OTS 187: Realistic Strategies to Build Work Skills for High School and Transition-Aged Students"
- Jayson Davies
- Oct 20
- 52 min read
Click on your preferred podcast player link to listen wherever you enjoy podcasts.
Welcome to the show notes for Episode 187 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.
Matthew Husband, OTD, OTR/L shares his innovative "Get to Work" program, an after-school initiative providing realistic work experiences for high school students who could succeed in employment with the right supports. The program follows a monthly pattern with on-campus training focused on hard and soft skills, followed by community-based experiences at actual workplaces including pizzerias, box stores, grocery stores, and laundry facilities.
Matthew discusses how occupational therapists can support transition planning through self-determination skills training and standardized resource guides for students and families. He emphasizes the importance of starting small with on-campus work opportunities if off-campus trips aren't feasible, including mail room tasks, cafeteria work, recycling programs, and classroom helper roles.
Whether you work in a private or public school setting, this episode offers practical strategies to prepare students for life after graduation through building confidence in their employment abilities. Listen to discover how Matthew's "four pots garden" analogy demonstrates how small projects can grow with proven success and learn actionable ways to incorporate employment readiness skills into your school-based OT practice.
Listen now to learn the following objectives:
Learners will identify how to implement strategies for developing realistic work experiences (off-campus partnerships or on-campus tasks) and how these experiences contribute to authentic work readiness.
Learners will recall the content and purpose of a standardized transition resource guide, including tailoring content to local resources and explaining its role in family engagement.
Learners will explain how self-determination training helps students identify their preferences, strengths, and weaknesses, and how to write and track SMART goals to support employment outcomes after graduation.
Guest(s) Bio
Dr. Matthew Husband is an occupational therapist, with nine years of clinical experience, primarily in the field of pediatrics. He has worked in outpatient, home health, and school based practice. Dr. Husband currently works in the school setting, working in a middle/school high school focused on improving the lives of students with autism, with a particular passion for the community practice of transition.
Dr. Husband received his Occupational Therapy Doctorate in May 2025 and his Capstone Project focused on improving employability for young adults with autism. Dr Husband supports the profession through his service within the AOTA, serving as the representative assembly member for Ohio. Dr. Husband is also a father, raising three young, amazing kiddos!
Quotes
“Let's kind of come out of our bubble of what we're working in and let's look at that broader level and then again, let's be creative and figure out within my setting, what can I do? And then again, what are you passionate about in your own setting?”
-Dr. Matthew Husband
“…Is it something that...maybe doesn't exist right now within your school setting, but you know it's beneficial for the students. And because you're so passionate about it, you can allow others to catch that vision with you.”
-Dr. Matthew Husband
"The biggest goal for me was just the confidence for the students to know that this is something that they can do and this is possible for them when they graduate.” -Dr. Matthew Husband
Resources
👉VOCFIT Assessment: Vocational fit assessment tool with 11 subscales for measuring different components of work readiness
👉ARC Self-Determination Scale: Measurement tool for assessing self-determination skills
👉Ohio State Occupational Therapy Drivers Rehabilitation Services: Program that helps young adults with disabilities learn driving skills
👉AOTA Guidelines for Occupational Therapy Services for Autism: Referenced for work with students with autism and comorbid anxiety
👉Get to Work" Program: After-school program providing realistic work experience for high school students
👉Article by Matthew Husband: Advancing Direct Care Services to Improve Outcomes
Episode Transcript
Expand to view episode transcript
Jayson Davies
All right now that the garbage truck has passed and it's quiet in my room again, welcome to episode 187 of the OT school house podcast. I'm your host, Jayson Davies, and I, as always, am ecstatic to have you joining me today. Oh, it's coming back. You may or may not hear a garbage truck soon. Anyways, today we are diving into an essential topic for ot practitioners working with high school and middle school students, we're preparing them for successful employment after graduation, and that's what we're here to discuss today. I'm excited to introduce to you Matthew husband, an occupational therapist working in Columbus, Ohio. Matthew primarily works with middle and high school students, as you might have guessed, and he helps them to bridge the gap between academic success and real world employment readiness. In this episode, Matthew shares his innovative self determination club, as well as his Get to Work Program, which is an after school initiative that provides realistic work experiences for high school students who can succeed in employment with the right supports. You'll learn how this program combines on campus training with community based experiences at actual workplaces, like a pizza place. Now you might have just tuned out when I said after school program, and if you did, I get it. Most ot practitioners have absolutely zero time energy or even receive compensation for completing an after school program. But don't stop listening just because of that, Matthew and I are here to share some ideas and even real world examples for how this could work during a regular school day. So whether you work in a private, charter or public school setting, Matthew offers practical strategies that can be adapted to any environment, from creating transition resource guides to creating an on campus work opportunity for the students on your campus. There's something valuable here for every school based ot practitioner looking to enhance their transition services. If you've ever wondered how to better prepare your students for life after graduation, this is the episode for you. Let's get started with Matthew husband.
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
All right, Matthew, welcome to the OT school health podcast. How you doing today?
Matthew Husband
I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. Yeah, I'm excited to have you here. You are one of the wonderful occupational therapy practitioners that I learned about through your A ot a presentation. And first of all, let me just congratulate you on being able to present at a ot a I'm sure that was a great experience for you.
Matthew Husband
Yes, thank you. I appreciate it. It was a lot of fun in Philadelphia this past year. We had a good time. Are you coming to Anaheim? I'm hoping so. We shall see. But yes, I hope to be there. Did you put in another presentation? Not not for this year? So if I come, I'll just be as a guest. So all right, yeah, just
Jayson Davies
fun. Hey, there's so much to do at a ot a without presenting. Like, I was very thankful that I didn't present last time. Well, I did present one, but, like, didn't present more because it is just so overwhelming everything going on, but it's such a great experience. So it'll be fun for you exactly. Well, let's talk a little bit about that presentation. But before we do, I want to give you just an opportunity to share a little bit about, you know, where you fit into the world of OT and kind of how you got here? A little bit.
Matthew Husband
Sure. So yeah, my name is Matthew husband. I work in Columbus, Ohio, right now as a school based practitioner, and I joined the world of occupational therapy through my younger brother. So he was diagnosed with autism when he was three. I'm 10 years older than him, so when I was in college, I had the opportunity to intern with his occupational therapist during the summer, and loved the blend of play and scientific discovery and just being on my feet all day, and so that's how I got into the world of OT.
Jayson Davies
Wow. What an experience did you I'm assuming then you probably learned about ot through the services that your brother had.
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so he would receive all the basic services, speech, behavioral services and occupational therapy. The behavioral specialist would come to the house, so I got to know him a little bit better, but when I learned about OT, and just all the different things that his occupational therapist did with him, said I got to check that out, so I was able to intern with his ot for a summer, and it was a great experience.
Jayson Davies
Wow, interesting. Never haven't had, I mean, I know a lot of OT practitioners learn about ot because of a loved one having ot services, but to be able to actually end up having a field work and work with the OT that supports your family, that had to be a really unique experience.
Matthew Husband
It really was because she. Knew my brother so well, and I could see the love that she had for him, but then seeing that with all the other clients that she had and all the different types of clients, it really opened my eyes, because obviously my only experience was with my brother, so I got to really see the magic of the work that she did.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and was that a like a clinic based setting? Or what kind of setting was that?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, it was a clinic based setting. And my mom always wanted to get the early morning slot, so she would take him at like seven in the morning before school for his clinic based. OT, so when I interned with her during the summer, I was there from like seven to three, so it was kind of fun that early morning.
Jayson Davies
OT, very cool. Yeah. And so now you're working in a more of a school setting. I know it's not necessarily a public school setting. I'll let you talk about that. But what drew you to the school settings?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so I started out clinic based, and I did that for a year, and that was a really good opening experience for me, to be in the clinic and see a lot of different types of children, lots of different diagnoses. And then I spent a year in home health, and that also was really beneficial, understanding the family component, working in the homes, working with parents, being that bridge between the child and the parents. And then I've been a school based therapist for the last six years. And what I love about school based therapy is the interprofessional collaboration that I can have with the members of the team at the school. So I love that part of it.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. And more specifically, you've kind of honed in a little bit in the high school realm. What drew you to that?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so I've been in the middle school high school for the last three or four years. I'll bounce around with some different kids in the elementary as well, but I love the older students and really thinking through that next step. So they've had this entire educational trajectory that's leading them to graduation and then not having any educational services. And so how do we figure out that last piece of the puzzle before they graduate? And so I love connecting with that age group and thinking about what it looks like for them after they graduate.
Jayson Davies
That's interesting, because a lot of OT practitioners, myself included, when I first started working in the high school, because I feel like once I got into the high school more and understood it, I definitely had a similar feeling that you just expressed. But a lot of OT practitioners get really scared of the high school setting, really, even the middle school setting, and they don't understand where they support the steering. They don't understand, you know, should I be working on ADL? Should I be working on work? Should I be working on handwriting, still and sensory processing? Did you experience some of that when you got first started with the high school?
Matthew Husband
Definitely, I think there is a paradigm shift. Having the background in pediatrics, thinking about what is middle school, high school students, what do they need? What does it look like? Because it really is. You're starting to have that transition to adulthood in that next stage of life. So like you said, it's not like you can hone in on one specific area. You're working on all these areas, but it's also going to be individualized based on what the student
Jayson Davies
needs. Yeah, and we're going to talk a lot about the Get to Work program that you've that you've started, and I think that I'll save more about the high school setting ot world for us to talk about when we get there. But first I want to, as I alluded to a moment ago, your setting isn't exactly a public school, and I want to be upfront with that, because you know a lot of people that listen to this podcast, they work in a public school, and I want to just be transparent that you're not necessarily in a public school, but also that this can work in a public school. So share a little bit about your school. Sure.
Matthew Husband
So yeah. So I'm contracted with a private school called OTs stone Academy in westernville, Ohio, and so my caseload is a blend between IEP in the classroom, working with students, and then a private based caseload as well. And so I'm working on IEP goals during the day, but then I also have some private kiddos that will see that we can work on non school related goals as well through the contract that we have with the school. And so it does allow for more autonomy with the students that I'm working with.
Jayson Davies
Meaning like that, the students that you work with in the afternoon, you have a little bit more time outside of the quote, unquote school day to work with them, right?
Matthew Husband
And we can work on, you know, non school related goals that you might not be able to if you're only focused on those IEP goals. And I think also just the collaboration that we can have within the school setting just allows for a better understanding of what the students need. And that's really as we get into the Get to Work program, really thinking about, yes, like we want the students to be successful within the school system. But then we also have to look at that bigger picture of once they do graduate, once they are successful in the school system, are we making sure that they're set up for that next stage? And that really kind of birthed this idea of the Get to Work program, absolutely.
Jayson Davies
And we'll talk more about what the Get to Work program can look like, even if you don't have those additional after school hours and whatnot. But yeah, you know one of the things going back to. Struggles that ot practitioners have with high school is that that service cliff, and a lot of students are in elementary school, they've got services one time a week, and maybe you get more to a consult model as you get closer to middle school. But how do you I mean, I guess is that similar for you, do you see students decreasing or are you decreasing services as kids get older? Or how does that work in your current setting?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so I think the the idea of the service Cliff has been really impactful for me, thinking about our students are going to lose a lot of their services once they graduate, so we kind of have this finite amount of time to do as much work as we can and lend our expertise while they're still on our caseload. So what's the best way that we can use our time, especially in those middle school and high school years, to set them up for success later? And so really thinking, Am I just doing direct services? Am I only going to be in one classroom, or am I am I better served if I have consultative services with the teachers, with the aides, with the parents, would that benefit the child more than just the direct intervention that I would have? So it's really thinking about the holistic way of the finite amount of time that I have, what's the best use of that so it can benefit the students?
Jayson Davies
Wow. So then I guess if you are it's hard because obviously every child is different. But when it comes to students getting older, you know, from going from elementary to middle to high school, within your setting, within your practice, do you tend to see a decrease in services as students get older? Is that kind of the route date your you know, caseload trends toward, or do you see it kind of continuing with, you know, relatively similar services across or are you even adding more services as kids get older?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, that's really good question. I think it really kind of depends on the trajectory for the student. I think some of our students who are more geared towards college readiness or being college bound, they'll tend to lose ot services because they're doing so well in the classroom. But some of our students who are better suited for the employment route or independent living route, they'll continue to require and use ot services so that we're thinking about, how are they successful in a Trades Program, or how are they successful in internships or other classes that they might be taking within the school day. So I really think it depends on the type of child and what their needs are. And for some they may lose some of their services, and for some others, maintaining those services are so important, so that they can do well in those different classes that other students might not take. Yeah,
Jayson Davies
I like how you kind of separated those two out. But I I'm wondering, when do you start to have these conversations? When do you start to, you know, whether it's in an IEP or outside an IEP, with a teacher, with a parent, start to think about, you know, which direction is this child going? Are they going down more of that functional skills, or are they going toward college? And that's a very tough conversation to have, and so I'm interested to hear maybe a, how you specifically deal with it, and then maybe B, if your your school setting does have more of a systematic approach, how they might begin to have that conversation?
Matthew Husband
Sure, yeah, that's a great question. I think that for transition planning, which is mandated at age 16, by idea, it's 14 in Ohio, that's a really good time to start that conversation and make sure that we're aligning with parents as we're thinking about what is the right next step for the student. And again, at 14, we're never going to know for sure exactly what the right step is, but we might have a pretty good indicators of which way they might be. So if we can have that conversation with parents at that IEP, when they're starting to receive transition, planning on their IEP, and really kind of digging deeper with parents of, what are you thinking for your child, what do you think the next steps are? And if we're in alignment, I think that's great. And then we can start thinking about, what are the interventions, what are the things that they need? And if we're in misalignment, if parents think that they're college bound, but test scores and the way that we view the student are different, then it gives us opportunities over the next couple of years, especially every year when we meet in the IEP, to try to get on alignment, so that we can help parents navigate that system of thinking about what the next steps would be. So starting around 14, 1516, those are really pivotal years in my mind to start having those conversations.
Jayson Davies
And are those conversations happening in IEP? Or does your school have specific transition meetings? Or how does that work?
Matthew Husband
So it definitely happens in the IEP. So there is that transition section, so we'll have that conversation. And a part of my doctoral Capstone work was actually creating a transition resource guide that I would give a physical copy to parents when the student was turning 14, so that they could have information about what those next steps are. And that was something that was not in place. They would receive some information, but we made it a standardized resource guide that every student. Would receive. And then if they had additional questions about, what was that, whatever was in the document, then we could answer those questions at that IEP,
Jayson Davies
wait, hold up here, was this specific to like your area, or is this something that could be used by any OT, and also, is it something you share?
Matthew Husband
So it is a local resource guide. So it's local to Columbus, but the ideas of the types of resources that you could give so we have some resources for transportation. We have some resources for vocational rehabilitation, independent living, the themes of the resources could be used for OTs, wherever they are, but the specific resource guide that we created has the local resources here in Columbus.
Jayson Davies
That's awesome. I love that. I mean, we've had specifically in my IEPs, and I always wanted to create more of a resource. I never did. But we had, like a PE teachers that would come with a list of different sports and organizations that were very friendly, disability friendly, like, and they would have all the different programs in the area, and I always wanted to create something similar. So I love that you've kind of done this, but at that transition level, like, that's really awesome, and it's really a great idea for any OT. And I love that you're just like, hey, I'm the OT. I'm at this meeting. This is the transition meeting. Here you go. Here's the paper. It's not, it's not like, you don't even have to think about whether or not you're going to give this to a parent. It's just to a parent. It's just automatically transition meeting, boom, here you go.
Matthew Husband
Yep, and give it to him. And then it really opens up that dialog within that transition meeting. I've been in those transition meetings before, and it can be very much like, okay, A, B, C, this is what we're going to do type of thing. But when you give, and this happened last week, you know, I gave a parent information about transportation and potentially driving for a fort for parents of a 14 year old, and they still have a couple of years to think about that. When you see the look on their faces of like, I don't know my son is going to be able to drive. That's all right. Let's talk about that. What? What are some things that you're worried about? Are you worried about their visual perceptual skills? Are you worried about their ability to handle a lot of things at one time, those sorts of things. And then we could think about at 14, what are those areas of concern for the parents? And then that could all we could think about that in our interventions as well. And so again, it allows for that deepening conversation within that meeting to really understand where parents are, but in a very systematic way. Okay, here's what everybody receives, and then we can kind of individually see what's needed for that student.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, you know, I never thought about that. I know. I mean, in my area, California, and I don't know about your area, I'll let you speak to it. But I remember, by time I was in high school, Driver's Ed was no longer part of the part of high school curriculum, but I know once upon a time was for you guys, is it?
Matthew Husband
No, it's not, at least not where I'm where I am currently. So yeah, I think for a lot of parents, that's really scary, because it's like, I just don't know if my kids able to do this, and will they be safe, and do they have the support that they need? And so having this resource can be really impactful for them.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, it's interesting, because OTs ot practitioners actually have a pretty stronghold in driver disability driver awareness, but we always think about it from the perspective of older drivers still being able to drive. I don't know if there's any, and maybe you do, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but I don't know if there's ot practitioner is focusing on, like, driver skills for 18 year olds, 16 year olds, 22 year olds, like, that's definitely something I haven't seen.
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so there definitely is. So Ohio State here, they have a occupational therapy, drivers, rehabilitation services, and they they see the gamut, so they'll see all age ranges. But they've really been working on increasing younger students, or kids with autism specifically, and thinking about helping them as far as driving and the skills that they need to start getting on the road, not to get back on the road for those older clients.
Jayson Davies
Very cool, that'd be a fun job. I want to do that
Matthew Husband
A little, when you're in the car, true, yeah, that's what the simulators are for.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. Very cool. All right, well, let's continue on. I want to talk about the Get to Work program, but before we do, I want to let you establish, you know, you brought up kind of the two different routes per se, right? Going toward college, going more toward the functional living skills. And when we talk about the Get to Work program, are we talking about both directions, or is it focused more toward one of the other?
Matthew Husband
Yeah. So the actual it's kind of that middle ground. We call it the missing middle of those who if they did not receive the appropriate services, then they could very easily not be employed, but if they receive the appropriate supports, then they could be employed. And so that's kind of really the the area, or the students that we wanted to work with, those who we knew, if they received some extra services, that they could be employed. So we're not really looking at the higher or the lower, kind of in that middle range.
Jayson Davies
Okay, and then the kind of. Follow up must be asked question, because I still think that there are occupational therapy practitioners and others, especially that work in education, that have this internal debate all the time about whether to focus on the here and now academics of ninth grade or to work on the four years down the line, future of real world, application, work, living independently, all that fun stuff. So as a school based ot practitioner in high school, what made you start to key in on, hey, I need to think post secondary. You know, skills.
Matthew Husband
Definitely. Yeah, I think that tension between academics and post secondary success is such a hard tension to live in, because our students need to graduate, they need to receive these credits. But when I'm in a biology class and they're learning about ribosomes and lysosomes and mRNA and I know for sure that they're not going to be using that knowledge in the next part of their education. I'm like, Okay, well, what could we be working on? So really thinking about, well, what are the organizational skills, and how are we consuming knowledge? How are the students understanding how to do that? I can can work that in, within the classroom, but then all those bigger ideas, I really want to hone in on those when I have the opportunities, because those are going to be so much more important for a lot of those students, because their next step will be employment or independent living.
Jayson Davies
Okay, And I guess when you started to do this, I'm sure you went down a rabbit hole and got into research, and I guess just ultimately, what helped you to solidify your idea, hey, I need to be working on those post secondary skills.
Matthew Husband
sure. So as a part of my doctoral capstone project, I was looking at improving employability for young adults with autism, and I created a survey that I sent out to three different stakeholders. So it was educational, vocational rehabilitation and business owners as well, and thinking about the trajectory for employment for our students, starting in education, potentially using the services of vocational rehabilitation, and then hopefully working for a business. And so looking through the lens of all of those who are helping our students reach that end goal of employment, what are the things that they need to be successful? And what I found through those interviews, through those surveys, were a couple of different things, and I can talk about that with my capstone project. One was self determination, but then one was early exposure and realistic exposure to work. A lot of students were coming to different placements or different internships and didn't really understand what work was. They had this picture in their head. Might have been only based on a movie or something that they've seen, but they haven't actually had realistic understanding of what it means to work. And I thought, okay, that could be something that I could do. That could be an intervention to expose students at an earlier age to what it actually means to work, and that could be really beneficial for them in the long run.
Jayson Davies
Okay, so self determination, early exposure, was there anything else?
Matthew Husband
And then the transition resource guide, so building that bridge between parents and the students, and, yeah, those were the big three that I worked on. Very cool, okay,
Jayson Davies
deciding which way I want to go here, because you mentioned the self determination piece, and I think we're going to focus more on that early not early intervention, but early exposure, piece to work. But let's touch on the self determination piece just briefly first, because obviously they go hand in hand. If you don't want to work, you're probably not going to work. So what did you learn about that self determination piece?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so for self determination, we actually did an intervention where students met during lunch weekly for the entire school year, so it was ninth and 10th grade students, and we were teaching the core components of self determination. So we used what's called the self determination model learning of instruction, and that was kind of like our core curriculum that we used and then we modified it for our students, but really figuring out, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, what are your preferences, and how do you use those to be able to set up goals, to create goals for yourself towards things that you want to do on your own. And I think for a lot of our students, for a long period of time, they've been told you need to listen to your teacher, you need to listen to your parents, you need to follow in the classroom, all those sorts of things. And then when they're getting to this middle school, high school age, they've kind of become dependent on that, so they are still listening to their parents and teachers, even though it might go against what they actually want to do. And so it's kind of this area where we're transitioning again from other people telling you you know what you need to do in your life to you taking ownership of it. And so within employment, I think that's really important, because a lot of our students just don't really know what their strengths are and what their preferences are for work, and so if we can teach that explicitly to them, then they can find jobs that are motivating, and it's going to be so much easier to get buy in from the student if they're pursuing things that they enjoy, versus if we're telling them, No, you go do this. We think. You'll be good at it, but if they don't have any buy in, then, yeah, the buy in isn't there.
Jayson Davies
So were you able to take outcomes when you did that that group?
Matthew Husband
Yeah. So we were looking at three different outcomes. So one was the ability to write SMART goals. So they throughout the curriculum, they wrote three different goals, one for school, one for home, and one for future, and we tracked their ability just to write those goals. So it was a five point scale. If it was Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and tie bound, they had all five portions, and they would receive a score of five. And then we tracked to see how well they did over the course of the year as they were writing SMART goals. Another one was knowledge change. So they had a pre test, and then three quizzes that they took throughout the year to see if they improved in their ability to understand self determination. And then the last one was their ability to track goals. So once they had their SMART goal, they had written it, how often would they track that actual goal? So say, if their goal was to take out the trash every day, how often would they actually track that goal? And so we wanted to see them being able to see okay, well, I only track this goal one time. I don't really know if I was doing it, because I don't have any data to show it. So showing them that as you're working towards something, you need to know, am I improving or am I not? So those were the three big measurements that we looked at.
Jayson Davies
And you said you did this in, like, early high school, ninth and 10th graders, right? Ninth and 10th grade? Yep. Okay, so was this part of a, you know, special education classroom. Was this a lunchtime group? Or, yep.
Matthew Husband
Yep, it was lunchtime group. So we would meet, yeah, once a week during their lunch.
Jayson Davies
The rabbit hole continues. How do you do that as an occupational therapist in a high school study? Yeah.
Matthew Husband
So the IEP goals that they had that would relate to, you know, these organizational or self management goals, then we could use that as part of the self determination. And then we would work alongside the intervention specialists and talk about how important self determination was, that could cross over into other classes as well. And then we could work towards those goals during that group.
Jayson Davies
And did you, I guess, how did you facilitate participation? In the sense that? Did you look at IEPs and say, Hey, these eight kids will really benefit from this. I'm going to reach out to them and see if they want to be a part of this group. Or was it more, you know, just kind of, we started this group, kind of like any other campus group, kind of starts and friends invite friends and, yeah, yeah, it
Matthew Husband
was more. It was more of the first one. So identifying, like ninth and 10th grade students that we think would really benefit from this group, and then that's kind of how it started. And then we would look at schedules and see if we could get at least four to six students in a group. Very cool. Wow, are you continuing that? Then, yes. So we have continued this year. So we're trying to make it a little bit better work on the buy in, because lunch can be a difficult time for students. I mean, that's a really, like, funny part of it is that you're saying, Okay, you are self determined, and these are all these things that you need to do, and then you're telling them, oh, you need to come to this lunch group. And so it's like, how do we how do we live in that tension as well? Because we're telling you that you need to make your own choices, but then we're making this choice for you. And that's been something that's been something that's been really interesting, because it's like, All right, well, if we participate, well, if we're working towards our goals, well, maybe we meet every other week, or, you know, maybe we do 10 weeks and then we take a break, that sort of thing. But it depends on what your preferences are and how you work through it. So it's still tricky doing it during lunch, but we've we had really good success last year, and then we're building on that success this
Jayson Davies
year as well. Do you think this is I mean, if someone I'm trying to think about like the practitioner who's like, Hey, this is really cool, I want to try this. But lunchtime is not doable. If you had to put that constraint on yourself, lunchtime wasn't an option. How would you try and alter it a little bit?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, for some of our students that might have a study hall or a learning center where there is some more free time, or if there's some specials, again, this is going to depend on your student and the time that's available. And if there's enough kids, because I do think you need at least four to six kids to be a part of the group, then I might look at those areas. And we had looked at those, and unfortunately, logistically, it didn't work out. But yeah, just being creative, of thinking, Okay, I know that this is really important, and how, within my setting, within the bounds and constraints that I have, what is a way to introduce self determination? And so it might not look exactly like mine, where it's an actual group, but maybe there's some lessons that could be embedded in some different classes, maybe even in an English class or a character education class, something like that, just so that there's exposure to these ideas, so that students could get it because we are I saw through the research that it is so important for students to learn that their strengths, their weaknesses and their preferences.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, well, all right, went down the self determination rabbit hole. Love it. But I do want to talk about the Get to Work program. And I guess first I'll let you explain how the self determination and get to work program are or are not interconnected.
Matthew Husband
Sure. Yeah. So the self determination during school, during lunch, now the Get to Work program is after school on Fridays are our Friday. Is and a little bit earlier. So it's two and a half hours that we were able to set aside after school, and that is private based funding for those students. And so that's kind of the difference between the two, but there was some overlap of some students who are actually
Jayson Davies
doing both. Wow, yeah, I can imagine. And you know, you're, we're naturally going to lose a few people listening right now, because they just heard you say after school. After school, two and a half hours, privately funded. So let's address the elephant in the room, if you were to go work for a public school, would get to work at a public school even be possible?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, I don't know, as I have not been in a public school working on this program. But I think the tenants of thinking about early exposure, early realistic exposure to work, how can you use that core idea within what setting you have? And so maybe it's particular classes. So, like, we have a financial literacy class, and so I've really worked with the teachers of thinking, what are some community outings that we could do with that financial literacy class so they could understand what it actually means to have a bank account. So let's go visit a bank, and let's look at what it looks like to write a check. Or what if we went to a doctor's office and we filled out personal information, if we had that community connection that would allow for something like that? So I think again, the core idea of exposing students to work, if that is what you start off with, then, because we are super creative as OTs, how can you be creative in that space within whatever you're allowed to do within your school or within your district, to work through that idea? Or, yeah.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and I don't know, I know it would be difficult, but most schools do have a minimum day, kind of like what you're talking about, right? A shortened day once a week, and it would be very difficult to get set up, but I can picture making something happen. It would take some string pulling here and there. You've got to get a teacher on board to help you out who's probably going to be volunteering their time. You may or may not be volunteering your time for the first one or two times that you do this, because you got to, kind of, like, prove that it can be useful before anyone's really going to invest in it. But I'm just like talking to the public school, you know, ot practitioners out there. I think it could be done as an after school program. It would be really unique. But they're, I mean, public schools have after school programs, right? They, what they don't have is after school programs for students labeled as having a disability, or at least, they're not excluded, but they don't really exist, right? Like and so this is that opportunity to maybe pull a string and use that card saying, Hey, we don't have any after school programs for our students with disabilities, I want to do one and get a teacher to help you out. So.
Matthew Husband
I think that'd be great. Yeah, that's a great idea. I'm all for it, yeah.
Jayson Davies
And I'll say also, you know, there are some really good programs out there, and I'm sure you've seen them too, where a teacher takes on initiative. I worked at a high school, and every week, that teacher would facilitate the students making a grocery list. Then they would collect recycling, then they would take a field trip on Thursday to take the recycling in, which was right next to the grocery store, they would go in grocery shop, get everything that they needed for our meal prep. And then on Friday they would prep the meal. Fantastic, right? But not every school has that opportunity. Not every school is within walking distance of a grocery store. So yeah, let's talk about your Get to Work program we've established. This is after school. It is, you know, privately funded, but that doesn't mean that it can't work. So I'll let you kind of provide a little bit of an introduction to the program and kind of how it got started.
Matthew Husband
Sure. So yeah. So we would have two weeks a month on Fridays after school that we would meet with students, and the first week we would meet at school, and we would identify a certain job sector that we wanted to work on for that month. So say the first month was a restaurant. We have a local partnership with a local pizzeria. And so that was our first month that we did. And so on campus, the students learned the soft skills and the hard skills of what they would need to actually work in the restaurant. And so we would go over the soft skills, the people skills that they would need to learn, and then we would do stations of the hard skills. So they might be folding pizza boxes, or they would be filling sauce cans, or they would be bussing tables, things that they could potentially do at that actual pizza restaurant. And we would, we would go through all of those skills, and then the next time we met, we actually went to that pizza restaurant, and we did all those skills on site. And then we would come back and we would have a self reflection and think about all right, what were the different job tasks that you did? What were your preferences? What did you like, what did you not like, what went well, what did not go well, what were the differences in management style? What's the type of clothes that you have to wear when you go out to a restaurant, versus some other sort of job? And so really, this, the way that it was set up. Was the first week. I was exposing them in a setting that they're very familiar with, to the soft skills and hard skills, and then the next time they would actually go out in the community and do those skills on site.
Jayson Davies
Wow. All right, we're going to take a quick break right here, but when we come back, we're going to dive further into this Get to Work program, maybe weed out some of the hard skills and the soft skills. So let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. All right, Matthew, I want to talk about those hard skills and soft skills, but first, who is part of the team? Obviously, you're the mind behind this as occupational therapist, and correct me if that is wrong, but who else is part of this team and how do they interact?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, so I definitely want to give a shout out to Hannah every because she presented with me at a ot another occupational therapist, and this was really kind of born out of our therapy team. So we had OTs, speech therapists, and then we had one of our psych service team members who was a part of the group as well. And then we worked with our community engagement specialist. She was the one who really helped us with the connections within the community. And so she works on some internships with some of our older students, and had previous connections with community members. And we really relied on her to identify, all right, we want to do a restaurant, but we don't actually know who we need to go to. And she said, Oh, well, I have connections here. And okay, this person, she said she's available on Friday. So this works perfectly. And so she was really integral as part of the team to get those connections done. And so really for us as the OTs, we focused on the hard skills. And how do we when we're simulating those job tasks the first week? How do we make sure that they're as close as possible to when the students go out the next week? Then our speech therapist was really focused in on the social skills, really teaching those. And then our Psych Services team member was thinking about the behaviors while we're on site, the hygiene, the dress, the words that we say, those sorts of things. And so it was really nice to have this interprofessional team, because all of our expertise is kind of overlaid and worked together to make it possible.
Jayson Davies
Wow, yeah, I mean, and obviously it takes a village to just pull something off like this, so that that's really cool. All right, you mentioned the hard skills, working on, you know, wiping down tables, stuff like that, and the soft skills, communication and teamwork. Do you find that it's harder to teach the soft skills than the hard skills, or vice versa? And how do you weigh kind of, hey, we need to focus more on the soft versus the heart.
Matthew Husband
Yeah, I think the hard skills as an occupational therapist were easier to teach because we could do some task analysis, we could create some visuals, we could really break it down. Okay. What are they struggling with? Is this a sequencing, executive functioning problem? Is this a fine motor problem? And then I could really, kind of do a deep dive on that. The social skills, you know, those are a little bit harder to tease out, especially when you're just talking about it, because it's all, you know, it's all in the ether, as far as what could happen when you actually go on site, and that's why I love that we could actually go into a business, because then we could see, how are our students interacting with customers, how are they interacting with managers? And so one really interesting experience was we went to this pizza restaurant the first time, and the manager was amazing, so much so that she actually gave us two pizzas at the end for all the students to eat and enjoy. And everybody's like, we love working. Did you like us because of the pizza or somewhere? And then the next place we went, we went to just like a box store, and the manager could only spend, like, a minute and a half with us, and she was so busy that that we only saw her at the very beginning, and then we were kind of left to our own devices. And so that was a really good teaching moment for us, when we came back thinking about, when you're at work, you're going to have different leaders and managers, and they're going to have different styles. And what do you prefer? Do you like someone who's hands off, who gives you the instruction and then you don't really see them? Or do you like someone who's more hands on, who's communicating with you? And it would be interesting, because half of our students were like, Yeah, I like someone who I can talk to, and the other half were like, yeah, if they just tell me what to do, and then I get to do it by myself, that's better. And so it was a really good like teaching experience, even for us, because we didn't realize. We thought that most of them would have preferred the first manager, but they didn't.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, wow. You mentioned, right, like, the hard skills being a little bit easier for an OT practitioner with our task analysis, but you mentioned you had other people on the team, right? All the others that have helped to make this program possible. Do you find that other team members really help with the soft skills?
Matthew Husband
Oh, definitely. Yeah, our speech therapist really working through the different parts of soft skills. What's the professionalism that you need? How do you interact with someone? How do you interact with a customer that you've never met before? And then we'd actually see it on site. Yeah, they really took the lead in that area. And then we could learn from them. And again, we would split into groups when we would go on site. And we would split into groups as we would do hard skills. And so each of us would lead a different group. So it really gave us an opportunity to kind of blend those skills as we were teaching them to the students. Yeah, I bet
Jayson Davies
there's so many pieces that you could work on in here. And I. Know, tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure that it's almost like you don't have enough time to address everything, obviously. And so you kind of had to pick and choose. What are we going to focus on? And then hope that when you actually go to the real location, what you worked on on campus plays out the way that you think it will exactly.
Matthew Husband
And yeah, you try as best as possible to set them up. But then that's another learning activity for the students. Of you know, we worked on this when we were at school, and it worked great. And now we're in this box store and we're trying to use the scanner, and it's not working, and we can't find the manager. This is what happens when you're at work, and what do you do? Do you get frustrated, or are you patient? Or what is the problem solving skills that you have to figure out when things don't go right. And so I think those times were actually really important for the students to learn that this is this is life, and this is what happens at work too.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And it's also different the interactions that you won't just have with the the people that work there, right? You mentioned a lot about the boss, but the interactions that you have with customers is very different, from a pizzeria to a box store, perhaps, or a shipping, you know, working in an Amazon facility. Have you had to work on like, you know, how you might have customer support type of skills, and is that something that came up with like the pizzeria? Definitely.
Matthew Husband
And I think, like body awareness and body spacing depending on how big or small the location was. So like being in the pizzeria, they were working at a dish washing station that was very small, so they had to go through and they would have to, you know, pass other people, and then obviously the pizzas were hot. So there's that whole sensory experience as well. We did go to a place that was really loud, it was really hot in there. They were doing a lot of work standing on their feet. And so the kind of that endurance came up as well that you really can't simulate when you're in a clinic or when you're at school. You just can't simulate all of those things. And so that was really good to once we had finished, and because a lot of these places were new for me as well. I've never worked in these settings. And so it's like, oh, okay, this is what people are doing every doing every day. This is really good for me to understand what these type of working conditions are, and then be able to pass that on as we think about future groups and how we can diversify the different types of experiences that they can have.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, all right, so you've, we've talked about a box, you know, a box store, we talked about pizzeria. What other types of settings have you ventured out to Yep.
Matthew Husband
So we went to a grocery store as well. So they were doing carts and they were doing stocking. We went to a restaurant supply store, so that was a much bigger store that had a lot of stocking and cleaning as well. That was a quieter one. And then we went to Cintas. They do laundry. And so that one was a lot of sorting, sorting by color, sorting by shape of the towels, how big the towels were. That one was a really loud experience for a lot of our students, a lot of standing, but really giving them as many different type of experiences. They had six different experiences as they went. I think, yeah, those were the six.
Jayson Davies
Okay, so this is about, I'm assuming, then it's roughly a six to eight month, almost a school year program, because you're kind of picking one place to go to a month and focusing on that.
Matthew Husband
Yep. So we did three, kind of in the fall before winter break, and then three after winter break.
Jayson Davies
Wow, that's really cool. I love that. And, you know, Cintas that is, you know, we see their trucks everywhere. I'm sure everyone does, but that's bringing in more of a home skill as well. With laundry was that an area of focus is home skills, ADLs an area of focus of the program, or not so much.
Matthew Husband
Definitely. And talking and kind of, going back to the transition resource guide, one other kind of piece of information that we gave parents was a chore list. And so when we worked with our community engagement specialist, who takes our students out on different internships, she says that she knows right away if students have completed chores at home, have they vacuumed? Have they swept? Have they cleaned tables? Have they made their bed? And she said that directly helps them as soon as they go off on an internship because they're ready to hit the ground running, versus students who have never done chores. She says that she has to work really hard the first couple of weeks to get them up to speed. So we gave that to parents, and we said, hey, this is not only going to help you at home by having your student be able to do chores at home, but it's going to help them with employment down the line. So yeah, so at CentOS, being able to fold, being able to do those sorts of skills is something that they would need if they were going to work there on a daily basis.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. All right. You know, I would love to talk ot practitioners. We love to talk interventions and how you did every single thing. I do want to talk about the evaluation piece, but I do have one more question before we get there, and that is, as ot practitioners, we don't just work on skills. A lot of times we bring into into the fold accommodations for those who need them. And you've mentioned a lot of standing at some of the places you've mentioned loud noises, has accommodations been a big piece of this as well?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, definitely. And for a lot of our students, they did really well. They did better than. I thought, with the endurance piece and the loud noises, but that was something that we prepped them beforehand. So even when we were doing our simulations, we actually were playing louder music, and we were having them stand for, you know, 40 minutes while they were working on a task. And we would provide visuals. Visuals were really big for us as well, just to break up that sequence. And then they could take them with them as they were working on a task at their station. So yeah, so those accommodations are really huge, too, because if we can provide those accommodations so that they can be successful, you know, the employer doesn't, doesn't really care, as long as they're getting the work done. So yeah, that was huge.
Jayson Davies
Very cool. All right, let's talk a little bit about evaluation. One nugget that you dropped earlier, was that, again, correct me, if I'm wrong, is that the students had a big part in choosing, like, what type of industry you they wanted to go into a restaurant, or whatever it might be, is that correct?
Matthew Husband
So they did have some autonomy, as we were talking about the different types, but again, that it really depended on what was the connection that we had in the community that could be available, because there were some places that the students wanted to go to, but the connections that we had were really small, like coffee shops, and there was no way that we could have our whole team going, that we would basically just take it over. So they had some say. But then, you know, as any good OT, we still had the final say.
Jayson Davies
You mean, you didn't have, like, a video game producing company that all the kids, I'm sure wanted,
Matthew Husband
that was one of them. I think everybody would have voted for it.
Jayson Davies
Yep, all right. I brought that up because, you know, you talked about that self determination piece. And obviously, people want to work in a place they want to work in. But you also, as an OT, you know, we all know that taking data is important. You talked about the data that you took for the self determination group, but what about with the Get to Work program? Did you figure out a way to take data to determine if this was something that worked or didn't work, or how'd that how'd that go?
Matthew Husband
Yes. So one assessment that we used is voc fit, the vocational fit assessment, and that has 11 different sub scales, and it's really looking at what are the different components of work. So it might be hard, skills might be soft. Skills might be self determination. And we completed that scale for the student, and then parents completed it as well. Now the VOC fit can be used in a bunch of different ways, a lot of ways. It's usually used as like a longitudinal assessment to see, for a student who's been on multiple different internships, are they improving in those skills? The way that we did it, as we were only doing the six sites, is we did like a pre test, where we filled it out as the as the therapists, and then the parents, and then we also had them fill it out at the end. And we wanted to see, was there a difference? Did they improve in those skills? And really the first year, we just really wanted to know as a group, what are those lower skills that the students have that we really need to focus in on as we look at the cohort itself. And so self determination, again, was one of the really big ones that we looked at in executive functioning as well. And then we could see, did they improve from our vantage point as therapists, and did they improve from the parents vantage point as well? Yeah. Point as well, gotcha
Jayson Davies
and more broader, beyond the data, what was kind of your goal? What was your goal that you would see over the course of this nine months and six different placements?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, the biggest goal for me was just the confidence for the students to know that this is something that they can do, and this is possible for them when they graduate. And it's just a kind of funny anecdote, but when we would take the vans to the site, the car would be really quiet. You could just feel like the palpable nervous energy as the students are thinking about they're going into this new place. They're going to be meeting these new people that they've never experienced. And for a lot of our students on the spectrum, change is so hard, and so even to get them to that place without even having doing any of the hard skills or soft skills was a big accomplishment for a lot of them. And then we would do all of our work, and we would leave and the van ride home, it was like this huge exhale. Everybody's talking and laughing and joking, and for me, that was and for our whole staff, was like, okay, they just did something that I don't know if they knew they could actually do, even if they didn't do it well, even if it was hard, they experienced something new. And now they know when they have the opportunity to do an internship or to apply for a job or do a job, they now know that it's not going to be as hard as they think, because they've had those experiences before. And so that's really the biggest goal that I had for the group, was exposing them to realistic work, and that they can do it, that they're capable, that they are able. And so yeah, so that was the biggest outcome for me,
Jayson Davies
wow. And you did this last year, right? Was the first year?
Matthew Husband
So two years ago was the first year. So the A OT, a conference presentation was the first year, and then we completed our last year. So we've done two years.
Jayson Davies
So what age now are the kids of the first group? So
Matthew Husband
potentially 11th, 12th grade. So now they're getting to, yeah, well, it'll be graduating. So I'm really excited to see, yeah, what does that date? Of those who go through the Get to Work program compared to other students that didn't. How many of them are going to become employed? How many of them are not? What type of employment is it part time? All those sorts of things. So that's a lot of data that I'm really interested in learning about as we go through this process, as we have more and more cohorts of students doing the program.
Jayson Davies
Wow. And so how have things changed from that first cohort to now? You're kind of on your third round. It sounds like, right?
Matthew Husband
Yeah. So I think we've just been able to fine tune things as we go. We've built in the self the arc self determination scale is another measurement that we're looking at. The other piece that we really want to focus in on is that bridge between school and home? What are things that we can do to help parents to make sure that they're following up? Okay, you've gone through this Get to Work program, what are the natural next steps? And so even, like the students with this, making smart goals. All right, you did this, get to work program, let's make a SMART goal for what you're going to do next. Is it applying for a job? Is it completing a resume, those sorts of things. And so as we continue to do the program, those are some of the the fine tuning that we're working on.
Jayson Davies
Wow, it's just, it's just really cool. I mean, because I'm sure you embarked on this, you know, two and a half years ago, and I don't know, did you have, like, any funding, anything like or when it first got started, was it just a shell of what it is now?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, it was just an idea. And it's kind of funny, because another idea that I've had and has come to fruition was starting a garden at our school. We didn't have a garden before, and the first year, there was a lot of resistance as far as well. You know, I don't know if we can have it here. It might not be safe. I don't know if the kids should be out. There's just some resistance. And so we started with four pots, and we only had four pots. And then we did that for one year, and we proved to the school, yes, this can work. And so then the next year, we teamed up with the Industrial Tech the like woodworking Trades Program, and they created these raised beds. And now we have this huge garden. And so very similarly, the same metaphor, it's kind of the same thing for get to work, is, like, it was this idea. It started small. We didn't know if it was going to work, and we're just like, well, let's just try it, get that idea out there, and then if we can prove that it works, then we can get more backing, and then we can, you know, make it better as it goes. So my analogy is, start with four pots and see where you go.
Jayson Davies
I would go even with just one. I mean, start with four is even better. You're ambitious starting with four. Man, that's a lot of work. Matthew, no, that's awesome. So I guess my question is, because it's really hard when you're starting at the beginning with four pods, or when you're starting at the beginning with this idea of, I want to somehow get six students or eight students to a setting that is not on campus. I don't know. I have there been grants that you've applied for or like, How is this even logistically possible? How were you able to get it from an idea to even that first, you know, vacation or not vacation, that first bus or first van to the restaurant.
Matthew Husband
Yeah, I mean, it took a lot of that groundwork and really writing down, you know, what is our curriculum, what do we think, and how does this fit into those goals? Again, we did have the private funding for those students who had it, and so that could cover, you know, our services, which really helps, and then the school, you know, providing the transportation, providing the vans, that was one thing that we could check off our list as well. But yeah, it was really just showing that, here's an idea, here's the research that shows that this is so important and we think that this benefits the students. Let's start it. And luckily, we've had a team, and we've had, you know, a school that has been willing to to run with that idea and see it into fruition.
Jayson Davies
What do you think the benefits of the program have been outside of the work program, program, meaning, what is the benefit of this program that you can sell to administrators that's going to improve the school? I mean, do you think it has? I'm sure you probably think it has. But yeah, does that question make sense?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, definitely. I think another piece of the inner collaboration was kind of the relationships that we have with the intervention specialists and the teachers, and thinking about, what are the transition goals, and how can we fine tune those goals so that the information that we're receiving from this Get to Work program can drive those goals so that we're working towards the preferences that the students have, and then we're seeing improved motivation in the classroom for a lot of our students, as they're realizing that these are things that they want to do. And so that can decrease some behaviors that might happen in the school as well. So any administrator is going to be excited about that, and just, you know, the well being of our students, and seeing that they're again, they're confident, and they're happy, and they're able to prove that, that they can, can do these things. It's just a huge selling point for for those in the building at the school.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, wow. So many, so many great things. I know there's a lot of you know, public education, occupational therapy practitioners will. Listening right now, if they haven't tuned out, out of sheer I can never do this, but the ones who are still listening, you know, first, thank you for listening. But what tips? What advice do you have for them? I mean, you just shared a few right now. But if this is something they're thinking about doing, maybe they're trying to do it during lunch, kind of like what you did with the self determination program, and maybe they can't even get off campus. But what advice do you have for them?
Matthew Husband
Yeah, again, I think it just goes back to that core idea of really having a paradigm shift in the way that you're viewing what is best for the students. And is it just working on this one IEP goal, or working in this one class, or pointing this one student out of this class, or is it this bigger picture? Okay, they've been on this educational trajectory for so many years, but we want to make sure that all of that work that we've done over the past 10 or 12 years can lead to successful independent living or college readiness or employment. And so yeah, that would be my advice for those practitioners, is, let's, let's kind of come out of our bubble of what we're working in, and let's look at that broader level. And then again, let's be creative and figure out within my setting, what can I do. And then again, what are you passionate about in your own setting? For me, this is something that I'm passionate about, and this might not be the passion of every you know, school based occupational therapist, but what are you passionate about? Is it a garden? Is it a movement hallway. Is it something that maybe doesn't exist right now within your school setting, but you know it's beneficial for the students, and because you're Pat you're so passionate about it, you can allow others to catch that vision with you. And so that's something that I'm really excited about, because I've seen that with other therapists. So another like research thing that we saw when we went to a ot a as we were looking at the guidelines for occupational therapy services for autism, was comorbidity of anxiety, and we see that a lot with our students, where they're anxious and that affects their ability to work in the classroom, those sorts of things. And we have another therapist on staff who's really passionate about that, and now she's thinking about, Okay, what would an anxiety class look like, and how would we teach that, or how could that be infused in some sort of curriculum, something like that? So I don't think it has to be particular to this program, but we do in this space, in middle school, high school, we need to have more OTs, because we have the expertise to help with all of this transition stuff. And so I'm really excited about, like, the community of occupational therapy practitioners that are in the transition space, and how can we increase those numbers?
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and two things I don't even think we mentioned during this interview, yet, some of the research that I know you know about that really lead to the emphasis of needing to work on life skills, such as work readiness. I'm pretty sure you probably know it better than I do, but like the outcomes learning out or success outcomes among students is just off the charts if they have workability skills. Is that right?
Matthew Husband
Definitely. Yeah, for sure. And so how are we fostering those and how are we making sure that students are independent in those skills at a younger age, so they can be successful as they move forward. Those are huge.
Jayson Davies
The other thing really quickly, because, as we mentioned, not everyone can get off campus, but when you think about a high school campus, it's like a mini it's a mini restaurant, there's a mini gym, there's a mini like there's all these pieces that can potentially be used as as work sites, potentially. And I think that even if you can't get off campus, maybe you can partner with the cafeteria. And maybe you can't bring in eight students at a time, because the cafeteria is really small, but that can be an area where you can bring in one student to help out during lunch, or, you know, partner up with the custodians to bring in different work opportunities partner with, maybe a coach the baseball team or something like, there's so many opportunities even on campus that you could use if you can't get off campus.
Matthew Husband
Definitely. Yeah, those are really good ideas we have, like our mail room for all of our staff. And so I take that over with all my ot students. And so if there's different things that need to be passed out to be passed out to the teachers, we've alphabetized it so they can put everything in the mail slots. Also the lost and found. That's a really good time for doing some laundry. So we have this huge bin of lost and found. So we'll take it over during for our OT students, we have a shout out board, so they'll take out all the shout outs for the staff. So we'll have those are pinned up on the wall. The students take it out, then they'll pick a winner, and then they have to send an email. So all of these work skills, like you said, are embedded throughout the high school, working in the cafeteria, doing recycling, which you mentioned earlier, having a garden. There's so many different things within the building that can be work skills. Now they won't be specific to that type of job that they might see out in the community, but those are all really good skills that our students can work out work on in the high school setting.
Jayson Davies
Very cool. All right, Matthew, well, really appreciate you coming on sharing with us about the Get to Work program as well as the self self determination program. That was a little extra tidbit for everybody. And yeah, thank you so. Much. Really appreciate it. Where Can anyone who's interested in learning more about you, maybe get in contact with you about either of those programs to learn more? Where can they get where can they find you? Sure.
Matthew Husband
Yep. So I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn. So if you just type in my name, love to connect and love to share the resources. If you have the resources from a ot a, last year, you can get the full presentation from a ot A, and I'll share my email as well for anyone who's interested in learning more. But those are the best spaces that you can you can find me.
Jayson Davies
Sounds good. We'll be sure to link to your LinkedIn and yeah, make sure everybody can find you. So thank you once again, Matthew. Really appreciate it, and best of luck in this third year of the Get to Work program.
Matthew Husband
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure sharing with you today. Thank you for having me.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, absolutely, all right. That brings us to the end of episode 187 of the OT school house podcast. I of course, want to extend a huge thank you to Matthew for coming on the show and sharing his innovative Get to Work program, as well as going into his self determination club, I think that is just absolutely, absolutely awesome that he took the initiative to get to do that. Of course, it was not just Matthew. He shared how this is really a team approach, but it's really cool to hear what he and his team are doing to help so many high schoolers that may not otherwise end up having a job outside or beyond high school because they didn't have the support that he's providing. Whether you're working in a private, public charter school, whatever it might be, I hope you've gained the practical strategies that you need to prepare your students for life after graduation. Remember Matthew's advice to start with four pots, you just have to get started. Begin with a small project, prove that it's effective, and then watch it grow. If you've been looking to connect with other school based ot practitioners and want to access more resources, like this one, and also downloadable resources that you can put into your practice, I invite you to join us in the OT school house collaborative. This is where you'll find additional professional development opportunities, mentorship and a community of practitioners passionate about school based ot to learn more. Head on over to OT schoolhouse.com/collab thanks for listening, and I'll catch you in the next episode of the OT school house podcast. Tata for now,
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 OTschoolhouse.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.
