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Summer Travel Tips
More Than Packing a Bag: Preparing for a Smooth Summer Trip with Your Child Summer travel tips start here, because summer is a fantastic time for family adventures! If you have a child with special needs, creating a travel plan might seem daunting at first. But fear...
Middle School and Handwriting: Part 2 of 2
How to Improve Horrendous Handwriting When All Hope Is Lost PART 2 OF MIDDLE SCHOOL & HANDWRITING When I first learned that I was getting hired in the district where I currently work, I was beyond thrilled. A school district job! It's like winning the lottery!...
Middle School and Handwriting: How to Help Your Child Improve Their Legibility After Elementary School – Part 1
Middle School ANd Handwriting—Part 1 of 2 So many parents lose hope for improving their child's handwriting after elementary school. It definitely can seem hopeless at times. How do you change a habit that has been developed over so many years? There's always the old...
What Is MTSS and Why School OTPs Belong at the Tale Before the Referral Hits
I sat in a meeting early in my career — one of those IEP meetings where you're the only occupational therapist in a room full of people who think OT begins and ends with the referral form. A second-grader had been struggling with handwriting since kindergarten. His...
MTSS for School-Based Therapists: A Free Tier-by-Tier Breakdown
There's a shift happening in school-based therapy right now, and if you've been in any room where MTSS came up lately, you've probably felt it too. I got a front-row seat to just how big that shift is when I presented on MTSS at AOTA INSPIRE 2026 in Anaheim. The room...
Do Songs, Posters, and Visual Cues Actually Change How Kids Learn Pencil Grasp? (Yes — and Here’s Why)
A few years ago I was doing a PD session for a group of first-grade teachers and I taught them the "Alligator Chop" — a grasp cue song where children snap their fingers like an alligator's jaws before picking up their pencil (The TV Teacher, 2011). One teacher in the...
School-based Occupational Therapists at CSEA Union Contract Ratification Vote
It Took 23 Years to Become an Overnight Success.
I’m walking into our union ratification vote today to cast a resounding “YES.” And I’ve got company — our two newest district therapists are walking in right beside me.
But before we get to the celebration, I want to be entirely real with you about how we got here.
Why Vertical Surfaces Work: The Research Behind One of OT’s Best-Kept Secrets
Walk into most elementary classrooms and you'll see children writing flat on their desks. Worksheets flat. Drawing flat. Coloring flat. Everything flat. Walk into my OT class push-in session and the first thing I do is prop something up. I've been recommending...
Age-by-Age Fine Motor Milestones: What’s Really Normal 📈
A Visual Guide to Pencil Grip Development That Actually Makes Sense Last week, a kindergarten teacher showed me her classroom pencil grasp poster and asked, "Why doesn't this match what I'm seeing with my kids?" She pointed to five different children, each holding...