classroom tools

OT Month: School Supports 101

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Most parents only hear about school supports when something feels off. Their kid may be struggling with reading, falling behind in math, or having a hard time staying organized or regulated. While we may be familiar with supports like OT, PT, and/or speech, schools have far more tools, services, and interventions than most families ever realize.

Support begins the moment your child walks through the door.  Every school uses a layered approach to helping students succeed, much like climbing a ladder. The first rungs include everyday supports that all children receive. As you move up, the next rungs offer extra help for students who need a little more. At the top are individualized plans for students who require more intensive, personalized support.

What many families don’t realize is that most of this help happens long before an IEP or 504 is ever discussed. That’s because frameworks like MTSS and RTI are designed to catch challenges early and provide support right away.

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OT Month: The 504 Plan

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

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.

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OT Month: A Crash Course on School OT

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

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.

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Two-Week Check-In (Mary’s Version)

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

It’s been two weeks since my son officially became a second grader and so far, things are off to a good start.  Thank goodness.

Last year was a bit of a mess. The first two months of his first-grade year were tumultuous, with frequent reprimands and constant negative feedback from the teacher. He started to loathe going to school, feeling like he was a bad kid and couldn’t do anything right. And then she abruptly quit, leaving his class to have a substitute teacher for the next three months. Turns out there were more kids in the same boat. Fortunately, the school was able to find an amazing educator who brought back his love of learning and school in the second half of the academic year.

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Child(ish) Reads: The Learning Game

| Patti Webb

Obviously for #backtoschool, we’re going to review a learning title. I requested The Learning Game from NetGalley earlier this year.

Personally, I may have gotten to a point where parenting books are starting to be redundant. I don’t usually post bad reviews, preferring to just skip over them and share something better. However, I think I’m due for a little rant…

The Learning Game: Teaching Kids to Think for Themselves, Embrace Challenge, and Love Learning by Ana Lorena Fábrega.

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