Category Archives: Therapist Resources

Comprehensive resources, strategies, and tools designed to support therapists in delivering effective care and ongoing professional growth.

Therapro's Essential Classroom Kit - each

Exploring Therapro’s Everyday Essentials Kit

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Therapro’s Everyday Classroom Kit is the newest kit to hit our shelves. This kit was created  with the thought of students returning to classrooms under new pandemic guidelines.  Therapro’s Everyday Classroom Kit includes all the essentials for day to day classroom use and is intended for a single user. In this way every student has the essential items they need for classroom participation while minimizing the sharing of these commonly used classroom essentials!  Included in each kit are:

  • 1 Standard Size Pencil With #4 Jumbo Lead 
  • 1 Swirl Foam Grip 
  • 1 Spike Tactile Pencil Topper 
  • 1 Fiskars Blunt-tip Kids 5″ Scissors
  • 1 Sensory Bookmark 
  • 1 Two Hole Pencil Sharpener
  • 1 Star Spacer 
  • 1 Reading Guide Strip

Set your pencil up right! Included in each kit is a Standard Size Pencil With #4 Jumbo Lead and just the right accessories, a Swirl Foam Grip and a Spike Tactile Pencil Topper! These are just the right pencil accessories for comfort and increased focus during writing tasks.  The swirl foam grip can be used by every student, it is not meant to correct grip instead it is simply for comfort.  The Spike Tactile Pencil Topper is a great accessory for every student; this small fidget is a great way to improve attention and focus! 

Improve handwriting legibility!  Included in each kit is the The Star Spacer; the Star Spacer is a clever handwriting tool made of see-through plastic which acts as a guide to help the child understand spacing, sizing, and alignment of letters and words to promote more legible handwriting. The blue star printed on the spacer is a great reminder for both letter size and space between words.  Here’s a bonus tip, turn it vertically to help line up columns of numbers during math work! 

Increase attention and focus!  Included in each kit is the Reading Guide Strip.  The Reading Guide Strip is a great tool to help all students attend to and focus during reading tasks. The Reading Guide Strips helps students track print through it’s transparent, tinted windows; a great way to improve attention when reading!  

To round out this kit we included  three “must have” classroom essentials;  Fiskars Blunt-tip Kids 5″ Scissors, The Sensory Bookmark, and a Transparent Two Hole Pencil Sharpener!  Scissors, bookmarks, and pencil sharpeners are frequently used multiple times through the course of a typical school day; by providing each student one of their own you can decrease cross contamination!  The Sensory Bookmark doubles as a fidget; users can run their fingertips across four different textured sections!  

Self Care with Flair

Self Care with Flair: Webinar Recap

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On Tuesday, July 28, Therapro was happy to host another successful webina, Self Care with Flair. Presenters Ginger McDonald, OTR/L and Bhanu Raghavan, MS, OTR/L spoke to viewers about Self Care With Flair and teaching independent living skills. These wonderful ladies have over fifty years of combined experience working with students across a variety of settings. Throughout the presentation they drew from these years of experience to provide illustrations of how a consistent, step by step approach works for teaching self care skills. Viewers left the webinar with helpful takeaways, including: 

Mastery of self care skills is critical for a child’s self esteem. The presenters spoke passionately about the importance of mastering self care skills early on and how this can  improve a child’s self esteem. To exemplify this they discussed toilet training: a skill needed for acceptance in a school setting, community involvement, and employability in later years.  

Use a team approach. The presenters described what they called the partiship triad, where parents or caregivers, teachers, and therapists work together in the teaching of both the self care skill itself and the prerequisite hands skills needed for successful participation. As one viewer noted, “Lots of information for both OT, teachers and parents. Love the team approach and having more information in the book will be an asset for every classroom.” – KF

Use a uniform approach. The presenters discussed the importance of consistency between everyone involved in the teaching process; from grandma, to the therapist, to the classroom teacher. Using consistent language and teaching approaches promotes learning and retention.  In the Self Care With Flair program, the same steps, the same pictures, and the same cues are used, leading to successful learning outcomes. Another useful aspect of Self Care With Flair is that the visuals can be shared with everyone working with the child, ensuring consistency across settings! As one viewer stated, “This is an excellent resource. The work has been done – rhymes, pictures, repetition. It speaks for itself!” – AH

Use rhythms. Rhymes are easy to memorize and make learning the steps of a task so much easier. Rhymes are also a great way to promote consistency across multiple environments and to help with self correction. The presenters pointed to research that supports the use of rhymes for teaching the steps of a task.

Teach Prerequisite Skills. Another important point that was covered in the webinar was the importance of addressing the foundational hand skills needed for success with self care tasks. In the book Self Care With Flair, each prerequisite skill needed for the given self care task is listed with the self care task itself. The final chapter in Self Care With Flair includes activity ideas  to address the essential hand skills needed (finger strengthening, finger to thumb opposition, forearm strengthening, lateral pinch, power grasp, thumb strengthening and wrist extension).  
The presenters also discussed modifications to meet the needs of all users, teaching tips to use when introducing these tasks, and ideas for personalization. Check out the recording of the webinar, and be sure to check out our free resources page for examples from the book!

Advanced Treatment Strategies for Youth with Complex Behavior

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Speaker John Pagano, PhD, OTR/L who present Advanced Treatment Strategies for Youth with Complex Behavioral Challenges

On November 16, John Pagano, PhD, OTR/L presented his Therapro Saturday Seminar, Advanced Treatment Strategies for Youth with Complex Behavioral Challenges, to a captivated audience. The energy in the room was palpable throughout the two hour talk. Dr. Pagano ‘s passion was evident as he discussed assessing and treating children and adolescents who have complex behavioral disorders. He shared clinical examples and anecdotes to highlight his talk, peppered with humor. Leading the audience through many experiential activities provided them with examples of practical tools to use with individuals and groups.

John is an occupational therapist who practices at an adolescent psychiatric hospital and school. He is a certified instructor of Positive Behavioral Support and Movement Based Learning Strategies. His years of experience include working in various settings including adolescent juvenile detention, psychiatric hospital, adolescent group home, and in special needs, regular education and preschool classrooms. He is the author of the recently published book, FAB: Functionally Alert Behavior Strategies: Integrated Behavioral, Developmental, Sensory, Mindfulness & Massage Treatment.

John discussed the importance of setting functional behavioral goals when providing OT, PT, and Speech/Language therapies for students with complex behavioral disorders. He frequently reiterated the value of a team approach, including ABA specialists, to working with this population.

FAB Strategies® are Dr. Pagano’s evidence-based, practical strategies that use “clinical reasoning based on current clinical research and neurology to develop the individualized strategies needed to address complex behavioral challenges.” John reviewed Sensory Processing Disorders, how they interact, and how to treat them using sensory based interventions. In his discussion of Sensory Modulation Disorders, John stated that his research and experience have shown that the olfactory sense is a powerful teaching tool for those with ASD and for those who have experienced trauma. He has found that pairing a scent is very effective for achieving the desired Quiet Alert state of arousal. He advocated using materials like Scented Dough and scented markers as treatment materials.

John disclosed that research supports that mindfulness strategies are an effective and powerful treatment methodology for improving special needs students’ behavior and executive functioning. John led the group in breathing and movement activities that he uses with his students that also increase body awareness. John taught the group a number of quick, easy, and practical strategies to circumvent problem behaviors. For example, his FAB Turtle Strategy involves 4 steps: 1) Notice environmental & body triggers – STOP 2) Go to the sensory coping area 3) Do your individual coping strategy 4) Later problem solve with help. Fidgets like Loopeez, Boinks, Panic Pete, and Theraband were mentioned as some of John’s favorites for calming.

Dr. Pagano is a dynamic presenter who generously shared resources and evidence-based, practical treatment strategies for working with children and adolescents who have complex behavioral challenges. He integrates all that he has learned in his years of experience with current research so adeptly!! Attendees left this seminar with ideas they could put to use immediately in their practice.

Take a look at some of the overwhelmingly positive comments from those who attended John’s seminar:

“I left full of simple/functional strategies to try with my students, all ages. John is simply AMAZING!!!” – Christie H, Speech/Language Pathologist

“John is an excellent speaker who was very helpful, evidence based, and offered suggestions for treatment.” – Renee S., Physical Therapist

“Offered many resources & activities that can be used immediately in my practice & therapy.” – Rose O, Occupational Therapist

“John’s sense of humor made this important topic fun. Many teachers & therapists are struggling in the classroom. These are strategies that can be implemented Monday. In addition, his strategies come from evidence based research of strategies/techniques that help our students make progress.” – Jennifer H, Occupational Therapist

Thank you, John!

Filomena Connor, OT, MS, OTR
November 16, 2019