From Crisis to Calling: How Occupational Therapy Changes Lives (and How Moms Can Support Their Kids at Home)

In this heartfelt and informative episode, Sonya Flores interviews occupational therapist Rocio Hoyt, who shares her powerful journey into the field of occupational therapy—sparked by her sister’s recovery from a brain aneurysm.

Rocio opens up about how that life-altering experience shaped her passion for helping others regain independence and confidence. She provides a behind-the-scenes look at what occupational therapy looks like in school settings and how play is used as a powerful tool for learning and development.

This episode is packed with practical guidance for moms, including recognizing early signs that a child may benefit from OT, strengthening fine motor skills at home with everyday items, and effectively advocating for your child within the school system.

Rocio also addresses common myths about occupational therapy, explains developmental milestones in a realistic and supportive way, and encourages parents to focus on progress rather than perfection.

Whether you're a parent, educator, or caregiver, this episode will leave you feeling empowered, informed, and encouraged.

Key Takeaways:

•  Occupational therapy helps children do the things they need and want to do 
•  Play is essential for learning and development 
•  Little progress is meaningful progress 
•  Early awareness and advocacy make a big difference 
•  Simple routines and consistency support both children and parents 

💡 Final reminder: Meet your child where they are—and don’t forget to slow down.

Connect with Rocio: rmvhoyt@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Thank you so much, Christina, for coming on with us. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to become an occupational therapist?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for uh having me on your podcast today, Sonia. I really appreciate that. And of course, I always like to talk about OT because I like to let people know why I did it, how I became about it, you know, and currently I am working with the older population. Going into OT school, I always knew that I wanted to work either pediatrics or the geriatric population, older population. If there was anything in between, I was open to it. But I I wanted to grad school and I was like, okay, I want to do pediatrics or seniors, you know. And the first opportunity that came about when I became an LT, it was working with the pediatric population. And then I was ready to explore other areas. So now I'm doing working with the senior population. The reason why I became an OT, it's there's so many reasons, but the major one is more when my sister had her own experience with OT. She had a rupture, brain aneurysm, and it came out of nowhere, and we had no idea what to expect. She was in ICU for like months, and after that, it was you're left when that happens to your family, you're pretty much left to what now, you know, and you lean on whatever support is out there, and the rehab team plays a very vital role in in the people's recovery, you know. So I uh when that happened to my sister Wendy, I took time off and I wanted to go to every therapy session that she had. She had speech, she had physical therapy, and she had occupational therapy. And of course, we had a million questions as to how is she gonna do this? How is she gonna get back to her life? You know, she was a full-time mom, full-time employee. She was driving, she had a whole life in front of her. And having this diagnosis, it was very um scary. And going to her therapy sessions and seeing her recovery journey, you know, how she became herself little by little again. I was, it just impacted me so much that I was, I thought to myself, I that's the kind of impact I want to have in people's lives. I was already doing a job that was kind of aligned with that, but I felt like I needed more after I saw my sister recover with the appropriate rehab services. So that was that kind of planted the seed in me as to I got it look into some kind of therapy role that I can do. So I went back to work, and when I went back to work, my boss at that time had a meeting with all management, and I was part of management, and she announced that the organization that I was working for was moving in that direction, making it more, you know, creating more accountability for the services and making it more specialized and clinical based. And she mentioned occupational therapy. And that was like my second encounter with occupational therapy, and all management was in charge of treating, not treating, educating and training the new team, the new occupational therapy team that was coming on board more on the organization's mission, the services that we provided. And as I got myself more involved with this team, I remember one of them pretty much kind of swecked the flame and said, Hey, you could be an LT, you're already doing kind of everything that we do, so why don't you consider it in the rest of the century?

SPEAKER_03 5:47

That is truly a remarkable story. Wendy's recovery from a brain aneurysm is wow. Because there are so many people who will have a brain aneurysm and they never come back from it. And many people even pass away from a brain aneurysm.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Correct. Her prognosis at that time was 56. So as you can see, as a family, we were very shook. We were very scared. And I know as her sibling, you know, all of us, you know, as a family, we were there was no price to her recovery. You know, we were, we will do the impossible to make sure that she is back to her occupations, whatever she was doing at that time.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Yes. And that's a true testament as well to how united you are as a family in supporting her recovery process. The whole experience has been a true calling. I mean, you had the experience with what Wendy went through, and now she's she's back to her normal self, running marathons across the world, really. And then you had this experience with the job. I mean, it was a true calling for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, I feel like it was.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

Yes. Could you share with us what does a typical day look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Okay. I'm gonna stick to talking when I was working with the pediatric population. I worked as a school-based occupational therapist. So I was serving two different schools. I was at the elementary level and I was at the middle school level. At the elementary level, myself and my team, we were part of the uh autism program, which now I don't think it's called the autism program. I think it's called the sensory program. We as a team came in and had a a big caseload because that particular school served almost the entire LA County with a program. It's a very good program. So we came in and we all, we each of the therapists, myself included, we all had our own caseload for that school. And a typical day, really, it was full of play. Because children learn through play. So a lot of the times it involved creativity, you know, because if kids get bored, you know, you can't have the same game every time you go in. You always have to kind of be on your toes with the kids that they want, even the toys, you know. So it took a lot of creativity, took a lot of problem solving because I sometimes I will get a very cooperative child, and some days we were not having a good day. So I still needed to maintain that focus. Purpose of this session is play because that's how children learn. That is their main occupation. Aside from like academic stuff that they need to do, kids learn through playing. So I did one-on-one or groups with kids, and our skills for a session, it was always something related to fine motor skills, you know, because we needed to develop those skills and specifically like handwriting and cutting skills, because that's something that's very much part of the everyday life of an elementary child, school age child, you know. And we also did sensory regulation because some of our kiddos had challenges regulating their system, their nervous system, to the environment that was going on around them. So we also addressed that. We also uh communicated with teachers, you know, as to what are some of the occupations that the child needs to function and needs support with in order to fully be emerged in their academic life, you know. A lot of the times that had to do with like self-feeding, you know, during lunchtime or toileting, you know, being able to participate in the test. Maybe not complete the entire task, but participate in the test and learn the skills needed to be able to complete the task independently. So a lot of the times we will play games that revolved around those skills, you know. Um, the child, to the child, it was play. It was a game. But to the therapist, it's like, okay, how am I developing the skills of putting on clothes, putting on shoes, you know, um, going to the bathroom and completing all the the proper sequencing. So we incorporated those skills through like very creative things. I also did ensure that I communicated with teachers, you know, because it was very important to know they're the ones that spend most of the time with the kiddos. So having their feedback as to like, hey, what are some preferred toys for this particular kiddo? Or what are what's the best time to schedule their therapy? When are they gonna be more cooperative? And having that close communication with the teacher really helped in having successful days more than so, than having negative days. You know, of course I'm not gonna lie, there were negative days some days too, you know. But most therapy sessions, it was play-based.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

It was just of true unity, also to work with the teacher and work cohesively as a team.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

It is, and you know, a lot of the times the kids when they tell the therapist, they already know. It's like, okay, it's my playtime. I get to get out of class or I get to be with one person. And but at the end of the day, it's a team, not only with the teacher, but the parents and all the other stakeholders, you know, that is a team for the child, really, you know. And as therapists, we needed to be in connection with every single stakeholder that uh was had been assigned as a team to support this child and make sure that they're functioning to their best of the abilities, you know.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Now, what do you love most about working with children and their families?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I think what I love the most was seeing their growth. You know, even if it was minimal, and sometimes parents want it to go very fast, you know, like I'm not seeing this, I'm not seeing that, oh, I want them to do this, I want them to do that. But for me, just seeing their growth, something so minor as when I started working with this child, they were not grasping properly, they were not engaging in handwriting tasks. Now it's been three months, you know, and now they're they have no apprehension to a pencil, they have no apprehension to paper. They I can get them to do some handwriting, seeing those small gains with the child and seeing their confidence grow every time we met, you know, it was just so rewarding, you know, just and collecting those samples for the family, you know, because at the end of the year we do have a meeting with the parents and the entire team, and we bring everything to the table. We're like, well, let me tell you what your child has been doing. And seeing the parents' face as to like, wait a minute, what they've been doing. He did that, they did that, she did that. It was very rewarding to see that growth, you know, and kind of reassuring the parent, you know, like you may not see exponential changes, but the therapy is working. Your child is participating more, your child is not crying anymore because they have to cut things and it's challenging for them, or they're not crying anymore because they have to do handwriting and it's so challenging for them, so difficult. They're not doing that, they're actually engaging now. They may not be a hundred percent, but even if they give me 25%, that's what I want to see. So seeing those uh like games little by little, and of course, at the end of the school year, when you see, wow, I got this child when they were like really, they just want to play board games or they just want to play interactive games, and now we can sit there and write three sentences. That's what I thought it was like very rewarding about working with the kids.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Progress over perfection.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I was like, if they give me one sentence by the end of the year, maybe next time they're gonna give me two or three. Even my goals were very attainable goals when I created goals for, of course, I had a very good connection with the child, with the teacher, with the family. I always make sure that I created goals that were attainable for the child going into either the next school year or the next IEP term, whatever it was, you know. It was I want to make sure that I'm setting this child for success. So the next time a meeting comes by, an IET meeting comes by, the parent does get a report where, like, hey, we were here a year ago, and this is where we are now. As you can see, your child has made this progress. So I think that was very rewarding to see.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Wonderful. Now, could you tell us for moms who may not be familiar, how would you explain occupational therapy in just the most simple of terms?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

The way that I will say it, because we did have parents were like, well, what's LTO? Is that, well, I'm here to help your child do the things that they need to do and that they want to do. What does a child want to do? A child wants to play, they want to learn, eating, because you know, lunch, snacks, they want to do all of that. They want to make sure that they have a little bit of independence. They want to be able to pick their own little outfit for the day. So I want to make sure that they're able to do that. I want to make sure that they're participating at school, that they're playing with peers, that they're coming out with ideas, you know, that they're not that one child in the corner where it's like has some kind of fear because they're like, I don't know how to interact with others. I don't know how to do this. You know, so I always tell parents what we do, we teach your child how to do those things that they want to do. We give them the tools, the skills, and we practice until we see the child be confident and they're like, okay, I now can climb that slide, or I can do this, or I can now I can write my name on my own. I don't need to, and that that just increases the child's self-confidence. So that's what I tell them that it is.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

What are some common signs a child might benefit from OT services?

SPEAKER_00 16:36

So some of the typical signs, and a lot of the times we do get parent feedback, but of course, like I said, a teacher is the one that spends most of the day with the child. So they may be the first one to see um, hey, this child's having difficulty, for example, holding a crayon, holding a scissor, holding utensils. They may be avoiding certain textures, either with food or things that they work with in the classroom, you know. Um, in elementary, a lot of my kiddos that I work with were preschool to like fourth grade. So there's a lot of uh materials that they're using in class, you know, that a child may be avoiding to use that, or they they're just doing task avoidance, you know. They they prefer to talk to an adult so they can get out of the task, you know, or they're having difficulty with transitions or behaviors, you know. A child may not have a good time where when I don't know, let's say math is their favorite subject, and now we're gonna move on to reading. And the child may be having a really hard time, and they're not able to tell me I'm having a hard time leaving this test. Rather, they display a behavior. So we work with that. Some those are some of the signs that I would look for trouble foot uh focusing too. You know, sometimes the child may be staring at the at the whiteboard, but they have no idea what's going on. Or the teacher may say, you know what, this child can't sit still. This child, the moment I start teaching, they get up, they have to they fidget, they have to talk to someone, they have to interrupt the class. Those are signs that we are like, hmm, it's worth looking into and see if they're what's missing there. What's causing this child to display that behavior? Um, and of course, from home, a parent may may report, you know, they're having a hard time putting on a shirt, or I have to tie their shoes, or they don't like shoelaces, they prefer Velcro, or they're having trouble sequencing, you know, uh brushing their teeth or or self-feeding, you know. And of course, those things, probably not the like hygiene and grooming, it's not used as much in school or the dressing, but I mean it it still can be used, you know. Winter time, they have to put on a jacket. And if a child doesn't know, that can be a a red flag where we're like, hmm, what's going on? Is it trouble sequencing? Is it trouble uh water planning? What is it? What's going on that the child is not able to perform this task? And of course, we always have to think about milestones, you know, like a four years old. What can a child do at four years old when it comes to like dressing skills? Or what can they do when it comes to toileting skills, you know? So everything is just a big mixture of tying things together and then realizing, hmm, yeah, this child may have challenges in this area and may benefit from um occupational therapy.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

I like that you mentioned something as simple as brushing your teeth because so many of us think of it as just such a day-to-day task that we do twice a day or three times a day or whatever. But there is a sequence to it. And many students, many children who may need support with the occupational therapy really struggle with that sequence of getting the toothpaste, putting the toothpaste on the toothbrush, washing their teeth. And what follows after that. Even with the bathroom routine, everything is it there are so many sequential uh tasks throughout our day that we don't think about, but these threads are really struggling with it.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah. Everything that we do, there's a sequence to it. And there's what we call motor planning. You know, by the time your body performs the action, your brain has already processed that that's what you need to do. You know, and if a child's not able to physically perform the task, that's when us as therapists, we have to kind of see, okay, where is the child having trouble with? Is it the textures? Is it the motor planning that their little brains are not communicating correctly? It's so much, you know, and it's fascinating because you see other kids and you're like, but that came naturally to them. Well, you know, because parents will also say that, you know, like, I have other children, and it came naturally to them. And it's like, Well, you're dealing with one child, and this is the child, you know, and this is what they do, you know. And we need to focus on that. We need to focus on like what can this child do? Not so much what the other child can do. And yes, children learn by seeing others, because that's why I also did group therapy. Because maybe seeing other peers just seeing each do and think it influences, yeah. And it's also part of play, you know, kids have to play with other kids. But um, yeah, it's it's just fascinating. Like we don't think about it. We really don't think about it. But everything, even as adults, everything that we do, there's a sequence to it. And if we don't one step, we don't Do it correctly, like the whole task is it's done incorrectly.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yes. So true. It's so true. And you had touched on developmental milestones. You had mentioned four years old. But at what age should parents start paying attention to developmental concerns?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I think early childhood. Early childhood is from the moment the child's born until like three years old, you know. Therapists were looking for like, is the child able to roll? Are they able to sit? Are they crawling? At what age did they crawl? At what age did they sit unsupported? At what age did they start walking? At what age were they using their hands to explore? You know, and when they were exploring, how did they react to the environment? What did they do? Were they did they go in a hundred percent or where were they scared? You know, it'll get parents are very they have that sixth sense, I think, but they're like, hmm, that's not looking okay, you know. I much something's going on. So I think paying attention to those milestones and how it's very important, you know. One thing that I always wanted to um emphasize with parents was like, how are they acting socially? You know, around family members, around family gatherings. If you took them to the park, what did they do? Typically, a child that's developing according to the milestones, you know, they're gonna go and play. You know, why what did your child do? So it's very important to pay attention to those uh milestones from early childhood because all of those milestones, as we get older, carry over in some shape or form.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

So every time, because I know I have I've had my my three babies and they have their checkups, right? So they have their like the three-month checkup and the six-month checkup and the 12-month checkup. And we have that questionnaire, like our pediatricians give us that questionnaire. So if there is something on that questionnaire that we're like, huh. So you're going to tell me that my kids at this point should be doing XYZ, but they're not. Like that's an opportunity for us to begin the advocacy process of bringing it up to the pediatrician, right? Correct, correct.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

And sometimes I uh I feel like milestones are more like a guideline, you know. I always tell parents, don't like solely focus on the milestones, but let's say your child is, I don't know, nine months, right? And they're supposed to be sitting unsupported at six months. Well, my child's nine months and they're not able to maintain an upright position, then of course that's gonna be a red flag, you know. Always go, I I don't know, I always thought maybe always go two or three months ahead, you know. Like my child's 12 months, hmm. They're supposed to be almost trying to walk, but they're crawling, you know. So I think those are the things that I would say, pay attention to those things, you know. If if it's nine months, some parents may be like, Well, they're supposed to be crawling at nine months and they haven't started yet. I was really give them a little bit of wiggle room, you know, and see. But if we get to like 11 months and my child's not crawling, then I'm gonna bring it up to the pediatrician and kind of um see if my child needs some kind of support.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that clarity. How can moms support their kids find motor skills at home?

SPEAKER_00 25:40

I think that again, I go back to play, play, play. You just play, you know, you just sometimes you buy things and you're like, well, I don't know what they're gonna do. Well, let them explore, you know. A lot of what staple items that we had in our OT toolkit were play-doh, sand, sticky sand, foam. Sometimes I would just have the child, here's a piece of paper, go ahead and tear it up, and we're gonna create some kind of art with it. Stickers. Kids love stickers, and I love them too. Um, coloring books, color pencils. My favorites to start early on grasping skills. They're just colorful tongues, you know, that they can use for I don't know, snacks or the little puffballs, anything small, you know, that they can just tramper. Oh, go ahead and categorize them by color, you know. But use the tongue. You have to use that, you know. I love that. Anything that can strengthen the little kid's hand, you know, therapeutic, what's the other slime, you know, making slime. That was one of the kids' favorite because not only they get messy, they're also exploring textures, you know, they're exploring uh their hands getting dirty and they're working with those little fingers, you know. Well, now we gotta, yeah, no, we put water on this cornstarch, but now we gotta make it like slime, you know, and play with it. So anything that exposes the child to using little fingers, strengthening the little fingers, all of that can support five motor skills.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

I did notice a nephew of mine was struggling with some of his grasping. And I went on to Amazon and I got him the this it's learning resources, helping hands to find motor tool sets. And it's a box on Amazon, and it has those little tongs that you're referring to. It has some other gadgets to support their gripping skills and flowing kind of like those uh what do they call the syringes for for giving medicine? You know, that they that they as they have the syringes for medicine. They have things like that. I know that on Pinterest, we love Pinterest moms, love, love, love them so much. They have so many different recipes for slime, and some of the slime recipes are like just ingredients that you have in your kitchen. They're like day-to-day, they're day-to-day ingredients.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah, yeah. So many things. People, I remember I bought a bunch of rice and beans when I was starting my job as a school-based therapist, and my husband was like, uh, we don't need that much rice and beans. I'm like, this is for like a sensory bin. And he was like, uh what? And I said, Oh, it's an old tea thing, you know. So it is regular things, you know, like pasta. And I made this big sensory bin, and it had rice, beans, pasta of all shapes, you know. And then I just made it fun for the kids, you know. And I just like put little toys in there, and of course they have to use their tripod grasp to grasp those little toys out of the sensory bin. And then of course, there's always a little prize at the end as to whoever got the most of the toys out, you know. So you just make it fun with like everyday things. Us OTs, sometimes when we see items, we're always thinking, uh, how can I use that in my practice? How can I incorporate that in a therapy session? So, um, giving parents ideas, it kind of opens up the little olt mind, you know. You may not have all the tools right there and then, but if you start practicing and saying, what skill can my child practice with that particular item? And then eventually you can have your own little toolkit. Okay, I have this, and then we can have this late time with my child, and we're working on this, you know. So some parents are very proactive at that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

How do you recommend parents advocate for their child if they think they need support at school?

SPEAKER_00 30:08

I think that a parent is the one that knows their child best, right? So don't be afraid to speak up with whoever your child's having daily interactions. Build a good relationship with your teacher. You know, I know that life gets in the way, and sometimes parents, you know, they just drop them off in the morning and then they maybe they have another parent pick them up in the afternoon, and a lot of times there isn't really time to talk to the teacher, and parents typically wait for like parents' conference night, and then some parents, like I said, they may come prepared and ready with a lot of questions. And some parents, you know, like I said, they may have other children in the family too, and they're just living day to day, and they're just coming and, you know, yeah, yeah, tell me what the report is on my child, you know. But the best way to advocate for your child is to really pay attention and have that open communication with your teacher. How's my child doing? Any problems that they're encountering? What is the typical day for them? What do they do? What kind of activities that they're doing? And how are they performing? Are they engaging? Are they are they giving you trouble? What are they doing? And collecting that information is very important because that way it lets the teacher know too. Oh, a parent is going to, this parent wants information about how the child is performing during the day, puts the little red light in the teacher's brain. I need to pay attention. Yes, how are they doing when they're when they're writing their name? Are they doing it? Am I helping them a lot? What kind of needs do they have, you know? So I think that that's the best advice I can give you. Maintain that open communication with your teacher and check in with them from time to time. I'm not saying every day, but maybe every other week, you know, hey, what's going on in the classroom? What are they doing? And the teacher and also the assistants, you know, instructional assistants, they're the ones that also spend a lot of time with the child. So having that team solid can definitely provide valuable information and let the parent know or the teacher know, okay, let's keep an eye on this one and see um if they can benefit from extra support.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

How can moms create routines that support both their ch child's needs and their own sanity?

SPEAKER_00 32:36

I will say keep routines very simple and predictable. Start from the morning when they wake up, what's gonna happen next? And after that, what's gonna happen? And don't overwhelm the child, you know, because then it becomes overwhelming with the child, with the parent, especially if the child's already having challenges completing the routine. Visuals are very fun because the child knows I wake up, I brush my teeth, I take a shower. Now I gotta take uh I gotta have my breakfast, and then I get ready for school. Oh I get ready for school and then I have breakfast. And then mom takes me, either drives me to school or walks me to the school bus. Just keep them simple, you know, and it helps the child, especially those children that are already having difficulties learning, you know, learning at school, already focusing, or like I said, performing a task. If they're if the routine is there and there's a visual or something that reminds them that this is coming next, it makes it easier for the child. It's less frustrations for them and for the parent. It's predictable, the child knows what's gonna what it looks like, and then the child just blossoms, you know. They know that that's gonna happen in their life. And yeah, it makes it easier. Simple and predictable.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

There's some small changes, such as providing visuals for the child.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Yes, transition warnings, slow down. If you know your child takes a little longer in the mornings to get ready, give them a little extra time so they're not frustrated, you know, like when an adult is saying, hurry up, hurry up. That can be very overwhelming. Um, I already mentioned vicious schedules, um, and let go of perfection. I sometimes parents want things to be done, you know, by the book, but this is another human, you know, it's a human. And that human comes with their own skills, their own thoughts, their own decisions, everything, you know. So I always said don't set perfection. Just know that if your child is able to stick to one routine, you already want something. Yeah. And don't change them quick either. If you're gonna change something, prefer the child, you know. Hey, next week we're gonna do this, okay? It's gonna change. And it remind them every day. Because sometimes if the child has already difficulty sticking to a routine and then suddenly changes, that can create chaos too.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

That's so good. That's so good. What are some common myths about occupational therapy?

SPEAKER_00 35:13

I think that the most I heard when I was and and even now, it's the label. The label that the parent said, well, now everybody's gonna know that my child has a disability, or everybody's gonna know that my child is different, or everyone's gonna know that they're getting happy. But it it really isn't, you know, it's just the way that it's just play, you know. Um, in the school system, there's two ways that we can provide therapy sessions. Uh it could be in the classroom and then it could be outside of the classroom. And the therapist typically is the one that kind of along with the teacher first, kind of decides what kind of therapy we're gonna do. I did a little bit of both. Some days I will stay in the classroom and I will gather my data as to how are they performing and if they need help, where am I helping them, you know? And some days it was like, well, today I'm gonna take you out of the classroom and it's gonna be play. And it gets to be that the children in the classroom already get to know the therapist too. And sometimes I used to get all these little ones, when is my turn? When is my turn? When are you gonna take me? And they were not even in therapy. So, like all that fear that the child's gonna be labeled, just think about I'm doing the best that I can to support my child thrive. So in the future, they're as independent as possible.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Do children grow out of developmental delays?

SPEAKER_00 36:42

That is a very broad question. Um, it depends on what's going on with a child. If I'm being honest, some children can learn to adapt in the environment and they can thrive and they can perform well, even if they need the support, let's say, in I'm saying therapy, maybe once a week, once um, once a month, twice a month. And some children are gonna need more extensive support. It all depends on the the series of assessments that it's being done when a child is being referred for services like special services. The entire team comes in, to be honest. And everybody, the psychologist does their assessment, the OT does their evaluation and assessments as well. Uh the teacher, it's a team. It's a collaboration of a team, and then it gets determined, you know, well, how much support this child is gonna need. Some children may need support from preschool all the way to the end of high school, you know. And some children may just be a little bit. In my case, though, I had a little bit of everything. I had children that they just needed support for like six months and then they were discharged. And I had children that had been on the caseload since they started preschool. So I, you know, it depends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

What an amazing wealth of information that you've provided to us with regards to occupational therapy in schools. I know I could have used you guys when I was going to school because my handwriting is like chicken scratch. And I I am very, very vocal about it. I'm like, well, OT was not as prevalent as it is now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

And you'll be surprised how many children go un undiagnosed or uncovered, you know, like that were yeah, you'll be surprised if it's not for that one keen eye that saw it and was like, hey, you know what? Something's going on here. Do you think you can come and screen this child? Or let me talk to the parent and see what they think about, you know, it takes just that one keen eye, that keen eye that pays attention to the details, you know. Other than that, I remember thinking, wow, so many kids just they I think all kids should get LP, you know, but I I also feel like handwriting is not being given them the importance anymore. With technology and everything, I feel like it's a skill that I hope we never lose it, but it's not being given the importance that needs to be given.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

True. Very, very true. Where can our listeners learn more about your work or connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 39:40

You just email me to my Gmail account, and it's gonna be our asyntras.

SPEAKER_03 39:47

And it's Gmail.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Wonderful. We're gonna make sure that we include those in the show notes. And what's one message you want every mom listening to walk away with today?

SPEAKER_00 40:01

I will say you're doing better than you think. Parenting is very hard, especially if there are other children in the family, whether they also need support or they're not in need of support for special services, still every child needs the parent's attention. So I know it's hard and really there's no perfect way to do it. But your love, your effort, your presence, your advocacy for that child is what matters the most to the child.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

Thank you so much. And I want to end with what's your favorite quote?

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Well, since we're talking about children, I will say meet the child where they are. Don't expect them to be what you think they should be. And slow down. Children move slow. So do seniors. I always keep that in mind.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Always remember you are the perfect mom for your baby. You are worthy, and you are enough.