by: Kenni Voytek
During my summer of shadowing Sendero Therapies, I was able to learn and observe so much about school-based occupational therapy. I loved the experience I had interning. I think school-based occupational therapy is a wonderful way for children who are struggling with school/life-based occupations to catch up to their peers in a fun, creative way.
Occupational Therapy helps children achieve, work on, feel comfortable with, and persevere with their occupations. The staff at Sendero Therapies exemplified all these school-based goals when I interned with them this summer. Each occupational therapist and certified occupational therapy assistant had their own unique way of working on occupations, which makes occupational therapy so enjoyable. The staff had amazing creativity with objectives to help children achieve their goals. I saw learning objectives with moon rocks, playdough, pom-poms, bananas and a monkey, fishing, bubbles, and so much more. I learned a lot about including creativity into sessions, as this is what makes learning skills even more enjoyable to children. The OT’s and COTA’s seemed to always enjoy doing the activities with the children participating in the session as well.
Overall, I think Sendero Therapies is an incredible organization. School-based occupational therapy is a necessity for some children to thrive, and I think Sendero does an exemplary job helping children achieve their goals.