The Pied Piper to Minimize special education stigma - OT thoughts

I'm sure I've said this before, but I use this to reflect so if it's redundant, well, I'm reflecting again!!! My philosophy with my OT kids in the elementary school is to play a "Pied Piper" where all kids, special education or not, want to be with me - I always have sparkles in my hair, often sparkle eyeliner, cool laptop cases or my bins have stickers...my keychain has silly key caps... I want to appeal to all the kids. When I show up to get a kid in the classroom, they are (almost always) happy to see me/come with me, and the other kids want to come too. I want the other kids to feel like my OT kid is lucky for getting to come with me, rather than it being something weird. Anyway... Today I was at the beach, looking for cool rocks. I left my stuff with this family with young kids so that I didn't have to keep such a close eye on it (with their permission).  I was right in front of the family, just at the waterline, and I'm super paranoid about leaving things unattended. Anyway, their little girl ended up following me and showing me her cool rocks and talking to me. I didn't initiate it. Super cute. Then when I came back to collect my stuff, a little boy (maybe one years old?), a little boy toddled up to me quite randomly and started showing me his beach toys. I went along with it but was a little perplexed as to why he approached me (there were a bunch of people around, including kids). The mom that had been watching my stuff commen...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs