If your child doesn’t qualify for an IEP, a 504 Plan might fit. It may sound like a highway number or a health code, but it’s actually a legal support that ensures students get the access they need to participate in school.
A 504 Plan is a school-based support plan that provides students with disabilities the accommodations they need to access learning alongside their peers. Its purpose is to adjust how a student learns, not what they are taught.
Continue reading
When you’re navigating support services in the school system, it can feel like an alphabet soup (OT, PT, MTSS). This post is all about the IEP.
An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is a legal, written plan that explains exactly how a public school will support a student with a disability in order to facilitate their learning and make progress. It’s part of the federal special education law called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and it guarantees students access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
Continue reading
OTs show up in all kinds of places. You’ll find us in clinics, hospitals, workplaces; and yes, even in schools. Our job is to help people of all ages do the everyday tasks that make life meaningful. With such a wide scope, it’s easy to assume that a pediatric OT in a clinic does the same work as an OT in a school. But the school setting is its own world, with its own purpose.
School occupational therapy is special‑education–based support designed to help students fully participate in the school day. The guiding idea is straightforward: when a child’s developmental, motor, sensory, or executive‑function challenges get in the way of learning, an OT steps in to remove those barriers so the child can access and benefit from their education.
Continue reading
If handwriting is the foundation of written expression, cursive is the next layer of fluency. After children learn to shape letters and build the motor patterns of print, cursive offers a new pathway that emphasizes flow, rhythm, and efficiency.
Despite its disappearance from US school curriculum at the start of the 2000s, cursive is making a real comeback in many parts of the United States. This return revisits the question: Is cursive important?
Continue reading
In a world where messaging and voice‑to‑text are becoming the norm, handwriting can seem outdated; but it’s not, especially for children. Beyond sending a message or jotting down an idea, handwriting supports parts of child development that other modes of written expression simply can’t replace. Even in a digital world, it’s still one of the most efficient ways to build the cognitive, motor, and language systems kids rely on for learning.
Continue reading
Child(ish) Advice 