OTS 154: Using Storytelling to Transform Therapy
- Jayson Davies
- Jul 22, 2024
- 30 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2024
Click on your preferred podcast player link to listen wherever you enjoy podcasts.
Welcome to the show notes for Episode 154 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.
Join us as Jayson dives into a discussion with pediatric occupational therapist and author Kathryn Mahoney. With five books under her belt and a sixth in the works, Kathryn shares her journey of creating social stories for children that not only captivate them but also offer practical knowledge for adults.
In this episode, learn methods for customizing social stories, understanding their impact on teachers, parents, and practitioners, and discover how these stories can make OT concepts more accessible, empowering parents to implement therapy techniques at home.
Listen now to gain valuable insights and enhance your therapeutic toolkit!
Listen now to learn the following objectives:
Learners will identify methods and tools for creating social stories and how to easily customize them.
Learners will understand the impact of OT strategies in social stories for teachers, parents, and other practitioners.
Learners will understand how these social stories can make OT concepts more accessible and empower parents to advocate for and implement therapy techniques at home.
Guests Bio
Kathryn Mahoney is an occupational therapist, an author, and an illustrator. She loves to use stories to teach her clients and their families strategies that will assist them in their daily lives.
She currently lives in South Carolina and loves to spend her free time on the beach with her husband Joshua and her friends from church. She loves to hike, read, write, paint, and play board games.
Her passion for working as a pediatric occupational therapist comes from her own experience with therapy when she was a child. It changed her life and she wants to have that same impact with the children she works with.
Quotes
“Times where maybe there's a disinterest in what we're doing…or maybe the concept is just not working…so then I'll downgrade the story. I'll make it a little bit different, or maybe we're not drawing that story, we're acting it out. You can adapt it to the needs of the kiddo”
-Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
“My first goal and dream as someone who has walked through being different is to normalize what we're seeing, to normalize and have that book in every library on ADHD, on auditory overstimulation, on having difficulty with transition."
— Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
“You're not only teaching, the social skills and the social aspect of social stories, but you're also teaching them technology skills”
-Jayson Davies, M.A, OTR/L
“Not only does it support the parents, the teacher, whoever might be that's supporting the kid and reading the book, but it's also a little bit of advocacy for occupational therapy.”
-Jayson Davies, M.A, OTR/L
Resources
Episode Transcript
Expand to view the full episode transcript.
Jayson Davies
Hello and welcome back. I'm your host Jayson Davies, a school based occupational therapist located in Southern California. And today you are tuning in to a special summer edition of the OT schoolhouse podcast. Thank you so much for being here. At school based OT practitioners, it is very common for us to use and recommend social stories to support students in navigating the educational environment. Whether it's finding a social story on Teachers Pay Teachers to help a student understand the bathroom routine, using a social story creator app to create a story on how to play a game, or simply drawing stick figures on whatever piece of paper we have available to us at the time to help a student know what to expect next in class. social stories have become an important tool in our toolbox to help kids access the school curriculum. Today, we are talking with an OT who has taken social stories to a new level though. Catherine Mahoney is an OT who is using her creative skills to not only use social stories in her practice, but to also write illustrate and produce her own social stories for families across the globe. In addition to writing and sharing her stories, she is also sharing OT strategies within each story that parents can use at the same time. Tune in to learn why Catherine Mahoney is all in on social stories and how she is putting her own spin on these OT stories to support children and families everywhere.
Amazing Narrator
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's your host, Jayson Davies, class is officially in session.
Jayson Davies
Kathryn, welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast. How are you doing today?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me, Jason. I'm really excited. Absolutely.
Jayson Davies
I'm excited. You have kind of taken this step in your OTs career path to kind of do your own thing and create books based upon many of the things that you kind of experienced as an OT practitioner. And I'm really excited to dive into that. But before we do, I just want to give you an opportunity to kind of share a little bit about your background in OT and where you are today.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. So I've been an OT for a little over three years. I love what I do. I work with pediatrics. I've been in outpatient, and now I'm currently in home based clinic base, outpatient, all the things I kind of hop around. And so I really love what I do. And it's been a fun journey, for sure.
Jayson Davies
Absolutely. And so kind of going off of that. What in your clinical practice kind of inspired you to start writing books?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things that drew me to OT was I love being creative. And I get to do that every day with kids. So No day is the same. And so I used social stories that I would draw and create with like crayons, markers, glitter, you name it, like in my sessions every day, because that got the attention of my kiddos. It was fun, it was engaging. And so that's kind of how I got into the storytelling side of OTs. I'm making these social stories. And that's kind of what started this idea of actual books that I'm writing now. So, so fun.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. And actually, we've talked about this, but I want to introduce this theme here is that you actually have had experiences with therapy in your own life in the past, how did that also influence your your decision to get into OT and even write books?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. So I was born with mild CP that affects my left side. So at one year old when that was given as a diagnosis, I got into sooner start, which is the home based therapy in Oklahoma. And that's what got my whole therapy journey started. I had OT I had speech, I had PT, and then multiple surgeries down the road to kind of help me be who I am today, honestly, and, and so I knew from a young age, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to help people be who they wanted to be. And not just what the doctor told the family, the limitations were going to be I wanted them to help reach their outcomes and their goals and do the things they want to do every day. So yeah, kind of that definitely inspired me to do what I do. And I love it so far.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. And growing up, were you a writer or an artist yourself or is this kind of a newer passion?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, so my first story was made out of like, paper and stickers. It was about animals on a farm and how they're all friends and whatever. I don't know that I think there was like, a mud like Park involved. So anyway, but yeah, oh, was my first book and I presented it to my library. And at the time I was in, I think, like, second grade, and I was like, I would like this to be in your library. And she was like, of course. So it got put on the shelf. It was like a quote unquote, legit book. But yeah, so that's where my journey of writing started.
Jayson Davies
Wow. So what I mean, what came next after having your own library or your own book in the library? I mean, was that kind of something you really grew into? Like, over the years?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, um, I wrote a story about a girl who was an archer in middle school who like found a mentor, and it was kind of off of Katniss, you know, because that was five. So that book was written, it had like, 18 chapters before I was just over it. And then I got into poetry. So that's kind of what I had been writing up until now. And I have a few pieces that publish. And so anyway, that's kind of what got my storytelling journey.
Jayson Davies
Yeah.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
When I started in, yeah.
Jayson Davies
Very cool. So I'm sure then once you started practicing, as a therapist in the pediatric world, that kind of lended itself to work work together. I mean, you talked a little bit about social stories. So what did those early social stories begin to look like? And how are you creating those?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, so the books that I would use in sessions, a lot of times were actually written by like, child psychologists, and they were not tailored to what I was trying to focus on at all in my session, so I had to modify them so much as I would share them, and we would talk through the strategies used. So I just started saying, You know what, I'm going to try to do some on my own. So we would get a sheet of paper, we'd have glitter, we'd have glue, we do drawing together for working on fine motor skills. And we would make a social story to address their specific needs for at home, whether that was like a bedtime routine, or like a feeding strategy, or a strategy they can use when they get overcome with a moment of anxiety and panic, like putting them in a story that they can then take home. So that's kind of how the storytelling evolved in my OT journey. Yeah.
Jayson Davies
Wow. So you even from like, kind of day one, it wasn't about you creating the stories. It was really about your clients supporting you and creating these stories. Are you supporting your client and supporting the stories? Is that right?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, exactly. I found like, that was very engaging for a child to be able to make their own story, maybe their favorite character was Spider Man. So Spider Man was gonna go and he was gonna do XYZ to get ready for school that day. And that's how I could take the OT strategies I wanted them to learn, make it personal, make it fun. And then that is I felt like helped with recall as well. Because then they could have that at home. And they knew all the things they need to practice. But yeah, so really was for each child. Very individualized for sure.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. I want to take a step back. I know social stories are big now. But going back to like, when you were first getting started, like how did you even come to learn about social stories? Did you already have a history from maybe, you know, just, I don't know, just like, how did you come to the idea like, oh, social stories exist? I should try this with my clients.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. So I experienced when I was younger depression. And it was mostly because of the ADHD medication I had been put on. But that's a whole nother story. That's a whole nother podcast. But that was the first time I was exposed to social story where a therapist, a counselor at the time took me through the story of another girl who had ADHD and how she processed, like her feelings of like overstimulation and all these things. So that kind of is what that was so personal to me and impacted me so greatly. And that kind of stirred my awareness of social stories. And then obviously, as I got into the OT world, as a new therapist, and I was like, help me, what do I do? I had a lot of other OTs who were using that in their sessions, and I got to observe how helpful it was and how beneficial because kids love a good story. Like, they love like, it's got to have fun pictures. It's got to have a fun story. And they relate to that and helps with memory recall, like so much. So that's when I started seeing like, Hey, this is something I want to use all the time.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I know social stories originally created by Carol gray. She was a teacher, if I recall correctly, and it has obviously social stories have evolved so much to where we are today. I know she technically has like the term social stories, I believe is copyrighted trademark one of those or whatnot. But there are so many different ways that you can cure create social stories outside of the copyrighted version of social story like you can, you can obviously create your own social stories like you're doing. But I want to kind of get your take when you started to say, hey, you know, this is working for my kids. I think there's maybe something I could do here to support other therapists and writing social stories. I mean, what were your initial thoughts? Like, were you like, this is a crazy idea, I shouldn't be doing this. This is a great idea. I should be doing that, like, kind of walk me through that that initial idea of like, Hey, maybe I should use my skills to do something here.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, no, absolutely. So that idea got birth, really, when I moved from Oklahoma to South Carolina, and I was waiting for the whole process of being licensed in another state, which always takes longer than they say. And so after about a month of like, laying by the pool, I was like, You know what, I need something to do, I can't just lay here anymore. And so I started looking into publishing originally, actually, for my poems. And I found Amazon KDP publishing. And I was like, wow, like, this is awesome. It's a great resource. And I had found myself writing little stories kind of by the pool, like, I'm like a kid who had a prince who had ADHD. So I was writing all these small stories, that then on a walk with my husband, one day, he was like, Babe, like, you could make these useful, like, you could make these actual books that people can use. So then that kind of started my journey, I started with those stories for just different diagnosis that I saw, like every day in the clinic. And I wanted to make sure that every book, like when I was creating this idea that it was a story for the kids, and the therapists or family, like whoever they're reading it with. And then there was a section specifically with OT strategies of like, Hey, here's a great story that has some of those strategies. But I want to give you like, five or six strategies to use, like in the clinic at home, like wherever you're at school, that is actually useful. So I wanted to make a story. That was helpful, if that makes sense.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I mean, to what degree were you like, can I actually pull this off? Or like, how did you kind of test this a little bit?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, that my first book. So Emma, symphony of silence is my first book on auditory over stimulation. That was a whole journey. I did like, research on like, how do you even publish, like, I watch tiktoks and instagram videos of people who had taken like, their little stories and found a way to publish it. And on on Amazon says, like, okay, like, maybe I can do this. And so I started using like, Canva as like my base. And then I would kind of write up my story, and then try to make an image to go along with each section of the story. And then I took it to Amazon, and they're like, hey, it has to be this kind of sizing. And I was like, Oh, no. And so then I had to resize everything. So it was like journey, for sure. But it was, yeah, but it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of learning. It was a lot of research. And but it was good.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And I know, there's really the three big pieces to your books, right? There's the artwork that you just were talking a little bit about Canva. There's the words on the page. And then, as you kind of alluded to, at the very, very end, you've got some OT strategies, which I when I got to the last page of the book, I was just blown away like that. That is fantastic. I think that's great. Not only does it support the parents, the teacher, whoever might be the supporting the kid and reading the book, but there's also a little bit of advocacy for occupational therapy. I mean, little, little extra tidbit, right. Yeah. So how did you decide or come up with the idea to include those OT tips? We'll start with that question. I have a follow up. But we'll start with that.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, yeah. So I, when I wanted to create a social story, like throughout the story, it has strategies use there out. And so first, I was like, okay, like, that would be my story. But then I was like, There's no way I could fit every OT strategy that I would use with this kiddo in this story. Like, it wouldn't even be a story, it would just be like all over the place. So I was like, I can make a list. So I started just kind of making bullet points of like, very usable, very easy, very practical strategies that I recommend, like every day to families when I'm at the end of the session, you know, and you're like, Okay, we worked on this with James will say today, and these are some strategies that I want you to use at home. So I wanted the books to kind of have that same aspect. So like if this book was found and a child has never in the family has never heard of OT they're like, hey, like these are actually really helpful. Like I've never heard of OT these are su For practical, I can use these or vice versa, you're in the clinic, your child's been just diagnosed with ADHD don't know what to do. And an OT can say, hey, like, here's some things in this story that you can use at home that are practical, that are usable, that are so helpful. So that kind of was what made me really passionate and excited about not just making a story, but making it useful.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and, you know, we all want to think that a kid or even a parent or a teacher, or someone, you know, more mature will read a book and kind of be able to say, oh, you know, Jesse did this in the story, how can I bring this into my real life, but a lot of people need the more explicit instruction. And I think the end of the book allows that, right? Like, you know, Jesse, during the book, he took deep breaths, but then at the end of the book, you kind of have a little bit more about what it means to take deep breaths or whatnot. So yeah, I just think that's a great idea. It's something that makes it a little extra special, right? Like, you can buy a social story from somewhere else, you might even be able to use AI to create a social story. But with the books that you're putting out there, there's that extra component that can be really helpful. So I really liked that.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. And I, when I create this list of strategies, whether that's like you were saying, like a deep breathing, calming technique, or like a environmental adaptation, like all these different things, it's not only a compilation of what I use, but I also went to some of my other colleagues. And I was like, hey, like, I'm writing this book, like, what are some strategies you you use? Because as OTs we're also creative, and like, I love walking into a session, I'm like, Hey, that's a great idea. I'm gonna use that with my next kid, like, you know, we can collaborate and work together. And so that's kind of how I created that whole list. Yeah, it was awesome.
Jayson Davies
I want to ask you one last question. Before we kind of dive into a little bit about maybe how, you know, school based OT practitioners, pediatric OT practitioners can maybe you know, not do this not to something on the same scale as you potentially I mean, unless maybe they want to, but, you know, kind of talk about version number one of some books with kids. But before I do when you're writing your books, do you write it in the perspective that this is going to be a book that the student reads? Or that the parent will read to the student? What is kind of like in your mind? Who do you envision as reading the book? Are they reading it for themselves? Are they reading it for someone else? Does that make sense?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I try to use words and in my stories that can be understood by a young reader. So for a child who is learning to read, I would hope that they can pick up this book and kind of maybe struggle their way through some of the words, obviously, you know, but a book that a child could read on their own, if they're a little bit older, but for our younger friends, just that they would have a therapist or parent walk through that book with them. And I have so many visuals in my stories, like exhibit, for example, Santos workshop, a tale on Christmas emotions, that's one of the books I've written, I have the elf who has is dealing with severe anxiety, practice a grounding technique, and in the images you see, like 54321, and the five reindeer and like the four gingerbread houses and taking in all those senses, and a parent or therapist could be like, let's like, count these read these reindeer lets, you know do all these components. So it is engaging for either a child who wants to kind of work through it on their own or have a parent kind of guide them through. So it's very, I would hope so very used user friendly. Sorry.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Awesome. And I know you How many books do you have in total now?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
So I have five and I'm working on my six. So yeah, they address everything from my first one was on auditory overstimulation. I have one on ADHD, one on picky eating. And I got to work with Dr. Kay Toomey on that book to kind of hone in on the strategy of SOS feeding, and then emotional regulation, and then one on transitions. So I kind of wanted to my first sets of books were issues that I saw every day. And the one I'm working on right now is on toileting. And that's one that's like a whole journey. So yeah, so I'm trying to really, my dream is to have like a book to kind of help with every thing that we see every day, but it might take a while to do that, but yeah, so I'm growing slowly.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. Yeah, I might need to I might need to get an early edition copier that toilet Dean one. We're going through it right now. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, let's take a step back because not everyone, not every school base, not every pediatric OT practitioner is going to, you know, hop on Amazon KBB KBB. I think that's what's called and start developing their own books. But a lot of OTs do use social stories, a lot of OTs, OT practitioners source social stories from other places, Teachers Pay Teachers, Ella dot kids is an AI, one that we've been sharing a little bit about over here at OT school house. But for someone who's just like, hey, I have this student. And I think a social story would be a great idea to help with this, kiddo. Where do you suggest that they even get started with developing that idea?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. It kind of depends on like, how much like, time and like, honestly, yeah, how much time and energy. So time and energy Exactly. So an easy one that I use a before I went serious was like, PowerPoint, I would just find clipart. And I would do it during the session with a kiddo. Like, let's find a picture of this kiddo getting putting their PJs on, because we need to work on getting ready for bed. And so we would work together and find clipart pictures and we make it into a PowerPoint, we'd print that out, they have a rough, like a social story. Or we use stickers we use Kranz, we use paper, it's in a one session, we're doing a social story on starting a conversation with a friend. And we've drawn the stick figure people. And this is something that we can use to practice at home. But if you're really wanting to like go to that next level Canva does have like a free platform that you can use, if you don't want to go pro, they have great just like ready to go images that you can put on there. And you can adjust it like that. Or you can go the whole route and go Canva Pro, make it from scratch, spend hours of putting it together, drawing some of the components yourself putting that in there. So there's so many easy, but also complex outlets out there. So yeah, there's so many ways.
Jayson Davies
And a quick note on Canva, actually, because this podcast is primarily for school based so to practitioners, if you have a education email from your school. So if your website you know, if your email is dot k twelve.ca.us, or whatever it is, you can actually get a free Canva pro teacher subscription, you just have to go through a little bit of process, I will try to find the link and put it in the show notes for this podcast. But I know my wife has an educator and actually I used to use it to using a school website or school email, you can get the free version of Canva. So or the pro version for free. So definitely something to look into if you're going to try creating some social stories. I love Canva I use it all the time.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
I would recommend this just came to my mind. Another one that I use that the clinic paid for, for me, but you can definitely ask your school pay for is everyday speech. Because it has videos of social stories. And it's kind of how you want to like work through those things. Because sometimes like that's what our patient needs is that video interactive resource, and it's awesome. They have one on every possible social skill you couldn't imagine, like how we make friends how we take turns waiting in line for water, like they literally have it all. So that's also another good resource. Huge shout out to them. They're awesome.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I would often I've never used that one. But I would just go on YouTube. And I would search for like, kid playing ball or something like that, if I needed just a little video resource for a student that worked really well as well. You know, you're not gonna, you might have to scroll a little bit, YouTube to find something that's the problem with YouTube. Like, there's too much there. But that's what's nice about a paid program like that, where it's just, you know, you type it in and something comes up right away. When you started to use social stories, you know, just the impromptu social storage with Canva by the way, I love the idea that you're getting the student on Canva or the the client on Canva with you, because you're not only teaching those the social skills and the social aspect of social stories, but you're also teaching them technology skills, which they know, you know, beginning otherwise. But anyways, when you started to use social stories with the kids, did you ever find yourself saying like, Hmm, I tried it, but it didn't quite work the way that I wanted it to. Did that ever come up? And if so, kind of what was your process for moving forward from there?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, every day in therapy, you're like, Well, that was a session that was interesting, and it did not go the way that I thought it was going to and so I definitely We'll have times where maybe there's a disinterest in what we're doing that can be a reason why social story isn't working. Or maybe the concept is just not working for us that we're sharing the story. And so then I'll downgrade the story, I'll make it a little bit different. Or maybe we're not drawing that story, we're acting it out. Like, you can adapt it to the needs of the kiddo. Whether that social story is like through play, like, it doesn't have to always be like, pen and paper can be totally different. Like, well, let's act this out, you know. So it kind of is I'm engaging in assessing like, what's our attention span? What's our interest in this? You know, like, what's our mood today? Honestly, sometimes you're like, alright, like this, is it sitting at our table and creating a sock find a central story? Is not it for us today? Yeah, that's totally okay. And that's something I love about our profession is we are very creative people as OTs. And when you can adjust and go with the flow, you know, and still have incredible outcomes and still meet goals.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And I like that you write, like, we think of social story, we think of this book that we print out or order online, or find a PDF that we scroll through. And that's the social story. But the social story really leans on on storytelling. And I think that's kind of something that you just really brought out, right? It's not about the words on the paper, necessarily, it's about getting through this idea to the student in whatever way works, whether that's through video modeling, whether that's through the book, the book, or whether that's through acting something out, they can all be the same exact thing just presented in a different way.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Exactly. And one thing that I just got done doing, which I'm super excited about is on my website, WWW.OTstories.com I have a resource packet that goes with each book that's free to download, because I'm all about free. Because what therapist wants to be like, Oh, this is $4. Alright. So each I have a packet that goes with each book. So sometimes with some of my clients, I'm like, You know what, sitting through a whole book, working through even two or three pages of this book, and the strategies is not it for us today, we're gonna do this interactive, like, draw your own secret garden. And where's the place that we can go to in our own world that gives us like, a place to escape from auditory overstimulation? You know, like, they're interactive, and that way, I can still use the strategies that I'm trying to use in a story through inactivity. So that's what I love about kind of what I've created as I'm trying to make it as usable as possible, you know?
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, that's very cool. Like the, the extra little appendix on the website, that really helps. And it'll, I'm sure that will increase the buy in for the student as well, right. Like, you know, the characters will become more familiar with the kid, they'll become more invested in the book. And yeah, that's, that's really awesome. When someone whether it's a parent, a teacher, a therapist, you know, when they ask you, I mean, maybe you don't get asked this very often. But if someone were to ask you like, Alright, I just got your book, what is the best way for me to use this with my student? Might your answer be because you know, I think about books that I'm buying from my toddler, and we have our potty book that you know, is in the bathroom, and we read it, like almost every time we're on the potty, but then we other. We also have other books, right? That's like, you know, it gets read once a week during bedtime, I guess kind of what are the quote unquote, best strategies that you've learned when it comes to implementing a social story? Whether it's, you know, the one that we built in 10 minutes or one that we purchased online?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I kind of number one, I'll gauge what is like, the attention level that I'm working with right now. So that's kind of the first thing I assess. And then I use the book as a source of engagement. So I'm not gonna just read through the story and we're like, Alright, then that was great story. I'll be like, Wow, in this book, like bite size, bravery suit, Susie's picky eater journey. That's my book. On picky eating. I'll be like, looks like Suzy, just touch the broccoli. Hmm, what do we have on our plate that we're not interested in? What do you think your carrot feels like? So kind of pausing through the story to kind of make it engaging and make it interactive in this, these books allow for that. So that can be done by a therapist, but also by parent. Like, if you ever as you know, as a dad, like when you read a book you're like, and on this page, there's yellow duck, does the book say that and in the words, it's like no, but that's what how we can engage ain't worth it, you know? And so you can adapt and look at just images or look at the components of what the page is saying. And just use that, you know?
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And then kind of moving on to the next phase, right? As OT practitioners were taught to basically do an evaluation, implement an intervention, and then evaluate whether or not it's working in your therapy history. Right? How have you determined whether or not that that social story might be working or not? Do you take data on it? Are you doing more narrative from the parent from the teacher, whoever it might be? Or what does that look like for you?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, it's kind of dependent on the setting. So I would say like with my home based, I'll be like, Hey, mom, like this. Last week, we did this story on transitions. And we, Peter, and I created this BEDTIME STORY chart, we cut it out, we put it together, like, how's that been going? Have you been using that? Have you been talking about it? So it can be from that, or it's coming back the next session with a kid in the clinic? Of Hey, last week, we talked about how we can use like a safe space to kind of process like our emotions. And we can use this quiet space that we have in our classroom to like, calm down from being overstimulated. Did you try that this week? How did that go? Just like, you know, in our book that we read last week, so I kind of check in that way. And I can use on my notes and say like, you know, parent reports that they're using bedtime chart that we created because of story. And it's going really well, or Jamie is in school, and she's using this ADHD chart of like, okay, I need to do this, and this are breaking down and problem solving through a task in the classroom. And it's going really well. So I can kind of use my book as a starting point. And as a checking point of like, are they using those strategies that we talked about? Are they helpful? So on and so forth?
Jayson Davies
Yeah, definitely. Very cool. And I think that data tracking is so tricky. And like you said, it's kind of dependent on your setting as well. And what you do, yeah, but just kind of really relating it to school based OT practitioners. I mean, right, we have our goal. And if the social story relates to our goal, then we can measure goal, we can measure the goal directly, either on our own, or we can create some sort of easy tracking sheet for the teacher to let us know how often the student is now moving around the classroom or whatever might be thinking about the ADHD book. But yeah, there's various ways that we can do it, I definitely think that we need to do something with some consistency prior to giving it up. But we also need to kind of keep track whether that is informally through talking to the parent, the teacher, whoever it might be, or through some, some data sheets. So absolutely. Now that you have sold many books you have you say six now, total.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
So I have five, but yes, the six. Yeah.
Jayson Davies
Gotcha. So you have five books, six is coming on the way I'm sure you've had people come back for more, what feedback are you receiving from parents, teachers, everyone about what is a most helpful about the books and also maybe something that they almost potentially want more of?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Right, absolutely. So I think the biggest component that parents, practitioners, like even kids are sharing with me that they love about the books is the practicality like that section at the end of the book of like, Hey, these are the strategies to try at home. And I think that is what I've been getting feedback from even my coworkers are like, hey, this was awesome. Like, I didn't know what to do with this picky eater. And I've tried this, and you listed this strategy too. And that was really helpful. So that is the positive feedback I'm getting or I have gotten from some parents like, you know what, we may not fully understand the book but she's loving the images, we're engaging with the counting like we're doing those aspects. So I love to hear that one of the biggest things when I asked practitioners like what more could you see like what more do you what would be helpful and that's when they said like a practical like worksheet or some way to interact with it. Other than just like okay, read that book we read the strategies are done. And so that's why I went back and made worksheet packets to go with each Book of Practical like activities like Visual motor like processing activity that you can do with a book or here's a movement sheets for ADHD to practice in the classroom. Like let's practice these and cut out the titles of each one at the bottom with your scissors and glue them on top. So like making it interactive, making it fine motor making it practical. So I'm trying to reach the need and that way, but obviously, there's always room for growth, and they can tell they're more usable and helpful.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, my business brain can't help me from like thinking about the big brands out there, right? Like, we don't all love Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and goofy because we've watched them on TV, we love them, because we grew up having their stickers everywhere in our house, we had workbooks, we had coloring sheets. And I think that that is something right, if you have those free worksheets that everyone can download, you're gonna get more of the buy in from the book, because they're not just seeing it in the book. They're seeing it on the worksheet. They're seeing it wherever their parents printing it out, and all that good stuff. And so it's only going to enhance I'm sure if you did a research study and you said, here's our research, here's the social story, right? Let's read it five times, versus here's the social story at least three to five times, and let's do the coloring sheets, you're probably going to see more impact from the group that not only read the book, but also interacted in other ways. And so yeah, I think that's awesome that you decided to go ahead and do that. That's really cool. And now again, business brain, sorry, I can't turn it off. I would love for you to be able to partner with a large brand and create social stories based off, quote unquote well known characters, right, like Spongebob, SquarePants, social story or something like that. Sorry, just throwing it out there. I don't know if it'll ever happen.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Honestly, the dream like, for shure.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. You mentioned dream, like what is your long term dream related to social stories and, and getting this out there to support kids?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, my first goal and dream as someone who has walked through being different, right, is to normalize what we're seeing, to normalize and have like that book in every library on ADHD, on auditory over stimulation on having difficulty with transition. So normalizing it and making it a resource. And also for practitioners, like the doctors out there who aren't quite sure maybe what we do, and OT and don't make may not have the exact same strategies that we would recommend that they could say like, Hey, like, you know, OT might be a great resource for you. Here's a couple of strategies. So like, that's the dream, and I hope to have like, just books for everything like my next series after toileting is one on just like social stories galore. So like, every social skill, so like, every possible social skills of like, meaning a friend, and like, how do we share that we don't like what is someone is doing, like all those things, and connecting with other OT practitioners to say, hey, what do you need? You know, I want them to be usable. Like, you know, what are you saying that and you could use a social story for anyway, that's the dream. It started out real small. And it's, it's growing. So yeah,
Jayson Davies
I love it. I mean, like, again, just thinking about where it can go. And I think we might have talked about this when we met at a OTA or maybe, since we've talked since then. But the idea of like having your books instead of a magazine at a doctor's office, having some of your social story books out at a doctor's office, so that way parents are seeing it and seeing the OT strategies at the end of the book. Because, you know, we're always trying to keep kids busy somehow that isn't our cell phone. So why not be one of Katherine's books? So? Absolutely. Very cool. Well, Katherine, as we wrap up, I want to say thank you, but I also want to give you just one more opportunity. I know you mentioned it before, but where can people go to learn more about yourself, the books that you have to offer and everything that you're doing?
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Yeah, so all of my books are available on Amazon, which shout out to Amazon I use Amazon Prime probably way too frequently. They're all there. But they're also all on my website, which is www dot OTs. stories.com. There's an About Me page, there's a storefront page with my books. There's a free resources on there now. You just click on them, they download and you can use them. And so yeah, and then I have also link to just like upcoming things, affiliate programs, all those kinds of things. So Yeah.
Jayson Davies
Fantastic. Well, Katherine, thank you. I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to meet one another over at a OTA down in Florida and thank you I have your prince Oliver's quest for focus book here that you so graciously gave and signed. For me. I really appreciate that. All the links that you shared as well as a picture of Katherine and I'm going to put up over at the show notes for this this episode. So be sure to click on the link to the show notes in the show description. So you can find all the links to her books to her website, those freebies that she has right there available for you to get some, maybe not crafts, but some fun activities for the kids and get going. So thank you again, Katherine. Really appreciate you being here. And we'll definitely stay in touch.
Kathryn Mahoney, OTR/L
Absolutely. Thank you, Jason. Really appreciate it.
Jayson Davies
All right. And one more time A big thank you to Catherine for coming on the OT schoolhouse podcast and sharing how she has taken the idea of social stories put in an OT spin on them, and is now producing her OT stories for all to enjoy and learn from Be sure to check out the show notes over at OTSchoolHouse.com slash episode 154 to get all the links and all the things that Catherine shared within this episode. Don't forget that she has a ton of free resources over on her website. And you can find that within the show notes. Thank you again for tuning in to this episode of the OT schoolhouse podcast and we will catch you next time. Take care. Bye.
Amazing Narrator
Thank you for listening to the OT schoolhouse podcast. For more ways to help you and your students succeed right now. Head on over to OT school house.com Until next time, class is dismissed.
Click on the file below to download the transcript to your device.
Be sure to subscribe to the OT Schoolhouse email list & get access to our free downloads of Gray-Space paper and the Occupational Profile for school-based OTs. Subscribe now!
Thanks for visiting the podcast show notes! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts
