Editor’s Note: It’s springtime.  Time to wind down the current school year, but also to think about how you will improve your own classroom this coming school year!  Here is a great article that our friend Margaret Rice at Your Therapy Source wrote that is perfect for summertime planning.

[Source: Your Therapy Source]

by Margaret Rice, PT

Getting parents involved with occupational and physical therapy at school can be very beneficial for carry over of therapeutic activities outside of school time. Here are 10 ideas to get parents more involved:

1. Offer parent workshops on different topics in the evening.

2. Have an orientation for new parents in the beginning of the school year.

3. Host an evening on technology tips offering information on assistive technology to apps.

4.  Host a health and fitness night with the benefits of different physical activities and sports.

5.  Have an exploration night – invite families to come and explore new and old equipment and toys that help to carry over therapy goals.

6.  Throw a party.  The students could prepare food and serve it to the parents and families.

7.  Host a family game night.  Play all inclusive games so that everyone can participate.

8.  Pick different students of the month.  Each month a student can be the star.  Parents can send in pictures and stories about what the child does at home.

9  Put on a show.  Maybe perform an ethnic dance or create musical instruments to play and invite the families to come and watch.

10.  Ask parents to volunteer.  Maybe you need help cutting out materials for a project or creating a piece of adaptive equipment.  Or perhaps, parents would be willing to have a fund raiser to raise money for specialized equipment.

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