethink our and rethink and problem solve. What else can we be addressing and what can we do differently?  

Jayson Davies   

Great. Yep, always have to have that rapport with students before we can can move forward. So thanks for sharing that. That's a great tip for anyone out there who's just struggling a little bit. So awesome. All right, now I want to make sure that anyone listening who has just appreciated what you have had to say today, I want to know or let you, let them know, I guess. Where can they learn more about you? Where can they learn more about your reels, your play on the go? Approach. 

Alvin Pineda   

Yep. So you can definitely follow me on Instagram and on Facebook. At ot outside the box, I have my website. It's currently down, but I have a lot of things coming in the works, whether it be education to different therapy tools. So definitely follow me on Instagram. That's where you'll find the most up to date information. And I'm on Facebook as well. So. 

Jayson Davies   

Yeah, and we'll be sure to share those resources on the show notes at ot schoolhouse.com/episode, 107, I can't believe I have 107 episodes. That's crazy. But thank you, man, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate you taking the time to share some of this information with everyone out there listening. And yes, be sure to go follow Alvin on Instagram. For sure. Honestly, you could spend an entire day just going through all the reels and learning so much from him, so be sure to check that out. And yeah, thanks again Alvin. 

Alvin Pineda   

Thank you. 

Jayson Davies   

All right. And that wraps up. Episode number 107, don't forget that you can earn continuing education for learning a little bit about the play on the go approach. You can learn more about that at ot schoolhouse.com/episode 107, thank you so much to Alvin for coming on and sharing all about his play on the go approach. And also Alvin was very kind. He actually has shared with us a one page document about the play on the go approach. You can grab that for free, 100% free, over at ot schoolhouse.com/episode 107, and the show notes there. Just scroll down a little bit to the resources and you'll see it there. I will see you next time on the OT school house podcast. Until then, have a great week and yeah, enjoy the first few weeks back to school. Take care and have a great one. See you next time. Bye. 

Amazing Narrator   

Thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast, for more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com. Until next time class is dismissed. 

Click on the file below to download the transcript to your device.

Episode 107_ Using PLAY as an Acronym to Support Students.pdf

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