You know you’re a school based occupational therapist when you look in your purse, albeit a large one, to find the following:

1. An assortment of pencil grips
2. Bag full of O rings and ¾” metal nuts to create a weighted pencil on a moment’s notice
3. Glue gun… to create or fix that one thing you always forget about until the next time you’re at that school
4. A few Wilbarger brushes, in a bag of course
5. Weights for a weighted vest
6. DVD of Sensory Diet Activities you need to share with staff
7. Non-latex theraband
8. Tennis Ball loaded with pennies a.k.a “Mr. Mouth” (Tennis ball adorned with googly eyes, pom-pom nose and slit cut to form a mouth. Pennies, beads and/or beans i.e., his lunch, placed in his mouth one at a time to facilitate palm to finger translation skills.)
9. Tape. Variety depends on what was handy as you were walking out the door
10. Vibrator. I know, I know. It never gets easy to say, even as a legit therapeutic tool

The best part of all of this is enjoying the looks I get when I have to get some of these things out of my purse at the grocery so I can get to my wallet. Then your children have to get in there to find something, because naturally you have plenty of room for their stuff too. My daughter’s response, "Mom! Why do you have all this stuff?!" I can only say, "Honey, it’s my fondest hope that your purse will look like that someday too… as an occupational therapist!"

So what’s in your purse?