Early in my career as a school-based occupational therapist (OT), I worked primarily in specialized programs and self-contained classrooms. My lens was narrow: find motor or sensory “deficits,” strengthen core and coordination, build hand skills, and hope those gains translated to school. Valuable work, but something felt incomplete.

How Jimmy Changed Everything

Jimmy was a second grader I had supported since preschool. When we met, Jimmy avoided touching things, walked with a high guard and cried a lot. Over time he learned to run, climb, play with dirt, laugh and communicate. Yet he did not do one thing: feed himself. He refused to touch the spoon and waited to be fed. We tried every strategy we knew. No change.

Now, Jimmy’s special education teacher regularly invited typical peers to her class for shared activities. Jimmy always lit up when his friends arrived. One morning, as he sat at the snack table with yogurt in front of him, a peer sat beside him and said, “I have yogurt too, let’s eat.” Jimmy instantly picked up his spoon and fed himself as if he’d always done it.

To me, this was an eye opening moment,  We did not need a new exercise. We needed a new context: peers, purpose, and participation. Very organically I recognized that inclusion was the right thing to do. It takes effort from all of us educators to create opportunities for our students with disabilities to enjoy and experience the world as their peers do and their peers’ support in making this possible is undeniably the most powerful. I began to build peer partners into sessions whenever possible. Inclusion was not an extra. It was the engine.

Why Expectations and Context Matter

Educators often paraphrase Rosenthal and Jacobson’s finding as “Students rise to the level of expectations.” Expectations shape climate, input, opportunities, and feedback. For students with high support needs, those micro choices compound. When we presume competence and design for access, students get more chances to show what they know, often in ways we did not anticipate.

What OT Looks Like When Inclusion is the Goal

When school folks hear about “OTs” perhaps they assume my day is filled with handwriting drills or cutting with scissors or making slime and playdoh. While those tasks are part of the picture, an OT’s role is to remove barriers to school participation. This begins with recognizing that students with disabilities  are not exposed to the same quality educational opportunities. With this perspective, occupational therapy services may take on a different look.

• Cafeteria belonging: peer education about neurodiversity, flexible seating for all, and predictable routines and roles for all so lunch is social, not stressful.
• Inclusive recess: games, music and dance stations, wheelchair races, and communication boards so children of all abilities can play together.
• Communication access: teaching use of alternative and augmentative communication systems (AAC) to all so all students can contribute, and are collaborating so those tools are welcomed across classes.
• Hands-on academics for all: adapting labs and projects so each student has a meaningful role, such as measuring, photographing results, or leading a step.

Practical Strategies for Educators and Families

• Start with strengths and interests. Ask what lights the student up. Use that spark to teach priority skills for adult life: communication, self advocacy, collaboration, and problem solving.
• Think access, not deficits. Ask, “What supports unlock this?” Consider typing instead of writing, speech to text, visual sequences, or models. Not being able to hand-write should not limit a child from expressing themselves using technology in the 21st century.
• Use the “so what?” check. If a behavior is not blocking safety, learning, or participation, consider acceptance and smart supports rather than a fix. Is the kid not making eye contact? So what?. Is my child holding the pencil with a funky grasp? So what? Is my child standing to listen in class? So what?
• Embed skills in real routines. Authentic practice sticks: sign in to practice name writing, count coins at the school store, read menus in the cafeteria, deliver notes to practice wayfinding.
• Leverage peer power. Buddy systems and cooperative groups are low cost and high impact. Peers are natural teachers and grow empathy and leadership.
• Design for regulation. Calm corners, predictable routines, movement breaks, and noise management help everyone.

Looking Ahead: Inclusion Is a Shared Responsibility

World Occupational Therapy Day is about what we can achieve together. OTs bring expertise in participation and access, and inclusion becomes real when educators, families, and peers walk alongside, presuming competence and holding high expectations with the right support.

A Word on the Scope of OT

Working as an OT in schools gives me the opportunity to see children in their natural contexts, engaged in the most important occupation of childhood: education. Here my impact can be real and significant. In practice, that means supporting access to communication and curriculum, building peer relationships, and promoting regulation so students can learn alongside classmates in ways that are meaningful and dignified.

Across different practice settings, OT’s  focus is constant: everyday occupations that make up life, including self care, learning, play, social participation, work, and rest. We look at the person, the task, and the environment, and then change what needs changing, such as tools, routines, spaces, expectations, or policies, so participation becomes possible.

So, on World OT Day, do not call your OT only when handwriting looks messy or scissors are tricky. Call us when meaningful participation is stuck, when someone cannot join, cannot speak up, cannot stay, or cannot do what matters to them. We will partner with you to remove barriers, honor identity, and keep expectations high, because belonging is not extra credit; it is the point.

Call to Action: This week, try one peer embedded routine, audit who gets called on and how often, or adapt one assignment so every student can take a meaningful role. Small shifts change trajectories, and that is worth celebrating on World OT Day and every day.