Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy
Community SubscriberDoes your child have challenges....
-Paying attention?
-Sitting still?
-Listening and following directions?
-Controlling their body appropriately?
-Climbing, running, balancing?
-Having self-confidence to try new things?
-Playing cooperatively with peers?
-Regulating their emotions?
-Thinking creatively and using their imagination?
-Solving problems on their own?
-Following through to carry out a plan?
Any of these skills (and more) can be targeted with therapeutic intervention during Outdoor Kids OT groups! Typically-developing children participate in our groups to get their green time/nature play too! Visit www.outdoorkidsOT.com for more information or give us a call to talk about how we can help your child.
My son is in his second year at Outdoor Kids OT and looks forward to it every week. We've enjoyed the pairing between nature-based play activities and support in the areas he could use some help from an OT. We've watched him better be able to cope with anxiety, develop more peer understanding and play skills, and gain more flexibility. Recommend this program to anyone looking for OT services and a neat outside-time activity for their kid
We started with Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy this school year. From applying, answering questions, advice, locations for meeting, phone conferences, etc. we have been incredibly pleased with the whole process. As a Special Education teacher for a couple of decades, I have worked with dozens of Occupational Therapists. The level of knowledge, professionalism, and empathy that we experience from OKOT is better than anything I have ever seen. My son is in a group and also receives individual services. His ability to recognize emotions within himself, his ability to integrate into a group, and access tools for regulation steadily increases with each week we have with Gabbi. I highly recommend reaching out to them with any questions or concerns. You will not regret it!
My kiddo has really thrived doing OKOT in Tilden for 6 months now. The setting is so perfect - after a long mostly indoor school day, nature is such a perfect respite! The therapists are really top notch and really understand my son’s struggles and strengths. Would highly recommend!
I cannot recommend Outdoor Kids OT enough. My son has been coming once a week for 3 years now (during the school year)! He has benefited so much from these sessions. Elisabeth, our OT, is phenomenal. She will address any OT concerns you have as well has teach kids how to navigate the social and emotional challenges that come up during sessions since this is a group meet-up. My son has grown from a quiet, shy boy to a stronger, more confident, more engaging, and vocal person. He has generalized what he has learned at sessions and uses the social skills her learned in his interactions with his peers at school. Outdoor Kids OT has really become a safe-haven for him to go outside, explore, and be among peers who are like him and accepting of him. He loves coming to every session. I highly recommend Outdoor Kids OT to anyone thinking about joining. It's an OT group and a social skills group all at once!
We love Outdoor Kids OT. My son struggled in kinder and we were lucky to find Elisabeth. Elisabeth is amazing with all the kids and such a wonderful resource for our family. She was able to help us navigate school, extra curricular activities and playdates. The groups are in Tilden (and also Joaquin Miller) and the activities are fun and support gross motor, fine motor and emotional learning. I loved seeing him get "in the minute" support to participate appropriately in playground games, and practice the skills to make and keep friends. He also learned to advocate appropriately for himself. As a fifth grader, he applied and was accepted to be a playground monitor /peer conflict resolution mentor. He also made some good friends at Outdoor Kids who we see regularly for playdates. I think any kid (even neutrotypical kids) could benefit from Outdoor Kids. We are grateful for this program.
I have an 8-year-old daughter on the spectrum, and Outdoor Kids OT has been amazing for her! It is led by occupational therapists who are professionals and skilled in autism. They facilitate various social and emotional learning activities while being outdoors, engaging in imaginative play. My daughter has an absolute blast every week! Before the sessions, you get the opportunity to work with the OT and formulate goals for your child to help them succeed. The OTs are all very nice, responsibe to any concerns I have, and provide weekly updates in the form of videos and pictures. If you have a child who faces social and emotional challenges, I highly recommend Outdoor Kids OT!
We have had amazing experiences with both of the following: Elisabeth Meikle at Outdoor Kids (all of their therapists are wonderful and it’s a terrific program but Elisabeth led our son’s group and she is simply magic! I know she is doing private/one-on-one OT now, as well) and Kristina Fuller at Full Circle. We could not have asked for a better one-on-one OT experience.
Hi we loved elizabeth meikle as an OT, we used her mainly for motor skills but she would be good for your son’s other issues too. We currently use leanne bloom for emotional regulation and she has also been great
We've had a great experience with Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy.
It's been a while since you asked but I just came across your post and thought of Outdoor Kids Group. They provide outdoor nature-based OT therapy but they also incorporate "peer playmates" as part of the group of kids receiving OT services. The peer playmates help the kids in OT by modeling age appropriate play and social skills, in return they get to play outdoors and participate in some really cool and creative activities. I think they meet in the Tilden Park or Redwood Regional. The therapists who run the groups are fabulous and skilled at helping the "peer playmates" become good role models and kind leaders. My son was a peer playmate when he was about 7, like your son, he wanted to be a leader but needed to tone down the bossiness. Outdoor Kids Group — Outdoor Kids Occupational Therapy (outdoorkidsot.com)
Check out Outdoor Kids OT. Outdoor, nature based occupational therapy. My son has attended for two years and thinks of it as his play group—they really focus on fun, engaging gross and fine motor skills so the kids don’t even think of it as therapy. Groups in Tilden and Joaquin Miller, weekdays and weekends. HIGHLY recommended!
Elisabeth Miekle with outdoor kids OT is amazing. Came to our house weekly and did work outside with our now 6 year old son weekly all last year. Helped him significantly. Not cheap but worth it.
Outdoor Kids OT has been amazing for our 7 year old son! Over the past couple of years, he has done a couple of the group sessions that meet during the school year and summer camp last year.
Laura and her team are super responsive and easy to communicate with, and the groups have plenty of support for the kids (there typically seems to be a lead OT with a couple of interns for a group of 4-5 kids). The sessions are all held outside and are among my son's favorite (likely, The Favorite) activities of his week. They seem to put a lot of thought into the composition of the small groups and the kids get a lot of encouragement, while getting OT and help with social skills in a fun, outdoor setting. We have really missed the groups during COVID and look forward to getting back outside when the groups resume.
If you're on the fence about trying it, I'm happy to discuss our experience in more detail.
We are in a similar boat and have had very good experiences with Lawrence Hall of Science and Trackers.
Also, Outdoor Kids OT camp is amazing, although it's only 1 week long and for 4 hours a day:
Have you considered occupational therapy in a group setting? I like Outdoor Kids OT: https://www.outdoorkidsot.com/. I have not worked with them directly yet, but had a great conversation with the lead at the recommendation of my pediatrician for my son with sensory processing issues. Social skills seemed among the things they focused on.
I wanted to give a glowing review of Outdoor Kids OT. My son has been participating in a small outdoor group with Alvin for the entire school year. We started the group after completing clinical based OT because we felt he needed more support in regulating himself in social situations. The groups are made up of similar aged, same gender children and I know they try to make the groups balanced around different issues the kids are working on. Alvin is a very creative, energetic, compassionate and truly talented OT. He has surprised us week after week with new ways to use the outdoors to work on a wide range of needs from planning to frustration tolerance to impulse control to working cooperatively with peers. After the first 10 week session, we felt like our son had gained enough skills to stop doing OT having also done about 6 months of clinical OT. However, the groups sometimes allow a "Peer" who is not actively on an OT protocol with goals and outcomes, but who can just come to the group and participate. We ended up doing this peer role for two sessions and my son LOVED it. He looked forward to going to the woods one afternoon a week to have adventures! He can't wait to do more in the fall. I highly recommend OKOT - and can even recommend it if you aren't sure if you child needs OT and is "on the bubble." It is a great place for high energy kids who want to develop great regulating skills among their peers.
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