A-LIST Spotlight: Occupational Therapist Marissa Steinhelfer from Montgomery County ESC and West Carrollton City Schools

It is our favorite time of the month when we feature one of our area's brightest and best educators through our A-LIST Spotlight! This month, we are highlighting Occupational Therapist Marissa Steinhelfer from Montgomery County ESC and West Carrollton City Schools. Marissa does a great job collaborating and problem-solving with her teams at West Carrollton. 

We reached out to Marissa so that she could share a little bit of her expertise for this month's feature. Check out her post below: 

"I am so honored to be featured on this ACT Team Blog!  A little background about me: I am originally from the Pittsburgh, PA area and am a graduate of Elizabethtown College in Central PA.  I have been an occupational therapist for over 20 years.  I spent the first part of my career working with adolescents and adults within an inpatient rehabilitation center of a large hospital where I specialized in the treatment of individuals with traumatic brain injury.  I began my adventure as a school-based occupational therapist in 2018, joining the wonderful team of therapists employed with the Montgomery County ESC.  I am now in my 5^th year as a school-based OT, servicing elementary school-aged students within the West Carrollton City School District. 

In my present role, I provide direct skilled OT services for students with identified needs in fine and visual motor skills, sensory processing difficulties, executive functioning skills, and/or self-help skills to help students more successfully access their educational environment.  I also provide consultative support to teachers and staff to facilitate implementation and carryover of strategies into the school day.  I am fortunate to work with truly exceptional teachers, staff, and other therapists!  I am always learning and growing--actively seeking out opportunities to increase my own knowledge and skill set so I can use “best practices” to help my students and teams.  I am so grateful to all of the professionals who have shared their valuable time and resources with me. 

Here are examples of some of the roles I have as a school-based OT:

Helping to embed sensory-motor activities and sensory-based supports into the classroom and larger school environment to help meet sensory and self-regulation needs such as:

• Motor pathways using colored tape on floors
• Heavy work stations (e.g., colored book carry and sort).  A special “shout-out” to my friends at my local Dayton Metro Library branch who graciously donated out-of-circulation books for me to wrap for use with one of these stations.

• Movement stations (bend and reach upper/lowercase letter match using Velcro manipulatives; S’cool Moves posters)

• Purposeful walks that incorporate preferred picture icons related to student interests
• Trialing sensory-based supports such as flexible seating (ZUMA rockers, resistive kickbands around desk legs, etc.), weighted materials, noise-cancelling headphones, removable under-desk texture board to meet student need for increased tactile input when sitting at desk, etc.

Providing input and activity suggestions for a sensory-motor room

• Stoplight Choice Board to provide a framework for structuring sensory-motor breaks

• Activities that provide purposeful movement opportunities to support a student’s need to move while providing regulating proprioceptive input (book cart push/carry/sort; prone scooter board Velcro puzzle)
• Visual transition sequence of activities to help students prepare for return to class"

We just love Marissa's creativity and ability to individualize supports for her students. Shout out to Marissa for your contribution to this month's spotlight and for all you do for your teams and students. We are so lucky to partner with you!