September 2026

Michelle is now acting as our SM and anxiety mentor, supporting our team with as-needed mentorship regarding clients with SM and anxiety.  Please reach out to her if you have a client on your caseload or will be taking on an SM client to receive clinical guidance! Congratulations, Michelle!

• A huge shout out to our entire team for completing another round of fall scheduling!  We are so grateful to all of you for your efforts to navigate scheduling shifts and changes each year.  Congratulations to all of us, it is done for another year!
• Thank you to Rebecca for navigating her first year of fall scheduling and supporting the team with confirming sessions or planning their updated schedule!
• Esme rocked 2 professional development presentations to some local schools.  We are so appreciative to you for supporting their staff!
• Thank you Stephen for taking on so many new clients and being so flexible with your hours during fall scheduling!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a few All About Me posters that I’ve been loving for back-to-school season! They’re a simple activity with so many possibilities—great for starting new groups, breaking the ice, getting to know new children, or reconnecting after the summer.

From an OT/ST perspective, they can also be a really easy way to gather some informal baseline information. You can observe things like sustained attention, handwriting, fine motor skills, idea generation, language, sequencing, and how much prompting/support a child needs to complete an open-ended activity.

I also love these for shy children who have difficulty speaking in certain settings (maybe even SM kiddos), since the finished poster gives them something concrete to refer back to when sharing about themselves. Depending on the child, they can share their poster with you, new group members, other kids, therapists, or even members of the admin team, making it an easy way to work on introductions, social communication, and self-advocacy without having to come up with everything on the spot.

Also, definitely doesn’t have to be a seated worksheet! You can easily turn it into a sensory-motor or gross motor activity:

• Complete an obstacle course or scooter board sequence → fill in 1–2 boxes → repeat!
• Hide different colored pens/markers around the room → find a color → answer a question → search for the next one.
• Put the writing tools on the rock wall so kids have to climb to retrieve each one.
• Incorporate swings, balance activities, animal walks, or other movement stations between questions.
• Use it within a group and have kids take turns completing sections and then sharing their answers with one another.

There are really endless possibilities depending on the child, group, and goals you’re targeting. I will print out a few versions and have them in the clinic, so you can pick whichever works best for your kids. Hope you can put them to good use as everyone settles into the new school year!

• Remember, our team meetings have moved to 12-12:30 p.m. starting September 9th.
• Don’t forget about our pen pals and mailbox now that schedules are back to normal. Here is the spreadsheet of kids looking for pen pals to work on writing or social goals.  Or feel free to coordinate with other therapists to support your client getting a pen pal!
• Process: Flagging Clients Who Need a Group
  • If you have a client who would benefit from a group, send a quick email to the team with:
    • Client name
    • Age
    • Type of group needed
    • Current individual session day/time
  • Admin will then add the client to the “Needs Group” tab on the Needs Sessions — this keeps momentum going so they’re ready to be placed as soon as a matching group opens up and/or a team member has an appropriate pairing.
• See below for an update from GGRC regarding their increase to provide paid testing/report writing time for progress reports and re-assessment testing:
  • Starting 8/10/26, all Early Start service authorizations will automatically include up to 3 additional hours for administering testing. This change accounts for the testing time needed to meet Early Start’s annual and exit age-level reporting requirements.  Re-assessment can be an additional billable session to provide ample time for testing and parent interview/feedback.
  • Please let Kellie or Cierra know if you have any questions and/or are open to working with EI clients with director-level mentorship.
• Process: Sharing Therapist Evaluation Availability
• • Please use the preset “Eval Opening” on Ensora to block any times you are offering for evaluations.
  • Admin will offer those spots to families on the wait list once a month.  If you have additional evaluation openings that become available throughout the month, please add to your schedule and ping admin.
  • Once an evaluation is confirmed, the block will be updated with the appointment information.
  • If no one has booked the opening one week prior, admin will delete and remove the block.
  • The goal is to prevent multiple back and forth emails between all of us and leverage Ensora more for clinic scheduling.
• Process: Sharing Session Availability
  • Please use the preset “Open for Scheduling” on Ensora for any recurring times you are offering for new clients (or if you are looking to form a dyad/group).
  • Please set it as a recurring appointment and delete if you can no longer offer it
  • Admin will review the NS list for client availability that matches any openings and work with the therapist to add new clients to their schedules.
• Gentle reminders to help keep the clinic running smoothly:
  • Do not leave food out (while ants are likely nice little creatures, none of us want them to come marching back in)
  • Please wash your personal dishes
  • Food school items should not be used for arts & crafts
  • Rinse out slime dishes before leaving in the sink
  • If an item is broken or in need of repair, please either label it or send a chat about it.
  • If you notice something that needs volunteer attention or want help with  a special project, please send a quick email or chat to Rebecca so she can work it into the rotation.
• Please be sure to fill out our incident report form for any incidents that happen in the clinic regarding a client injury, accident, therapist injury/accident the day of and send it to admin and your department director.
  • If there is a resulting injury or suspected injury please immediately notify your department director and contact the family detailing the incident with all directors cc’d.
• Fall Team Bonding at MYSTIC Studio next Wednesday, September 9th from 6-9pm

Walk for Apraxia 2026 – Job Sign Up

•  Saturday, September 26th – mark your calendars
• Please respond to the google cal invite so I have an idea of how many of us will be the day of the walk to set up and manage
• Friday anyone is welcome to come help with any additional setup
• Please share with your school teams and families at the clinic

• 2026 OT Conference & Innovation Expo – read brochure here and register here
• 2026 SMA Annual Conference
• Clinic Resources from Naomi added to the Therapist Resources folder