Supporting Fine Motor Growth as an OT Through Grants

Breaking the Funding Barrier

I am blessed in my current school-based occupational therapist (OT) position to have access to a lot of materials and space. As a district employee, I have my own [shared] sensory room and treatment space and budget to purchase items that will support students on the current OT caseload. However, as OTs, we recognize that we can support so many more students than those that are on our direct caseload. The difficult part with this is where does that funding come from? Grants can be a great way to get buy in and funding for ideas you have regarding school-wide initiatives, programs or materials. This blog will discuss examples of the education foundation grants that my team applied for and was awarded and how they have impacted our school community.

3 Grants that Made an Impact in My School District

Writing Wizard App & Hand Strength Bins for Kindergarten

Our most recent grant application was to get a handwriting app and styluses for all of our kindergarten students. We are big fans of the Writing Wizard App [Google Play link here] as well as of Write Right Styluses! We were recommending these for OT kiddos [or as pre-referral strategies for students who had been screened for a potential OT evaluation]. Our kindergarten teachers expressed interest in all students having access to these great tools.

Since the app is one time purchase as are the styluses, it was clear that we could make an impact on kindergartners for years to come with fudging from one grant! We applied for 25 licenses/styluses for each kindergarten class district-wide. That would cover the maximum number of students we would have per class in any given year. The total was under $5000. The grant committee loved the idea! We have been seeing a decrease in fine motor skills in our incoming students. This preventative strategy would support students right at the start of their elementary school career! To support our teacher in implementing this new technology, our OTs did the following:

• Created Youtube videos with explanations for all of the app features.
• Scheduled times to be in the classroom supporting app set ups [ex: adding word lists] and problem solving through anything in real time.
• Frequent check ins and surveys conducted about ways each class is using their new technology.
• Sharing ideas across the district to improve and increase use of the new tools.

Hand Strength Bins to Support General Education

As district employees [rather than contracted therapists], our OTs are great at supporting teachers and students prior to the students being evaluated for direct OT support. We often supply classrooms with hand strength activities to support fine motor development. We provide a lot of materials/supports to teachers, but it then depletes our supply. Sometimes we found ourselves feeling limited in what we were able to give teachers as the materials we had access to were purchased with funding that is allocated to special education students only.

To solve this issue, we applied for grant funding to purchase basic hand strengthening and fine motor skill developing materials. We assembled kits using all of the materials to provide classroom teachers. Our district’s students can now flip through a ring of activity cards that detail a variety of activities they can complete using the materials in the bin. Our teachers have been using the bins as early finisher activities, soft start morning routine options and indoor recess activities. It has been a great addition to our general education classroom supports!

Sensory Paths

You may have already seen my blogs [Part 1 & Part 2] on the introduction of sensory paths in all of our elementary schools! Did you know that we funded that project via grant funding?!

We utilized the same elements in each sensory path, but worked with the vinyl creator to customize each path to meet the school’s “theme”. Research shows that physical activity enhances attention in all children. Implementing a school-wide strategy like a sensory path offers a fun, structured movement break that can help boost focus and support cognitive tasks.

These paths will be in our buildings for the foreseeable future! We continue to make adjustments, train different people on how to use them and add things. We are so thankful for this project and how it opened our eyes to the benefit of applying for grants!

Tips for Applying for Grants

I only have experience applying for my district’s education foundation’s grants. With that in mind, below are some things that we always consider when applying for grants:

• Consider the relationship to the school district’s curriculum and the state academic standards.
  • These are typically thing that are asked on the grant application!
• Think about how you will reflect on and assess the impact of the project.
  • Having in mind a way that you will assess your program helps the grant review committee see that you are looking to make a big, lasting impact.
• Make a full budget detail.
  • Some costs can be arbitrary or dependent on factors outside of your control. However, the closer to the exact total you can get when applying, the better. It helps the review committee feel confident in the amount of money they are awarding.
  • If you can have a grant that is a “once and done” – great! If a grant can start a program that will last from year to year without additional funding, it may gain more traction.
• Collaborate with other professionals when possible!
  • I have applied for grants in conjunction with building principals, elementary school classroom teachers, other OTs/PTs, and more! The more names on the grant application contributors line, the better in my opinion! It shows that you already have support for you idea!
• Tell people what you are doing!
  • Families and other teachers love to hear about new innovative ideas! I have gotten family support as well as teacher buy in/collaboration for grants just by word of mouth!
  • Consider including what grants you’re applying for [or using funding from!] in your welcome letter to families – FREE TEMPLATE HERE!

Kate has a lot of great ideas about where to look for grant opportunities in her blog! Check it out for more ideas! Good luck funding your dreams! I’m excited to hear about the impact you surely will make!