School districts in Wayne County have placed a proposal on the November 8th ballot to provide added funding for our schools. It is the “Regional Enhancement Millage Proposal.”
If approved by the entire county, the 2 mil proposal will generate approximately $6.2 million from Dearborn but the District will receive $7.8 million in additional funding for our schools. Money would go to local schools starting this year and the millage expires after six years. Read more
Hi everyone!
This week, Staci and I (as well as Mrs. Kraft, the resource teacher) will be going into classes at Snow to discuss ADHD with the students.
It is important for students to understand this disorder in order to be empathetic and helpful to classmates who may have ADHD.
It is also a great strategy to raise awareness for ADHD and debunk the stigma that comes along with the disorder.
For parents out there who have a child with ADHD, I found that listing names of celebrities that also have this diagnosis can be empowering to children. Below are famous celebrities that have a diagnosis of ADHD (from webmd.com):
Simone Biles (Oympic gold medalist)
Michael Phelps (Olympic gold medalist)
Justin Timberlake (Grammy award winning artist)
Adam Levine (from Maroon 5, Grammy award winning artist)
Jim Carrey (Comedian and actor)
Channing Tatum (actor)
It is important to discuss ADHD with friends, families, and children to continue to raise awareness of this diagnosis and eliminate any stigma!
Thank you!
Joe and Staci
Hi everyone!
Staci and I are super excited to be back and are ready to kick off a new school year!
For today’s blog, I want to discuss a strategy that I incorporate into every one of my treatment sessions: animal walks.
Animal walks are fun and easy exercises that help improve students upper body strength, proximal stability and motor planning. We need all three of these components to be successful in the school environment.
One type of animal walk is called the bear crawl. Students walk on their hands and feet in a 4-point position without allowing their knees to touch the ground. This exercise is great for shoulder strengthening!
Another type of animal walk is called the crab walk. Students start off in the “table position” and use their hands and feet to walk forward/backward/sideways without allowing their bottom to touch the ground. This is another great exercise for upper arms and core.
A third type of animal walk is called the frog jump. The student will start off in a squat position with their hands on the floor in between their knees. Then the student will use their feet/legs to jump up and forward, landing with their feet and hands on the floor. This exercise is great for upper body strengthening and motor planning.
These animal walks are great strategy to help develop motor skills!
Please feel free to comment with any questions!
Have a great day!
Joe and Staci
Dear Parents,
If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.
Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.
Sincerely,
Technology Department
Click here for evidence-based tips to help ensure a successful school year.
Hi Everyone!!
I hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the snow!
Today, we would like to discuss the importance of play!
As school occupational therapist, we promote learning through play. We work on many academic tasks such as writing and cutting. We also work on life skills such as organization and self-feeding as well as promote independence. As OTs, we work on these skills through play. A student’s “occupation” to play is important for the developmental aspects necessary to successfully participate in the school environment. Play promotes development in coordination, emotional maturity, social skills, and self-confidence to try new experiences and explore new environments.
The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), provides multiple resources to help parents learn more about the importance of play as well as how parents and OTs can work together to benefit the child. Below are AOTA’s tip sheets for parents to read over.
Building Play Skills Tip Sheet
Please feel free to leave comments with your questions!
Have a great day!
Sensory input helps maintain a “calm-alert” state for learning. Movement, deep pressure, touch, are examples of sensory input that help maintain this type of learning state. It is helpful to have students complete some type of sensory or movement task prior to seated work. This helps with not only focus/concentration but body awareness and muscle control as well. Children are wired to move so get them moving and you will see that they will be able to focus better. Coloring, peeling and placing stickers are great visual and fine motor activities.
Hi Everyone!
In Occupational Therapy, our students are working hard on visual motor control. Visual motor control is the ability to coordinate visual information with motor output. Examples of visual motor tasks are handwriting, painting, coloring, and cooking.
This week, I developed an activity that incorporates sensory and visual motor integration!
Shaving Cream Mazes!
This activity was super fun and addressed sensory and visual motor control!
For additional fun, I hid objects within the shaving cream and students had to find them!
This is a simple and inexpensive activity that could be easily recreated at home!!
If you have any questions please feel free to comment below!
Have a great day!
Hello everyone!
Hope you are all enjoying the Fall weather and color changes.
In the spirit of the Fall season, we thought we would show you guys a fun and easy activity to do at home.
This week in my OT groups, I had my students make “puffy paint.” “Puffy paint” is super easy to make and is a lot of fun to paint with.
Here are the directions:
This activity is great for visual motor integration, bilateral coordination, and sensory!
That is it for this week! If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to comment!
Have a great rest of the week!