As a school-based OT, I primarily supported students with an individualized education plan (IEP) who had motor, social-emotional, and/or self-help challenges that made it difficult for them to access their educational curriculum. Translation: either due a medical diagnosis like Autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, vision impairment, muscular dystrophy etc., or because of some underlying factors like an unknown developmental delay, my students had a hard time keeping up with the rest of their peers and required OT services to help them build motor, social-emotional or self-help skills or to adapt their classwork or something in their classroom environment to make learning more accessible to them. I loved being a school-based OT because I always worked as a team with teachers, education specialists, speech language pathologists, physical therapists, psychologists, and parents to create goals and a plan to help each student succeed. I often collaborated with speech and physical therapists to run fun groups that allowed our students to practice specific skills like managing emotions, organizing a binder, or exploring a play structure at recess. I used a lot of games (both real commercialized ones and ones that I made up) to help kids practice these skills- which was my secret trick to getting them to enjoy their OT time! I also would go into classrooms regularly to consult with the teacher and staff, observe students, and help my students “in the moment,” whether that was using a calming strategy when they felt overwhelmed doing their school work, using a more appropriate writing utensil, or leading them through a quick movement break to help their brain re-focus on the lesson. Everyday was something new and challenging!