Occupational Therapist, Blaine County Schools

Susan has been a school-based occupational therapy practitioner in Blaine County schools for approximately twenty-three years as well as a part-time clinic-based pediatric clinician for about five years. As an OTP with a background in pediatric development, anatomy and physiology, sensory processing, and regulation, she provides interventions and supports so that children can more successfully and confidently play, learn, and participate in home and school. In the schools, she provides services primarily for students aged three to eleven (ECSEC through 5th grade). Susan also serves on a district-wide autism team to provide assessments and neuro-affirming resources to school-based teams. She uses a framework that focuses on relationships and engagement, parent and teacher education and coregulation and self-regulation. Susan is a DIR-Floortime trained OTP, which along with trauma-informed care, guides her daily interventions with all children. Her practice is heavily informed by the interplay of nervous system regulation in the context of relationships with children both at school with their peers and school staff and at home with their families.