I was searching the Internet for something I had written about a child’s handwriting progress as I wanted to bring up the picture for his upcoming IEP meeting – essentially when we started together, it was some of the worst I had seen – I had all these papers with a single line or two on them with pencil, then red marker scribbles on the rest. Now the handwriting is so amazing.

I loved this article as it really speaks to what I appreciate and what I strive for – a constant transparency to a process from beginner to expert and all the problems along the way that have to be solved, as well as true curiosity about experiences for all, thinking outside the box, etc etc. 

I’m trying extra extra hard this year to remember that LEADERS MAKE LEADERS, NOT FOLLOWERS. 

I work in elementary schools and obviously we work on functional classroom based tasks. But sometimes, for example, I’m asking a little girl to show me how to wrap a rubber band around a pile of popsicle sticks the way they sometimes do in class, working on basic functional utensils exposure, etc. I volunteer the information it’s like doing a ponytail. She says she doesn’t know how (and is way old enough to be capable). I promptly ripped the ponytail holder out of my hair to have her watch me slowly and carefully go through the steps, then helped her. We had just done a lot of challenging work writing and focusing, so our “break” was still OT but in a more personal way, ie not something that ends up in an IEP goal. 

Tonight I was trying to help a friend/new hooper how to do the “snake” like moves where you hula hoop on your chest. She was struggling and as I watched to analyze the task and break down where the issue was, I realized that it was due to her stiffness in that she struggled with scapular retraction, bringing her scapulas together in the back – she tended to subtly compensate by leaning slightly backwards so it took a while to figure out. I put my hands solidly on her hips to isolate and began to work with her on isolating her upper body and circling with emphasis on scapular retraction- but she needed more assistance than I could provide with two hands, so I enlisted her husband. He took over solidly holding her hips for me and I took over guiding the circular movements and using my hand to help encourage her scapular retraction when the movement called for it.

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I was walking up to our room with my two OT kids. The girl volunteered to me that she was Irish and German. The little boy piped up “I’m Irish because I like to dance like this,” and with a serious face, started bouncing up and down with his legs in a jig while his arms stayed by his side. Very Lord of the Dance. Loved it.

Love these stories…my kids make me laugh and teach me new things every day!

One of my moms told me this story about our little OT boy. She was talking to her son about me and she referenced me as Miss Awesome. He (who is also in speech therapy) said indignantly to her, “It’s Miss AwesomeNESS, Mom. She’s a girl!”

The worksheet said “An aunt crawled up my arm” and the boy needed to figure out what was wrong.

Us, hinting: “There are two kinds of aunts…” (we pronounce both like the bug here!)

Him: Red and black?

Us: Yes, that’s true….how about one is a name starting with ant….

Him: Antonym???

The aide and I looked at each other and laughed. He was right each time. Finally we got into the description, but awesome the way his brain versus ours was working – such an insight into how all our brains perceive things so differently.

Recently I had a 2nd grade boy who was reaching the limits of his and our patience at the end of a day. The speech therapist and I were checking in with him. 

Being an OT can be so funny/fun sometimes. I’ve really been amused lately by the “magic word” answers I’ve been getting….I think I’m going to ask all my kids and write down their answers. Most know the answer is “please”, but the ones that don’t always crack me up.

Me: What’s the magic word?

Child (tentatively): iPad?

Young child, ie 5ish: Open this for me?

Me: Not qui—-

Child: Open sesame?