Ideas at Play: An Occupational Therapy (OT) Podcast
Welcome to Ideas at Play, the go-to podcast for busy pediatric occupational therapy professionals! Whether you're in school-based settings, early intervention, or outpatient practice, we bring you evidence-based strategies, practical tips, and engaging discussions to support your OT practice with children, teens, and young adults.
Each episode features:
- A deep dive into recent pediatric OT research and how to apply it.
- "Nailed It or Failed It," where we share what’s working—and what isn’t—in our pediatric OT practice.
- Real-world examples and listener questions about all things pediatric occupational therapy.
- Shout outs to People, Places, and Products that fill our occupational therapy hearts
Join the hosts, Michele Alaniz, OTD, OTR/L, BCP and Lacy Wright, OTD, OTR/L, BCP, as we explore innovative OT ideas, share professional insights, and help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends in pediatric occupational therapy. Subscribe now and unlock actionable strategies to help the children you serve thrive!
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
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📧 Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉 Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play
Keywords: occupational therapy, OT, pediatric occupational therapy, evidence based practice, peds OT
Episodes
81 episodes
Ep. 80 OT in Aotearoa New Zealand
Picture a beach in Aotearoa New Zealand — a gnarled pōhutukawa tree perfect for climbing, a rope swing hanging over the sand, and a stick sized exactly to a child's height, ready for a game passed down through generations. In this milestone ...
Ep. 79 Executive Function (Working Memory) Strategies for Autism and ID
A 6 year-old can't hold onto multi-step directions long enough to follow them — not because he isn't listening, but because his working memory drops the information before he can act on it. This week, Michele brings a real case to the table ...
Ep. 78 Handwriting, ADHD, and Telehealth
Can a therapist facilitate meaningful handwriting improvement through telehealth? A recent randomized controlled trial out of Ankara, Turkey put that question to the test with kids ages six to eight with the inattentive type of ADHD — and th...
Ep. 77 Outcome Measures for Autistic Preschoolers
Michele found 74 outcome measures to consider for her autistic preschoolers! She and Lacy discuss the top measures from the recent scoping review: which tools show up most in the research, which ones earn a five-star rating for covering the ...
Summer of Discovery: Building a Money Management Program from Scratch
Too cartoonish. Too advanced. Too many worksheets — nothing fit, so Lacy built her own money management program from scratch. This week she's breaking down exactly how she did it: from backwards design to key ingredients and changes made alo...
Summer of Discovery: Building & Trialing a Sensory Activity Schedule
“Sensory” is everywhere in pediatric OT, but how do you actually know if and when to try a sensory activity schedule? How do you set one up? When do you know if it is working — or if you're just guessing and hoping? This week, Michele ...
Summer of Discovery: Building a Fieldwork Program
Ep. 74 Michele and Lacy continue their Summer of Discovery series. This time, Lacy shares what she's learned from supervising more than 50 fieldwork students, from building a program to knowing exactly when to loop in the academic fiel...
Summer of Discovery: Little Spot of Feelings
Ep. 73. This summer, Michele and Lacy are switching things up with a six-episode series sharing programs or topics they genuinely love. The research articles may not always be front and center, but the same clinical reasoning is. First up, M...
Ep. 72 What New OTs Really Want in a Job (Encore)
What do early career occupational therapists really prioritize when choosing their first OT job? Spoiler alert: salary ranks 9th out of 16 factors. In this episode, we break down a fascinating Canadian study that surveyed early career occupa...
Ep. 71 Aquatic Therapy: Using the Pool for More Than Swim Lessons (Encore)
When you think of therapy in the swimming pool, swim lessons probably come to mind. However, occupational therapy practitioners use water for so many life skills! This week, Michele dives into research from Spain that reveals how aquatic the...
Ep. 70 Listener Questions: Pediatric OT in the Real World (Round 2)
Episode 70 calls for something special! We tackle your real-world pediatric OT questions, from the buzzwords worth knowing to the advice that actually sticks. Thank you for being the heart of this podcast. Here's to 70 more! <...
Ep. 69 Comparing Motor Interventions for Autism
Motor skill difficulties show up in nearly 9 out of 10 autistic kids, which means this question comes up in almost every caseload: what motor-based intervention actually works? This week we dig into a 2025 study that compares three different...
Ep 68 CIMT Summer Camp
Ever wondered how to actually do constraint-induced movement therapy? This week, we discuss a 2025 randomized trial out of Texas Women's University that ran a pirate-themed CIMT summer camp for kids with unilateral cerebral palsy — 60 hours,...
Ep. 67 Polyvagal Theory and Listening Programs
We're covering two topics that kept coming up in your emails and are linked in the literature — polyvagal theory and listening programs. Michele walks us through the principles of polyvagal theory, the recent scientific debate around it, and...
Ep. 66 Ayres SI vs. ABA
The study we've been waiting for is finally here. An NIH-funded, head-to-head RCT pits Ayres Sensory Integration against ABA for autistic children with sensory differences — and we have thoughts. We're breaking down what makes these two appr...
Ep. 65 Early Intervention: The GAME Approach
Can a home program alone replace clinic-based therapy? This week, we put it to the test with a randomized controlled study on the GAME intervention (Goal, Activity, Motor, Enrichment) for toddlers with developmental delays. We discuss the st...
Ep. 64 Handwriting Research Tour (yes, skip the pencil grips)
If you've ever debated pencil grips or the perfect grasp pattern in an IEP meeting, this episode is for you. We take a tour of the handwriting literature — pulling from OT, education, ergonomics, and hand therapy — to find out what actually ...
Ep. 63 Preparing Autistic Teens for Adulthood
If you work with older kids, you know the feeling — suddenly your caseload has a teenager and the stakes feel higher, the clock feels shorter, and the parents feel more anxious than ever. Good news: the research has some clear direction on w...
Ep. 62 CVI Interventions
Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is the leading cause of low vision in children and one of the most underidentified conditions in pediatric practice. This week, we are getting into the research about CVI, sharing a free tool for collaboratin...
Ep. 61 Improving Food Intake & Family Vibes
Feeding therapy doesn’t have to feel like a power struggle. In this episode, we explore how shifting from pressure to partnership can improve food intake and family vibes. We discuss new research on responsive feeding ...
Ep. 60 Ideas at Work Highlights
We're celebrating episode 60 by going inside our Ideas at Work pilot group. Real therapists, real sessions, real problem-solving. We troubleshoot a tough emotional regulation session, share how one therapist used a basketball intervention, a...
Ep. 59 Coaching in Early Intervention
Most OTs in early intervention think they're coaching, BUT the research says otherwise. In this episode, we discuss a scoping review on caregiver coaching in early intervention — the five key ingredients, why the model...
Ep. 58 Zippers: An OT + Speech Approach
Most of us teach zippers the same way—repeat, repeat, repeat—and hope it clicks. But what if there’s a better way? In this episode, we break down a simple, creative approach to teaching zippering skills that combines OT and speech strategies...
Ep. 57 Sensory Activity Schedules
Sensory activity schedules—often called sensory diets—are used every day in school-based therapy, but how strong is the evidence behind them? In this episode, we review a recent systematic review that examined whether sensory activity schedu...
Ep. 56 OT Interventions for Autistic Children (20 Strategies!)
Evidence-based OT for autism can feel overwhelming—but what if you had a clear menu of strategies to choose from? In this episode, we break down a study that identified 20 treatment components pediatric OTs use with autistic children and org...