Supporting Students with Challenging Behavior
Supporting students with challenging behavior requires more than responding to behaviors after they occur. In his interview at the 2026 Inclusive Classrooms Summit, Dr. Ross Greene Ph.D explained why many school systems are “set up to be late” when responding to student behavior – and what educators, therapists, and school teams can do differently. Drawing […]
Understanding Interoception in the Classroom
Interoception is about understanding the internal body signals that can influence how learners in a classroom feel, regulate, respond, and participate throughout the school day. While many educators are familiar with external sensory experiences like hearing, seeing, or touch, interoception focuses on what is happening inside the body – signals related to hunger, thirst, fatigue, […]
Therapy That Supports Access to the Curriculum
What does it really mean for therapy to support access to the curriculum? In school-based practice, this question is central to effective intervention. Therapists are not just working on isolated skills, but the added challenge is to make sure that those skills that are being improved are helping students to participate within the classroom environment. […]
From Caseload to Workload: Structuring Therapy Services Across Tiers
Moving from a caseload to workload model in school-based therapy is more than a trend. It is a necessary shift. As therapists look to increase their impact beyond pull-out sessions, this approach focuses on how time is spent, not just how many students are on the caseload. During an interview at the 2026 Inclusive Classrooms […]
7 Ways to Collaborate Better with Teachers as a School-Based Therapist
Collaboration between school-based therapists and teachers is essential for creating meaningful, sustainable support for students. Yet in busy school environments, collaboration can easily become surface-level or inconsistent. At the 2026 Inclusive Classroom Summit, occupational therapist Jennifer Kubinski, OTR/L, shared practical strategies to help therapists move beyond check-ins and toward true partnership. She emphasizes that effective […]
IEP goal writing strategies
When it comes to writing IEP goals, most of us have been trained to follow the SMART framework – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. On the surface, this makes sense. We want goals that are clear and trackable. But in practice, something often gets lost. As occupational therapist Kelsie Olds, known as “The Occuplaytional […]
Building Clinical Reasoning for Sensory Practice
Clinical reasoning for sensory processing is essential for professionals working with children, yet translating sensory theory into effective practice can be challenging. Many therapists, educators, and clinicians understand that sensory processing influences behavior, learning, and participation – but knowing the theory and applying it meaningfully in everyday environments are two very different things. This was […]
Understanding Experience Poverty Through a Developmental Lens
In today’s digital childhood, many children are experiencing what researchers call “experience poverty.” When children move, explore, play, and interact with others, they build the neural pathways that support language, regulation, motor skills, and social understanding. Yet many clinicians, educators, and families are noticing something different about modern childhood. Children are often busy, supervised, and […]
The Power of Pretend Revisited: Building Language and Cognition Through Imagination
Pretend play in therapy is far more than make-believe – it’s a powerful way to build language, cognition, problem solving, and social understanding in children. For therapists and educators working with young learners, pretend play offers a natural and engaging way to support development across multiple domains. Whether children are pretending a banana is a […]
Utilizing a Strengths-Based Framework That Is Child-Centered and Play-Focused
A strengths-based play therapy framework reframes how we approach intervention. Rather than centering clinical decision-making on deficits and delays, this approach builds from a child’s existing capabilities to support participation, confidence, and meaningful progress. Traditional training often teaches therapists to identify gaps, analyze low scores, and target what falls below average. Goals are written around […]