Interview with a School Based Occupational Therapist – Day in the Life Video Series #5

Julie started out as a realtor but after having a family she started to realize that her career was hard with young children. She went to the local community college and took a career assessment. Occupational therapy came up and the rest is history for her!

She started out in skilled nursing and then made the leap to schools. We talk about how it is almost like having two very different jobs.

Julie works in a school system and there are five OTs. She is lucky enough to work in one building and a few students in their homes. Her student base is individuals with autism which she loves. It is always different and very rewarding!

We talked about how difficult it was during COVID for her student base and how her younger students post-pandemic are still struggling.

In addition, she discusses other environmental factors that influence the students’ abilities to achieve their goals.

“The best thing about my job is the one to one interaction with the kids. The kids look forward to coming to therapy. Seeing all the growth that they have had through the years is very rewarding.”

Julie uses pictures quite a bit to work on handwriting with students. She saves photos that she takes for descriptive writing pieces. She suggests keeping your eye out for pictures of people in action versus people posed. Then you can get the student to talk about it and then put it on paper to practice handwriting.