ALIST Spotlight: Denise Campbell- Occupational Therapist, Mad River Local Schools & MCESC

We are kicking off a new year of ALIST Spotlights with today's feature of Occupational Therapist Denise Campbell. Denise is a fellow employee of the Montgomery County ESC who works in Mad River Local Schools at their Mad River Early Childhood Center and Stevenson Elementary. 

Denise excels at collaborating with her colleagues, providing structure during therapy sessions, and consulting with staff regarding student sensory needs. 

Collaborating with Colleagues

Denise continually advocates for her students and is always looking for new and innovative ideas to support the unique needs of her students. She goes above and beyond to problem-solve and help where she is needed. 

Therapy Session Structure

Denise knows her students strive with predictability and routine. She uses visual and tactile supports to provide students with structure during OT sessions so they know exactly what is expected and what they will earn at the end of their session for completing work. This structure reduces interfering behaviors, increases productivity, and helps her students learn and grow!

One structural support Denise uses is a visual contract which uses star tokens to symbolize each task or "job" her student needs to complete during their session. When the task is completed, the student removes the token. When all of the tokens have been removed, the student knows they are finished working and they have earned the activity chosen at the start of the session. 

Some of Denise's students need more concrete structure. For these students, Denise uses a Structured Work System of drawers. The drawers contain the activities or "jobs" for the session so students can see exactly what is expected when they get started. The student uses the numbered strip to match numbers to the drawer, take out and complete the work, and then place it in a finished location. Once all of the numbers are matched and the drawers are empty, the student earns a reward activity. 

Sensory Needs

Denise has collaborated with her district teams to meet student sensory needs in a variety of ways. Check out our previous post on the Calming Sensory Space she helped her colleagues create at Stevenson Elementary. She also helped to create a great Hallway Path for students who needed movement breaks throughout the day. 

We are so glad that Denise is part of our ALIST team of professionals in our districts since she has a wealth of information to share and loves to help others! Thanks for being such a wonderful partner to our team, Denise!