THANK YOU to everyone who attended Therapies in the School 24th Annual Conference on November 16 and 17, 2023! It was our largest conference ever, with more than 500 therapists (from 30 different states and parts of Canada) in virtual attendance on Zoom!
This year’s speakers and attendees brought an energy and enthusiasm to our annual 2-day event that has renewed our spirt and ignited our commitment to provide exceptional educational content for the providers who strive to share that excellence with their students. Improving outcomes, safeguarding mental health, and honoring each student’s unique abilities is at the center of what we do and we’re so proud to work amongst this community of attendees and speakers!
It was inspiring to watch and join in on the extraordinary amount of dynamic, interactive dialogue and the flow of sharing intervention ideas that were taking place within the Whova app, which will remain accessible to you through February 17, 2024! And don’t forget, the discussion also continues after the conference in our Therapies in the School Discussion Group on Facebook – check it out!
We really had an amazing speaker line-up this year! Some conference highlights include:
Understanding and Adopting Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice in School-Based Therapies – Kelly Mahler, OTD, OTR/L & Judy Endow, MSW, LCSW. This session was so exciting-there was so much activity in the live chat and passion for “making the shift.”
Once again this year, ERI’s 16-year veteran presenter and yoga instructor, Anne Buckley-Reen, OTR, RYT, kicked-off Day 2 of the conference with a relaxing, virtual yoga session-it was great to start the day relaxed and re-energized!
Harnessing Contemporary Motor Learning: Ensuring Success in School and Beyond – Kim Wynarczuk, PT, DPT, PhD, MPH and Jennifer Elinich, PT, DPT. This informative session discussed the many updates in evidence related to motor control, motor learning & neuroplasticity and how it can be applied to school-based therapy practice.
Diving Deeper, Dispelling Myths and Driving Outcomes for Students with ADHD with Lori Flynn, MS, OTR/L was our most attended session of the Conference, providing our school-based therapy attendees with robust, evidence-based resources to improve classroom participation and performance in students with ADHD.
We loved seeing so much engagement on social media during the Conference! We awarded several prizes to contest winners, including Beth Tremblay, an OTR from NY, who won a FREE 2-Day registration to next year’s Therapies in the School Conference 25th Annual Conference-2024 for sharing a “clinical pearl” on social media:
“So many pearls…but the reminder that ’Every interaction is an intervention’ is so true, with the children we work with, our colleagues and our families.”
We hope that attending Therapies in the School 24th Annual Conference-2023 helped to renew your passion for school-based therapy, and provided you with new tools and strategies that you can use right away to improve learning outcomes for your students.
Perhaps you will implement a strategy that will help put your favorite take-aways from the Conference into action. Will it be an “Every interaction is an intervention” sticky note on the office door? A flow-chart to help with difficult conversations for an upcoming IEP? Or a calendar reminder to dig deeper into the checklists from the ADHD session? What works for you to keep your newly gained knowledge top-of-mind as you move through the school year?
Stay tuned for access to on-demand recordings of the conference, coming to you soon in early 2024!
And, please save the date for next year’s Therapies in the School 25th Annual Conference, set for November 14 and 15, 2024!