Last Updated: 7/30/18
The best pediatric specialists work constantly to learn new things and collect new ideas that can help them help kiddos.
Whether you’re a pediatric occupational therapist looking for a fun new way to teach handwriting skills to a six-year-old, a speech-language pathologist trying to help a child communicate with his family, or a physical therapist looking for new exercises to build hand-eye coordination skills, there are a ton of brilliant people in your field looking to share their ideas.
Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest make great, convenient places to find and share new ideas for helping your kiddos. The question is: “which channels can I follow to find a lot of great ideas quickly?”
To save you some time and the trouble of sifting through the web, we’ve put together this list of some of the best therapists in pediatric OT, SLP, and PT that we think you might want to follow on social media:
Best Pediatric Occupational Therapist Social Media Accounts
Pinterest:
With 140 different Pinterest boards covering topics ranging from visual perception, to handwriting, to fine motor skills, to developmental milestones and more, this Pinterest account has something for every pediatric OT. Like the name implies, it’s a great toolbox for occupational therapists.
Christie Kiley is a dedicated OT practitioner who has authored books such as Learn with Play: 150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun and Learning and The Most Important Things You Need to Know About Becoming an Occupational Therapy Practitioner. Her Mama OT Pinterest account gathers numerous archived resources across 60+ boards.
POTS Occupational Therapy (OT)
Bergen County-based Pediatric Occupation Therapy Services (POTS) brings a lot of industry experience and know-how to their Pinterest profile. Their boards include a lot of resources for OTs—such as their Apps and Other Technology for Kids board.
We recommend checking out some of the pins on OT Inspire’s Therapy Rooms & Playgrounds board—there are a lot of useful resources here that pediatric OTs and parents alike can learn from.
Evelyn Swan’s OT Pinterest page already boasts 2,000+ followers, and collects a range of resources across more than 80 boards—from number learning and visual perceptual activities, to fun holiday activities that encourage development.
Twitter:
The American Occupational Therapy Association’s Twitter feed is a must-follow for obvious reasons. The AOTA’s Twitter packs in a ton of helpful resources, industry news, and links to help articles.
If you aren’t following the OT Toolbox (formerly Sugar Aunts) on Pinterest, consider following their Twitter account! The OT Toolbox Twitter feed is regularly updated with links to pediatric OT tips, activities, and crafts for kids.
Kinetic Kids, Inc – @KineticKidsInc
While they might not have as many followers as the AOTA, the Kinetic Kids Twitter is still packed with plenty of pediatric OT goodness that you might find useful. A lot of the content here is optimized for the parents of the kiddos, so it could be a great resource to share with parents. They also routinely share stuff for pediatric PT and SLP as well.
Here’s a feed you’ll want to watch pretty closely, because it gets updated several times a day with new advice and resources.
Facebook:
CanDo Kiddo is a great Facebook page to share with your patients’ parents. The page routinely features great blogs and videos providing insights into parent and child development. Following this page is a great way to get some ideas for things you can do for your own OT practice.
American Occupational Therapy Association
Once again, the AOTA Facebook page is an obvious choice. Many of the same resources that they share on their Twitter account are also shared here—along with videos and other resources that won’t fit on Twitter.
Need some inspiration for fun activities to help the kiddos learn while meeting their developmental goals? Follow the Therapy Fun Zone on Facebook to get a bunch of resources for different play activities that can help kids learn.
The Recycling Occupational Therapist
This Facebook page features more than just tips and advice about pediatric OT, SLP, and PT—it features some truly inspirational content and videos about people overcoming limitations.
Best Pediatric Physical Therapist Social Media Accounts
Pinterest:
Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy
With dozens of Pinterest boards covering gross motor play, assessment tools, and other physical therapy tools for pediatric PTs, the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy is a great Pinterest page to follow.
Chanda, the woman behind Pink Oatmeal, LLC, is a self-described blogger, physical therapist, and lover of travel. Her Pinterest page features topics ranging from kids Yoga, to kinesthetic learning, to motor milestones for children.
This Pinterest page features a wealth of boards that serve both pediatric OT and PT specialties. There are boards for the typical activities and goal tracking, as well as boards dedicated to pediatric diets and recipes.
This cross-disciplinary Pinterest account has plenty of useful resources for pediatric OT, PT, and SLP specialists to use. One particularly interesting board that they have is the Wii in Therapy board.
This Pinterest account is managed by a company that specializes in school contract therapy. The account features over 170 boards covering topics for student/school related issues, running evals, and useful apps for physical therapy.
Twitter:
NS Pediatric Therapy – @nspt4kids
This cross-disciplinary Twitter feed features stories and resources for OT, PT, and SLP specialists.
MOSAIC Children’s – @mosaicchildren
The Washington State-based MOSAIC Rehabilitation, Inc. maintains a Twitter feed with tons of resources for parents who need help with their child’s OT, PT, or SLP needs. They also routinely post updates about events impacting children in their practice area—such as school cancellations.
Facebook:
PediaStaff specializes in staffing pediatric therapists for school-based PT, OT, and SLP. Their Facebook page features a lot of educational resources and articles highlighting better ways to teach children and help them meet developmental goals.
As the name may imply, The Inspired Treehouse is all about promoting creative, playful activities that help children learn through play. The page is run by pediatric OTs and PTs who have years of experience and love to share creative and fun activities that could help you help the kiddos.
Integrated Learning Strategies
Pediatric physical therapists looking for fun and creative PT routines for the kiddos should definitely check out this company’s Facebook videos page. It has a lot of short, easy to do physical therapy exercises.
Best Pediatric Speech-Language Pathology Accounts
Pinterest:
Here’s an SLP-specific Pinterest page that will help you teach the kiddos more than just consonants. This Pinterest account collects a ton of great speech-language therapy resources you can use.
Here’s a great Pinterest page to share with parents. It has boards featuring great tools for helping parents deal with SLP issues at home—including board games for SLP, speech therapy ideas to be done at home, and tons of seasonally-themed activities.
Susan Berkowitz is dedicated to helping kids who struggle with communication skills so that they have a voice. Her pediatric SLP Pinterest page has many different boards covering a range of topics from her personal TPT resources, to language development resources, to helping children with life skills.
This Pinterest page has resources for age-specific speech therapy from birth to middle school. These boards are great for sharing with parents, or for brushing up on the challenges of dealing with kiddos of a specific age group.
Here’s a page with a bunch of fun speech-language therapy ideas for pediatric SLPs. The Interesting SLP Reads board is a particularly valuable resource for SLPs.
Twitter:
Kim Lewis’ Twitter feed features a great collection of Tweets and stories about the impact of various social situations on children, resources and ideas for improving speech and language skills, and articles about pediatric practices and theories. Check it out if you have the chance.
Facebook:
Here’s a Facebook page for SLPs that want resources/activities to help their practice and stories that demonstrate what SLP is all about: helping the kiddos.
This Facebook page shares tips and tricks for SLPs looking to help kids while sticking to a tight budget. Miss Thrifty SLP highlights a lot of free or low-cost resources for speech-language pathologists.
Nicole Allison, Speech Peeps LLC
The goal of Nicole Allison’s Speech Peeps Facebook page is to collect “Fun & Engaging Speech Language Resources” for SLPs and educators. She welcomes contributions that can help SLPs and teachers can sharpen one another’s skills.
Busy Bee Speech’s Facebook page has a lot of useful resources on its timeline from a number of other SLPs and organizations. Some recent resources that Busy Bee Speech has shared include free CEU courses from ASHA and easy student motivators for therapy from Sublime Speech.
These are just a few of the many social media accounts that pediatric PT, OT, and SLP specialists can follow to find a ton of great resources. Do you have a favorite Pinterest, Twitter, or Facebook account that you follow? Share it with the world in the comments below!