Category Archives: Company News & Announcements

Stay informed with the latest company news from Therapro, including business updates, new product launches, and organizational growth aimed at better serving therapy professionals and families.

Meet Therapro’s Occupational Therapy Authors & Creators

Therapro is celebrating its occupational therapy authors and creators during Occupational Therapy Month. Read on to learn more about these great occupational therapists and their creations!

Letter Treasure Hunt

Jenny L. Clark, OTR/L, BCP is the creator of the “Learn to Move” curriculum and Therapro’s Letter Treasure Hunt. Jenny has helped children over the past 25 years as a licensed pediatric occupational therapist working as a speaker, consultant, private practitioner at her own clinic (Jenny’s Kids, Inc.), school-based occupational therapist, independent contractor for early intervention services, author, and inventor. Jenny’s creation, Letter Treasure Hunt, is a fun and engaging game that targets handwriting skills while weaving in fun gross motor activities.

The functionalhand

Linda Merry, OTR is the co-creator of the functionalhand. She has many years’ experience and extensive knowledge working with children and adults who have disabilities and teaching on a variety of topics. She is a senior therapists at Easter Seals DuPage & the Fox Valley Region in Villa Park, IL and co-owner of Thera-Solutions which designs programs, coaches’ professionals and develops products for therapists, educators and caregivers. Her creation, the functionalhand is an innovative tool to assist with grasping objects for everyday fun and function!

LegiLiner

Polly Benson OTR/L is the creator of LegiLiners, “the patent pending, cool little tool to quickly draw handwriting lines”. Polly is a school based occupational therapists with many years experience working with students of all ages. The idea for LegiLiners grew from her love for helping students with functional handwriting. LegiLiners are available in in a variety of styles to help learners of all ages.

 Rattles to Writing: A Parent's Guide to Hand Skills

Barbara Smith, MS, OTR/L is the author of From Rattles to Writing: A Parent’s Guide to Hand Skills. Barbara has been  an occupational therapist for over 40 years working primarily with children and adults with developmental disabilities.  Barbara’s book From Rattles to Writing: A Parent’s Guide to Hand Skills is a groundbreaking guide that describes the songs, games, toys, activities, and adaptations that help children develop the visual-perceptual skills needed to read and the eye-hand coordination to write.

Fine Motor Skills in the Classroom

Jayne Berry, OTR/L is the author of Fine Motor Skills in the Classroom and creator of the Therapro Hand Tool Kit. Jane was a pediatric therapist who worked extensively with preschoolers and school aged children. The Therapro Hand Tool Kit contains all your “hand tools” in a convenient kit! Fine Motor Skills in the Classroom  is a hand skills program developed as a tool to facilitate consultation in the classroom.

Trunks

Diane Long, EdD, MOTR/L is the creator of the game Trunks. Dr. Diane Long is an associate professor and serves as the Chair of Occupational Therapy at Ithaca College.  Trunks is an innovative game that targets working memory; players move their bodies, make sounds and perform actions from memory!

 Is it Sensory or is it Behavior? 2nd Edition

Carolyn Murray-Slutsky, MS OTR, C/NDT, FAOTA has co-authored many publications including: Is it Sensory or is it Behavior? 2nd Edition (2022), Autism Interventions: Exploring the Spectrum of Autism, Developing Visual Motor Integration, and the Sensory Modulation Laminated Card Series. Carolyn is certified in sensory integration (SI) and neurodevelopmental treatment (NDT) for pediatrics, infants, and adults and director of Rehabilitation for Children, Inc, a pediatric private practice.  Her latest publication, Is it Sensory or is it Behavior? 2nd Edition (2022)  answers many questions about the relationship between sensory and behavior.

Fine Motor Olympics

Marcia Bridgeman, MHA, OTR/L is the author of Fine Motor Olympics. Marcia has been a pediatric occupational therapist since 1977, specializing in school based services for students from preschool through 22. Fine Motor Olympics is a program designed for an occupational therapist to provide inclusive and consultative services to teachers, volunteers, parents, and staff.

2022 By The Numbers!

As we make the transition out of the year 2022 and into the year 2023, the team at Therapro took a moment to reflect on some of the many accomplishments that made the previous year great. The numbers say it all!

Four

Live and in-person conferences started to gain traction again in 2022, and the Therapro team was excited to get back out there. Therapro joined attendees at 3 in-person conferences and 1 virtual conference this year. In 2023, we hope to continue to build on that momentum. We are excited to explore new conference opportunities, including ATIA 2023, where we plan to exhibit our latest and ever-growing selection of assistive technology products.

Therapro had the opportunity to support 30 different organizations through donations in 2022. As a team of therapists, supporting our professional state organizations has always been one of our core missions. Through 2022, Therapro received requests for support from professional organizations like the Kansas Speech-Language Hearing Association, the Washington Occupational Therapy Association (WOTA), the Texas Occupational Therapy Association (TOTA), the Massachusetts Occupational Therapy Association (MAOT), and the New Hampshire Occupational Therapy Association. 2022 also brought us some unique opportunities to help. Boxes full of the games Trunks and Novenops made their way to to a group supporting the Marshall Fire victims in Boulder Valley, Colorado and many chews were sent to support a service trip to Belize.

Ensuring our professionals and parents have access to the most up-to-date products available is a top priority at Therapro. Over the last year, Therapro added over 115 new products to our website including Happy Senso, My Motor Mats, the Busy Bee Sensory Plush, Just Right! A Sensory Modulation Curriculum®, and Comfy Chairs. With this, we have expanded the selection of the products available in our articulation, social language, and math categories. We have also worked toward making sure the most updated versions of publications are available including, Is It Sensory Or Is It Behavior? 2nd Edition. New products are added often. Be sure to check the new products section of our website regularly for updates!

Staying connecting is important to all of us at Therapro. Our many social media outlets have allowed us to stay up to date on what is happening on the ground and has provided us with the opportunity to share Therapro updates as they are happening. In 2022 we shared 600+ posts across our LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram pages. We have also sent out 50 Theragrams, our biweekly newsletter. Stay connected with us by following @Therapro and signing up for our Theragram!

600 plus

Therapro’s free webinar series launched back in 2019 and has been gaining attention ever since. In 2022 we covered topics including sensory, treatment strategies, conversational skills, bike riding, assistive technology, and math skills. This year we had 3,860 people register for the 10 free webinars we offered. The 2023 webinar lineup is shaping up to be another stellar year; we are looking forward to bringing you topics including apraxia, dyslexia, trauma-informed care, and many more sensory topics!

2022 has been a great year for Therapro, and we are looking forward to all that 2023 will bring. Therapro wishes our many customers a happy and healthy New Year!

Looking Back at the Beginnings of Therapro

It has been 43 years since Therapro’s President, Karen Weihrauch left her teaching position at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) for her new home in Boston.  In those 43 years a lot has changed, including the founding of Therapro! She reflected on those changes in her recent reunion message to her former occupational therapy students at their class of 1979 reunion in Milwaukee, WI.  Read on for her full remarks and to take a look back at the beginnings of Therapro!

Dear UWM OT Class of 1979,

It is hard to believe that it has been 43 years since we were all together in the OT pediatric class! I remember your class very well for many reasons but here are the two prominent reasons that come to mind. First, I remember your enthusiasm for learning which in turn made teaching all of you a joy. In addition, it was my last year teaching at UWM and my last year of living in Wisconsin. For all of us, it was the ending of something familiar and the embarking on exciting careers ahead. 

I cannot help but think how much pediatric OT has changed since I taught you 43 years ago. What I taught was based on a medical model, not a school-based model which is what we now know of pediatric OT.  School based OT was just emerging and we all have had to make many adjustments to our therapeutic approach. 

When I came to Boston to get my doctorate in OT at Boston University, I also began to work part-time in the Brookline Public Schools. The caseload and the number of evaluations quickly escalated. I could foresee that OT services would become an important part of the academic program for struggling students. We, as OTs, had much to offer. 

However, I noticed that there were some missing parts that we needed to become part of this practice area. I could not find any resources to help me nor were there any relevant supplies or equipment related to working in the schools. When I complained about this to my husband, Paul, he began to think of it as a possible business idea and we created Therapro, Inc. to fill this void. 

35 years later, and 76 years old, I am still an OT utilizing my OT skills to preside over a company that is considered “The Therapy Resource for Families and Professionals.”

OT is a great profession, and I am so glad that you are part of it!!

My Very Best to each of you,

Karen Conrad Weihrauch, PhD, OTR/L