Based on interacting with dozens of schools and many, many, many students, I see a few common denominators:
- Lack of time.
- Teachers want to serve their students in the best way possible.
- Students with uneven development.
- Preschoolers are supposed to be reading instead of finger-painting.
- There are conflicting opinions and information on education and child development.
- Teachers and staff have no time for professional development/training.
Here is how Miami Handwriting’s Occupational Therapy Professional Development Program can help:
- We customize the help given to each school – We will meet with the administration and get information from your teachers to create a program that will equip your staff with what they need.
- We have access to professionals in the community. We have amazing colleagues in the community that can discuss anything from language development to dealing with parents, reading strategies for your challenging reader, etc.
- The school will have access to my Real-life OT Consult@ (My favorite service for families and schools!) for students who need structured interventions that the ENTIRE team can provide. It will give us real information and strategies we can implement throughout the child’s day.
- Professional one-on-one intervention for those students who need the assistance.
Occupational Therapy Professional Development
Mini Sessions:
Each occupational therapy professional development mini session can easily be added to a staff meeting or lunch.
Sessions are approximately 60 minutes.
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- How to teach grip in preschoolers.
- Current research on Homework.
- How to incorporate flexible seating in your classroom.
- How to embed handwriting in your science lesson. Yes, science.
- How to embed fine motor skills in your daily routine.
- What supplies will support students in the classroom?
- How do you tell a parent their kiddo needs extra support.
Each occupational therapy professional development mini session is about 60 minutes—45 minutes of content, with the rest of the hour for questions, comments, and good stuff.
At $250 each you can choose one or even better, we can develop a customized mini program for your team.
Occupational Therapy Professional Development WORKSHOP SERIES:
These occupational therapy professional development workshops are a little longer, and they dive into specific topics to really help support your staff where needed.
Why do They do “That”? ©
This occupational therapy professional development will explain the 7 sensory systems and how they can affect regulation. This information will give teachers a new perspective when dealing with challenging behavior.
After this professional development, your staff will be able to:
- Understand what the 7 sensory systems are.
- Understand the difference between a working sensory system and a “disorganized” sensory system.
- Understand why certain behaviors may occur.
How Can We Help? The sequel. ©
This occupational therapy professional development will give hands-on strategies to organize each of the 7 sensory systems. This information will add to the teacher’s “bag of tricks” for classroom management.
After this professional development, your staff will be able to:
- Understand what activities we can offer to organize the 7 sensory systems.
- Understand what activities to avoid.
- Offer adaptations to support each student’s sensory needs and help them independently.
The Sensory Intelligent System ©
This occupational therapy professional development will leave your teachers with the tools and words to label the feeling associated with the sensory system. They, in turn, can “teach” the students what they are feeling and appropriate options to deal with it.
After this professional development, your staff will be able to:
- Explain the sensory system to students.
- Provide safe options to handle those big feelings that come along with the sensory system.
- Have at least one strategy for each system that the student can implement in the classroom.
Crawling to Crayons©
This professional development explains the importance of using normal development to foster skills needed to develop motor proficiency for handwriting.
After this occupational therapy professional development, your staff will be able to:
- Understand normal development and its impact on handwriting.
- To create activities that will enhance the normal development of motor skills needed for handwriting.
- Use development to gauge if a student needs extra support.
Handwriting: The OT Perspective ©
This professional development will explain how to teach handwriting and the visual and fine motor skills that go with it. This professional development will take the teachers from pre-K readiness to print to cursive. This can be applied to any curriculum.
After this professional development, your staff will be able to:
- Teach readiness skills needed in preschool and kinder.
- Use evidence-based techniques to teach printing and cursive.
- Use evidence-based techniques to embed handwriting instruction into everyday lessons.
Stepping Into Handwriting
This course developed by the Handwriting Without Tears program is used to teach teachers how to teach handwriting. Nicole will add customized value to each lesson based on your needs.
This course consists of ten lessons that include:
- Practice with hands-on tools.
- Online video study aids.
- A cost-effective way to train your entire staff.
To the Classroom and Beyond ©
This professional development will explain how critical “thinking” executive function skills develop right in your classroom. Knowing what skill is developing is key to scale learning and activities to set up our kiddos for success AND permanent learning of skills that go way beyond the classroom.
After completing this professional development, your teachers will:
- Be able to identify the “thinking” executive skills.
- Understand what happens if they lack any of these “thinking” executive skills.
- Learn how to support and develop these skills.
To the Classroom and Beyond 2©
This professional development will explain how critical “doing” executive function skills develop right in your classroom. Knowing what skills are developing is key to scale learning and activities to set up our kiddos for success AND permanent learning of skills that go way beyond the classroom.
After completing this professional development, your teachers will:
- Be able to identify the “doing” executive skills.
- Understand what happens if they lack any of these “action” executive skills.
- Learn how to support and develop these skills. (This is my favorite part because each skill CAN and WILL develop with the right support.)
***Yoo-hoo!!!****
PS; Please note the best way to support your staff is to add the on-site consulting and follow up in the classroom to provide instruction to the students and/or teachers as needed. Basically, it helps get all the good information in action in the classrooms where it needs to be.
Do you want more information on how I can help your teachers and support staff?
Fill out this Teacher PD form!!
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