Here to Play:
Recentering Children in Occupational Therapy Practice
In this self-paced continuing education course, you’ll discover a concrete path to playful, person-affirming, child-led OT that truly helps your clients meet their goals.
This course is taught by The OccuPLAYtional Therapist, Mick Olds (Kelsie Olds), who will fill your tool bag with adaptable ideas that will allow you to stop planning your sessions and start following your clients’ lead. You’ll also learn the why behind playful practice so you feel confident in your reasoning when writing goals, planning sessions, or explaining your approach to others. Here to Play is especially powerful for school-based occupational therapists, but the takeaways can also transform clinic-based or home-based practices.
This course is registered for .8 AOTA CEUs (8 contact hours).
Get on demand access for one year when you register. Registration closes 12/19/2025.
Continuing Education
from Learn Play Thrive
Play unlocks skills for children. It speaks to them in their native language.
It makes things make sense in their bodies.
MODULE 1: The Work of Childhood
We know that play is a child’s most meaningful occupation. But far too often, this is lost in our OT practices as we navigate the pressures of helping clients meet goals. In this module, you’ll become a skilled observer of play, diving deep into the many varied ways kids of all ages play. (There are more types of play than you think!)
This module will give you the language and knowledge to recognize, create, and defend playfulness in any setting and with any goal.
MODULE 2: How to Play, Starting Today
“This module is your concrete toolkit for integrating more play immediately into your unique setting, using your unique style. Using a plethora of concrete examples and case studies from Mick’s practice as a playful school-based OT, Mickwill teach you the small or big steps you can take to move towards playful, affirming practice in the following categories:
- Physical foundations
- Sensory processing
- Relationships and connection
- Social/emotional skills
- Intrinsic motivation
- Academic skills (including handwriting!)
- Autonomy
- “Behavior”
MODULE 3: Playfulness on Paper
You may already know in your heart that play is how kids learn and thrive. And by this point in your course, you’ll know exactly how to use playfulness to help your clients meet any OT goal. In this module, we take it a step farther and give you the tools you need to document your playful practice. You’ll learn how to defend playfulness in evaluations, goals, and daily notes.
You’ll get concrete examples of neurodiversity-affirming goals that support your clients’ fine motor skills, sensory processing, emotional regulation, and more. You’ll get scripts for how to talk about your practice to schools, IEP teams, and families. And you’ll read examples of SOAP notes for play-based sessions, including for sessions where nothing went as planned. This module will allow you to take your newly minted playful practice into the real world of documentation with confidence and ease.
MODULE 4: Equipped to Play Anywhere
Come on in! In this module, Mick lets you peek inside their OT tool bag and their OT room , giving you a list of their favorite flexible, playful OT tools (including apps!) and the various ways they use them in their practice. You’ll learn how to set the plan together with the child, and how teach skills like writing through playful, embedded, natural modeling. You’ll learn how to craft your own supply list, even on a budget.
Mick shows you how to set up your space for play if you have your own OT room in the schools or a clinic, if you are driving school to school in your care, if you are are sharing a therapy room, or if you are pushing into the natural environment.
This module is what we all wish we had when we first started out in practice. It will save you hours of planning, and give you infinite access to playful practice!
Play is a child's
most important occupation
Research evidence points to play as one of the most important things kids do for their growth and development in every area of life. But most of us have never seen truly playful, child-centered OT practice. In Here to Play, you’ll identify your exact next step to bring more joy to your work, while better supporting your Autistic clients growth and development.
Investment
$389 for over 8 recorded hours that will save you hours of planning every single week and transform your OT practice. We also offer payment breakdown to 3 payments of $130.
Access
This course is entirely self-paced. You’ll have access to the course on demand for one year when you register.
Continuing Education
This course is registered for .8 AOTA CEUs (8 contact hours).
FAQs
Information about completion requirements, accommodations, and more can be found in the FAQs.
Click play below to watch your free training. Then keep scrolling for an offer you won't want to miss!
Here to Play is
for you if…
You are an OT supporting neurodivergent children or adolescents, espeically in the school or clinic setting.
You want to find more playfulness and joy in your practice, without spending hours researching new ideas.
You want to be able to confidently create and defend child-led practices in your goals, notes, and interactions with others.
- You are an OT supporting neurodivergent children or adolescents, espeically in the school or clinic setting.
- You want to find more playfulness and joy in your practice, without spending hours researching new ideas.
- You want to be able to confidently create and defend child-led practices in your goals, notes, and interactions with others.
You believe that the deepest wellbeing of your Autistic clients matters, and you want your work to reflect that
You want concrete examples of how to put child-led, playful practices into action to meet OT goals, not just the theory or guiding principles.
- You believe that the deepest wellbeing of your Autistic clients matters, and you want your work to reflect that
- You want concrete examples of how to put child-led, playful practices into action to meet OT goals, not just the theory or guiding principles.
Meet your
Instructor
Mick Olds (Kelsie Olds)
Mick Olds (Kelsie Olds)
FINANCIAL: Mick was paid for their contributions to Goal Writing for Autistic Students. Mick receives commission for the sales of Here to Play. Mick is the author of a book, “Your Child’s Point of View: Understanding the Reasons Kids Do Unreasonable Things” and receives royalties for its’ sale. Mick is the owner of The OccuPLAYtional Therapist and receives speaking fees.
NON-FINANCIAL: Mick is Autistic and has friends and family members who are Autistic.
Please note: disclosure statements are contained in the Bio page for each speaker. Click on "READ BIO" above to review the disclosures.
This course is practical, honest, refreshing, creative, and simply fun.
Full Course Objectives
Interpret and analyze common themes in a child's play in order to develop meaningful strategies that support playful, authentic engagement in a variety of daily occupations
Design a static environment or mobile toolbox that facilitates genuine child-led play in a variety of occupational therapy settings.
Develop strategies for confidently and flexibly adapting the course of a treatment session based on a child's meaningful occupations to enhance the client’s therapeutic takeaway and authentic joy during daily routines.
- Interpret and analyze common themes in a child's play in order to develop meaningful strategies that support playful, authentic engagement in a variety of daily occupations
- Design a static environment or mobile toolbox that facilitates genuine child-led play in a variety of occupational therapy settings.
- Develop strategies for confidently and flexibly adapting the course of a treatment session based on a child's meaningful occupations to enhance the client’s therapeutic takeaway and authentic joy during daily routines.
Defend the value of child-led play-based occupational therapy practice in medical documentation.
Appraise a client's handwriting, tool use, and other fine motor skills through a holistic lens to improve meaningful engagement in academic, pre-academic, and self care skills.
Examine the underlying roots of children’s distress behaviors to identify and support the need they are expressing, skills they are lacking, or help they are requesting in order to reduce barriers to participation in daily routines.
- Defend the value of child-led play-based occupational therapy practice in medical documentation.
- Appraise a client's handwriting, tool use, and other fine motor skills through a holistic lens to improve meaningful engagement in academic, pre-academic, and self care skills.
- Examine the underlying roots of children’s distress behaviors to identify and support the need they are expressing, skills they are lacking, or help they are requesting in order to reduce barriers to participation in daily routines.
Click play below to get a sneak peek into Module 1 of Here to Play
Frequently Asked Questions
This course is developed for OTs in the school setting, with an emphasis on pull-out therapy and integrated discussion of how to use playfulness for push-in services and consult. The strategies in this course will be easily applicable for clinic-based OTs. OTs supporting kids in the home will also be able to take what they learn and apply it to their setting, though most of the examples and case studies in the course are school-based. This course content is at the intermediate level.
The concepts in this course are useful for providers supporting Autistic people from preschool through adolescence, with case studies and examples ranging from preschool through middle school.
This course includes lecture, videos, and slides.
This course is registered for .8 AOTA CEUS (8 contact hours).
Yes! The course is self-paced and you have one year to complete it on your own time.
Yes! If 3 or more people from your company plan to enroll email me the names of everyone enrolling at admin@learnplaythrive.com and I’ll provide a coupon code. It’s 15% for 3 registrants, 20% off for 4 or more, and 30% off for 7 or more. This discount does not apply during pre-registration unless your group discount is larger than the current pre-sale discount.
We offer full scholarships to therapists from under-resourced countries.
In order to get a certificate of completion, you must watch all of the video modules and pass a quiz at the end of the course with 75% accuracy. Multiple attempts at the quiz are allowed. You must also complete a coruse satisfaction survey. Only learners who complete the course, quiz , and survey will receive a certificate.
You will have 12 months to access the course.
Full refunds are provided within 30 days of purchase (or for pre-sale, 30 days after the course launches) if no more than 3 modules have been completed. Email meg@learnplaythrive.com to request a refund. Since this is a self-paced course, there is no option to cancel once the 30 day / 3 module limit has been exceeded. If for any reason the course is canceled by the provider before your registration period has expired, you will receive a full refund.
All videos used in this presentation have closed captions. If you need additional accommodations, please email admin@learnplaythrive.com prior to your training date. Accommodations will be made to support all learners in compliance with the Americans with Disability Act.
You can send an email to admin@learnplaythrive.com
Our courses are hosted on Thinkific. You will need one of the two latest versions of a supported browser to access the course. (Note: Internet Explorer is not supported).
Desktop:
Chrome
Firefox
Safari
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iOS Safari
Chrome
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In order to ensure that Thinkific runs well, you will need:
The most recent version of one of the web browsers listed above
Javascript enabled
PDF plugin
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TLS 1.2 supported by your web browser
This information was adapted from: https://support.thinkific.com/hc/en-us/articles/360030354954-System-Requirements-and-Supported-Browsers
Our Promise to You:
Group Discounts
We are happy to offer a discount for your group! Email your list of participants to admin@learnplaythrive.com to receive a coupon code.
• 3 participants: 15% off
• 4+ participants: 20% off
• 7+ participants: 30% off
• 50+ participants: please inquire
Our Content is Autistic reviewed
All of our content is reviewed by a panel of professionals from a variety of fields, a number of whom are Autistic. We want to ensure that our courses reflect the lived experiences of Autistic people.
30 Day Money Back Guarantee
We think you’ll love it. But take 30 days to complete up to half of the course. If it’s not what you’d hoped, you get your money back.
Play-based, child-led practice feels intuitively right.
And learning to understand the work that children are doing when they play gives you the tools and language to justify and defend it.
This course will be available for ASHA CEUs starting April 1st, 2025 until September 29th 2030, 2028 at which point Learn Play Thrive will apply for re-registration.
The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.
ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products or clinical procedures.
The recorded materials in this course were last updated on 10/1/2024.