Returning to school after the holidays is a huge transition. New classrooms, new teachers, new expectations, changed routines, uniforms, lunchboxes, and sensory environments can all feel overwhelming.

Discover how lifelong learning strengthens clinical reasoning, confidence, and therapeutic presence. A reflective, deeply informed guide for OTs, new graduates, and students.

Why Transitions After Holidays Are Hard

After late nights, visitors, sugar, excitement, travel, and disrupted routines, children often feel:

• emotionally overloaded

• sensory sensitive

• overtired

• dysregulated

• clingy or anxious

After supervising OTs for more than 30 years, I’ve noticed a predictable pattern:

Most therapists set goals based on pressure, comparison, or unrealistic expectations — not genuine professional needs.

Christmas is painted as magical — but for many children, especially neurodivergent kids, it is full of sensory and social stressors.