Curriculum Development?

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curriculum development fromhttps://www.yourtherapysource.com/coleman.html Have you ever considered developing a specific curriculum for pediatric occupational, physical or speech therapy?  If you are a new therapist to an educational delivery model of therapy you may not be familiar with curriculum in the school systems.  By definition, curriculum refers to the lessons and materials that students will interact with to reach educational goals.  Most elementary and high schools follow a specific curriculum for each subject.  So this brings me back to the original question – have you ever considered developing curriculum for occupational, physical or speech therapy?  This can be a daunting project that will take many hours of research and development.  But if you work in a district, where you are able to push into the classrooms having a curriculum in place may be very beneficial.

Ready to take on the task?  Here are some steps you need to take to develop a curriculum in your school.

Step 1:  Identify areas of need.  What problems are arising in the classrooms?  What do teachers find students need the most help with?  Basically what is the purpose of the curriculum?  Are teachers willing to collaborate?

Step 2:  Determine what the students needs are.  I realize we have to go by each student’s IEP but is there an overall pattern of deficits for the students on your caseload?

Step 3:  Establish measurable goals and  specific objectives.  This does not mean IEP goals.  How will you assess the skills of the students following the curriculum?

Step 4:  Determine what educational strategies you will use.  What will the teaching approach be?

Step 5:  How will you implement the curriculum?  What staff will you need?

Step 6:  How will you complete a meaningful evaluation of the curriculum?

Not up for the task, or if you need a starting point, you may find the Coleman Curriculum for School Based Occupational Therapy by Thomas Coleman, OTR helpful. This electronic document is a curriculum for occupational therapy in the schools from Kindergarten through Third Grade. Skills are discussed, examined and explained for everyone to understand.  You can find out more about this ebook here.

Coleman Front Cover

School Based Therapy Resolutions for 2015

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School Based Therapy Resolutions 2015 from www.YourTherapySource.com

clip art by educlips

Here are some suggestions for school based therapy resolutions:

1. Realistic Home/Classroom Programs – I will make every effort to provide parents and teachers with activities that are easy to carry out in the home or classroom.

2. Take the time to observe – I will take the time to just observe. I will document observations in the classroom or home in writing or with photographs. It is very difficult to determine needs if you do not have an idea of baseline issues.

3. Make the children part of the therapy process – I will incorporate the children in each therapy session by allowing them to make choices. I will discuss goal setting with each child.

4. Be patient – I will encourage children to think critically and problem solve independently by allowing them enough time to form a motor response without interfering. Therapy sessions usually only last 30 minutes and we want to jam pack them with activities. Slow down and let the children respond – quality is better than quantity. Let me re-phrase that…independence is better than dependence (regardless of quality at times).

5. Document correctly in a timely manner – I will document therapy sessions immediately following the session so that the documentation is accurate.

6. Set a goal for each therapy session – I will set small, realistic goals for each therapy session.

7. Keep it fun, fun, fun!!!! – I will keep therapy sessions fun. Some children have to attend therapy sessions for years, keep it novel, motivating and fun.

Care to add to the list with your goals for 2015?

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Survey Results from Caseload Size 2014

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caseload survey 2014 from www.YourTherapySource.comThe results are in from the survey on caseload size.  There were over 300 therapists who responded.  The numbers varied significantly and the averages have been reported.

I hypothesized that the OTs would have the highest caseload numbers in the school districts.  I thought this would be the case since children can be grouped or perhaps more on consultation. In hindsight, I wish I asked for more information instead of just a number ie how many schools, how many are consult visits, etc.

I was shocked to see that some therapists have more than 100 students on their caseload!!!!

You can view all the results at https://www.yourtherapysource.com/surveycaseload2014.html

Please take a quick moment to answer two questions on when your annual reviews are due at https://www.yourtherapysource.com/survey.html

8 Tips to Get Organized this School Year

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get organized this school year www.YourTherapySource.com

School-based therapists have a tough job in terms of keeping all the paperwork requirements in an organized fashion.  With large caseloads and different schools, it can be a daunting task to keep it all in order.  Here are few ideas to help your stay organized during the school year:

1. Try using one color folder per school.  For example, for every student at school XYZ use a red folder.  For each student at school, ABC use a blue folder.

2. In each student’s file, keep a general information page including goals.

3. Keep a binder for all your daily notes.  Using file folder dividers with tabs, write the student’s name on the file folder tab.  Try to keep it in alphabetical order to quickly find a student’s name.  Download this Therapy Planner to get started right away.

4. Keep a file folder with your most popular handouts in your bag.  When teachers or parents need extra information on a popular topic you will have it all at your fingertips.  Check out all of our handouts for ideas at Your Therapy Source.

5. Keep a pack of sticky notes ready to jot down a note or reminders.  At the end of the day transfer any information on the sticky note to the proper location.

6.  Put your most popular electronic resources on a flash drive.  Maybe you find yourself always using specific brain breaks, handwriting pages or seasonal activities.  Store them all on a flash drive on your keychain or your bag so that you have access to a whole library of activities no matter what school you are working in that day.

7.  Save PDF documents to your tablet i.e. iBooks on the iPad.  You can access activity ideas and books directly from your iPad and print if needed.

8.  Schedule a meeting with yourself at the end of the week to stay organized.  Create a time slot in your schedule at the end of the day (or at home) to sit down go through all the important papers from the week and re-organize to get ready for the upcoming week.  It will be a time saver in the long run.

 

Stay organized with the Therapy Planner.  The new, updated planners are ready for you to get started on organizing your work life.

Free Scheduling Cards for OT and PT

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OT PT scheduling cards from www.yourtherapysource.com

These are ready just in time for the start of the school year (or use them anytime you change your schedule to update everyone).  These scheduling cards are the size of business cards.  Use them to inform teachers, students and parents what day and time a student has therapy and to provide your contact information.

You can even type right on them and then print them out (you only have to type in one card and it will repeat on all 10 on the page).  Then manually fill in student’s name, day and time when ready to hand out the card.  Or you can just print them and hand write each card.

You can download the scheduling cards for school based occupational and physical therapy for free!

Free Lesson Plan Form for Therapy Sessions

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lesson planTherapists can follow in the footsteps of teachers and create lesson plans for therapy sessions. This can be especially useful for group sessions or push in therapy. When the lesson plan is written, provide a copy to the teacher or parent to inform them of your goals for the session. It is a great way to establish better communication between the special education team.

Here is some information to include when creating a plan for a therapy session:

1. Goal: Establish the primary goal of the session.

2. Materials Needed: List the equipment necessary for the session.

3. IEP Goals Being Met: List the student’s IEP goals that are being addressed.

4. Instruction:

a. Explain to the children what the goal is of the session

b. Write down all the steps you will take to reach the goal

5. Evaluate: How will you evaluate whether the goal was reached?

a. Formal

b. Informal

c. Rubric

d. Test

6. Closure: Wrap up the session reviewing and/or summarizing the skills that were taught.

7. Modifications: List any modifications that can adapt the lesson plan for each child if necessary.

Not only will you be prepared for the therapy session, you will be prepared for documentation and planning for the next session.

Download the form at https://www.yourtherapysource.com/lessonplan.html to get started.

School Based Therapy Resolutions

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Since I posted these last year and certainly did not accomplish them all I though it was worth repeating below for 2013.  As I reflect on 2012 some goals were easier to reach than others – as for myself I was able to accomplish #3, #5, #6 and #7.  I definitely need to work on taking the time to observe, #2.  I frequently rush to get to the “meat and potatoes” of a treatment session rather than slowing down and fine tuning my observation skills (this is a bad habit).  So obviously I am not great about being patient, #4 – I tend to jam pack therapy sessions with too many activities.  I really need to slow down and let children problem solve more rather than rush along to the next activity.  I am getting better at this. 

Below are the goals I posted last year – How about setting some basic goals yourself to accomplish in 2013. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Realistic Home/Classroom Programs – I will make every effort to provide parents and teachers with activities that are easy to carry out in the home or classroom.

2. Take the time to observe – I will take the time to just observe. I will document observations in the classroom or home in writing or with photographs. It is very difficult to determine needs if you do not have an idea of baseline issues.

3. Make the children part of the therapy process – I will incorporate the children in each therapy session by allowing them to make choices. I will discuss goal setting with each child.

4. Be patient – I will encourage children to think critically and problem solve independently by allowing them enough time to form a motor response without interfering. Therapy sessions usually only last 30 minutes and we want to jam pack them with activities. Slow down and let the children respond – quality is better than quantity. Let me re-phrase that…independence is better than dependence (regardless of quality at times).

5. Document correctly in a timely manner – I will document therapy sessions immediately following the session so that the documentation is accurate.

6. Set a goal for each therapy session – I will set small, realistic goals for each therapy session.

7. Keep it fun, fun, fun!!!! – I will keep therapy sessions fun. Some children have to attend therapy sessions for years, keep it novel, motivating and fun.

Care to add to the list with your goals for 2013?  I plan on focusing more on #2 and 4 which means I have to be more patient.  Hopefully I do not repeat myself again next year!

Be Organized this School Year

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The start of the school year is approaching or here for some of you. Start the year off right with these tips to get organized:

  1. Create an organized caseload list of your students. Include all information such as teacher’s names, parents’ names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, frequency and duration of therapy sessions. If you have all the information on one handy list it will make it much easier to contact the team members throughout the school year.
  2. Check your caseload versus workload. It can be very difficult to stay organized if there is not enough hours in the day to complete your daily job. Try filling out this caseload/workload calculator to determine if your workload is appropriate. This calculator helps you to determine exactly how many minutes per week you are spending on different services including paperwork.
  3. Use forms to streamline paperwork. It is much easier to stay on top of mounting paperwork with pre-made forms. Check out School Based OT Forms or School Based PT Forms.
  4. Be prepared with data collection. Create different forms or use retail data collection tools to follow students closely regarding attaining goals. You can create free forms using Google Docs for goals. Check out this blog post, Collecting Data in the School, Home or Clinic, for more information on using Google Docs. Try The Scale of Sensory Strategies (S.O.S.S.) Tool Kitâ„¢ for data collection for sensory diets.
  5. Leave time for paperwork. Don’t forget to schedule paperwork time into your schedule. Perhaps the last few minutes of a therapy session you can jot down a quick note. Use a voice recorder following each session that transmits to text for you. Make it routine so it does not pile up on you.