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.