Back to (teletherapy) school: 5 tips to start the year right!

Planning for the start of the school year looks a little different when you are working virtually. If you’re an OT, PT or SLP, or teacher doing teletherapy this year, here are 5 tips to start you off on the right foot. Don’t forget to grab your FREE parent handout!

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I’m trying to get a jump start on as much preparation as I can to try and balance the start of this new school year.

Gone are the days of organizing my papers, toys, and therapy supplies. As an Occupational Therapist that works 100% virtually now, my teletherapy supplies look a little different.

I’ve learned a lot about organizing my sessions over the past 4 years that I’m going to share with you in this post.

Whether you’re new to teletherapy or a seasoned pro, here are 5 things to check off your list before school starts to make it as smooth as possible.

Tip #1: Practice

Practice using your platform and all of the tech gear that you might want to have this year. Here are some of the things that are helpful to know how to use when doing teletherapy:

Screen share (for sharing websites, images, etc). Know how to give mouse control to your student too!
Sharing another device (iphone/ipad) or webcam. The webcam is essential for me when I’m working on writing and I also use it to play games such as Spot It or when modeling how to build something with blocks or playdoh.
I have a Logitech webcam with a mini tripod stand similar to this one. I like having the camera on the tripod so I can get a close-up view for writing activities and position it further away when I am building things.
Some therapists like using a headset during their sessions but I prefer to go without because I like to move around a lot!

Tip #2: Organize

Organize your files electronically. I organize each of my materials by month since I like to do a lot of theme-based activities. My therapy platform houses all of my digital files so I have lots of activities ready to go.

If your therapy platform doesn’t have this feature, creating a google document with all the links and activities you want to use for the month could work. Also, make sure to bookmark your favorite links for easy access in session.

I’ve also been creating digital products in my shop that consist of google slides with all the monthly-themed activities and links already done for you. I plan to use these with preschool-2nd grade students. You can check them out here!

In each of my monthly files, I make sure to have the following:

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drawing activities
writing prompts
games
word searches
songs
movement activities
crafts

Think about how you’ll structure your actual sessions as well. Mine typically look like this:

Check in with familyparaprofessional/teacher-what’s working/what’s not working
Inquire about weekly school assignments
Review the plan for the session (visual if needed)
Check in with student (Zones or faces scale)
Movement/Regulation activity
Activity of the day
Movement break (if needed)
Free choice (if time allows)
Feedback and Education
Plan with student and family/paraprofessional/teacher what to do in between sessions and what to work on next session

Tip # 3: Create your workspace

I have wheels on my desk since I sometimes like to change my environment throughout the school year-did I mention already that I like to move around a lot?

Little did I know that once we were all quarantined, my desk on wheels would visit almost every room in my house just to try and find a quiet workspace. I highly recommend putting some wheels on your desk too if you’ll be needing a mobile office too!

A smaller room with carpet limits the echo if you’re not using a headset and placing yourself somewhere that limits the visual clutter in the background is best.

Other items that I need for my workspace each day include:

Small dry erase boards and dry erase markers for writing/drawing
Card games
Puppets and holiday props
Playdoh
Coins for fine motor warmup
Pencils for warmups and demonstrating grasp
Paper
A large ball or scarf for gross motor play
Yoga mat
Water bottle
Fabric storage bin to store my supplies

Tip #4: Shift your mindset

For those of you that have tried teletherapy during the pandemic…Did you learn some things?

Now is the time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t and how things may need to shift for this online school year.

As a school-based therapist, I believe it’s important that we remember that we are related services and our job is to support our students with their educational curriculum.

The families that I was most successful with during the pandemic were the ones in which I helped support their student’s learning through problem-solving, adapting, and educating on their student’s abilities.

Supporting the families and/or teachers with the student’s classroom assignments and how to modify and/or teach them to use assistive technology for writing was helpful.

I also worked on adapting those school goals and relating them to functional, everyday tasks the students were performing at home to lessen the families already full plate.

Differentiation of instruction will continue to be something we will need to troubleshoot with virtual learning families as well as supporte them with these new routines.

As therapists, we have a unique range of skills and expertise to help families with finding the “just-right” challenge for our students. This is a skill that can be of great value to our families and students this school year.

Want to learn more about how to coach? You can read more about coaching in this post.

Tip #5: Set the stage

I believe the main focus this year more than ever is to connect with our families, teachers, and students and to support them through our ever-changing school environment landscape.

Our families will need grace as they navigate these unchartered waters. My goal this year is to support families and educational professionals and to meet them where they’re at and continue to be mindful about adding more things to their already full plates.

Find out what your families and teachers are struggling with and help them to find functional, creative solutions. It’s time to get out of the clinic-based mentality and back to our therapy roots of supporting the whole child and educational team!

It’s also time to get organized and draft your parent letters introducing yourself and spelling out the expectations. Make sure to include things like your cancellation/makeup policy, office hours, best way to reach you, and types of specific skills you can help their child with.

If you’ll be doing teletherapy this year, I drafted a “What to expect from teletherapy?” geared towards school-aged families that will be doing distance learning to explain more about what teletherapy is and what it’s not.

FREE Parent Handout

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Grab your FREE Parent handout here

Hopefully, these 5 tips leave you feeling more organized and ready to face the new school year. I’d love to hear from you about other tools/tips you’d like to see on the blog this year to support you. Just comment below or shoot me an email!