As a school-based OT, you play a crucial role in supporting students with various challenges, including sensory processing differences. But addressing these challenges is a complex and evolving aspect of school-based OT practice. Sensory processing refers to how our nervous system receives, interprets, and responds to sensory information from our environment. While sensory processing difficulties …
Note: Affiliate links are used in this article, but please don’t feel pressure to use them! Your use of these links comes at no additional cost to you and helps support The Dynamic School OT. As an occupational therapist working in a school setting, you play a crucial role in supporting autistic students. School-based OTs …
How OTs Can Support Autistic Students in the Schools Read More »
If you’re a school-based OT, it’s pretty likely that you have student loans. Luckily for us working in the school system, there are multiple opportunities to get this debt forgiven. If you’re curious if student loan forgiveness is the right choice for you, consider the following options. Note: This article was written in December 2022, …
What School-Based OTs Should Know About Student Loan Forgiveness Read More »
If you’re new to school-based OT, you may be nervously anticipating your first IEP meeting. And even if you’ve been to a few, wrapping your head around why IEP meetings happen and what should occur there can take some time! To make it easier, here’s your quick primer on what goes down at an IEP …
What School-Based OTs Need to Know About IEP Meetings Read More »
Note: Affiliate links are used in this article, but please don’t feel pressure to use them! Your use of these links comes at no additional cost to you and helps support The Dynamic School OT. As a school-based OT, you’ve probably heard an increasing buzz around the neurodiversity-affirming movement in the past few years. Put …
How To Make Your School-Based OT Practice More Neurodiversity-Affirming Read More »
As a school-based OT, you’re probably familiar with weighted vests. But as ubiquitous as these items are, many questions still remain about their use. Is there evidence behind weighted vests? How much weight should be utilized? How often should an individual wear one to see effects? Are weighted vests safe? What do weighted vests improve? …
The Evidence (or Lack Thereof) on Weighted Vests Read More »
Have you been tasked with giving a presentation to your school’s staff for professional development? In-services are a wonderful way to increase your impact as a school-based OT as well as help more of your coworkers understand your role. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed about what topics to cover, these ideas might get your …
School-Based OT Topics for Staff Professional Development Read More »
Are you curious about what discharge from OT looks like in the school system? In some ways, there is a lot of freedom in service recommendations in the school system. Since you’re not bound by insurance, you can technically serve a student as often for as long of a time as you want. However, school-based …
When Should School-Based OTs Discharge Students? Read More »
While school-based OT can be close to a dream job, ethical concerns are still something that crops up in this setting. As frustrating as these dilemmas can be to experience, being prepared for them can make a huge difference. This list represents the most common ethical concerns I’ve found in my personal practice and among …
School-based OT is a cool job at its core. Helping kids with disabilities be the best students they can be? That’s pretty rewarding in and of itself. But sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day of assessing, treating, and documenting. So when your job starts to feel a little repetitive and monotonous, …
