We are thrilled to announce that Chanda Jothen is the recipient of the ERI Creative Therapies Award
She is being recognized as an individual who has made an extraordinary commitment and outstanding contributions to the practice of school-based therapy by enriching the lives of students through creative solutions.
Chanda created Pink Oatmeal to help school therapists with all their ideas and resource needs for promoting physical activity and motor activities at home, therapy, and in the classroom!
Once the pandemic started, she realized there was a great need for therapists to have access to quality videos and activities they could share with their students and their families virtually. So she created and uploaded even more digital theme activities related to fine, visual and gross motor games.
She has been an active participant in Facebook groups for OTs and PTs trying to navigate remote therapy, helping individuals navigate the new world of remote therapy and provided a life line to those who were struggling.
In addition, she heard from lots of therapists who said they needed more customized activities with better visual representation of those activities. So she enlisted the help of her children and began to grow her video library to help therapists address areas such as core strength, bilateral coordination, balance activities and more.
As one colleague stated “I’m really not sure what I would have done this year without her!”
Chanda is able to provide relevant and useful tools because she too was school based therapist for many years until she “retired” about 3 years ago to focus on developing more content and spending time with her young family.
Congratulations Chanda!
Thank you to all who submitted nominations. We received many compelling applications and it has proven difficult to chose the winners among the many talented and dedicated candidates.