Connect the Dots Learning Center

Call Website Contact the school

Connect the Dots Learning Center Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Connect the Dots Learning Center, Education Website, 1490 Flintridge Avenue, Eugene, OR.

Stephanie Wagers
👩‍⚕️ 20+ yrs Peds OT/🏥 Clinic Owner/👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Parent Coach/👩‍🏫 Mentor/💻Online educator ⚕️ AOTA Approved Provider
Let me help you teach parents to play with a purpose!

10/14/2026

We spend so much energy on the first few sessions with the child. The eval, the goals, figuring out what’s going on.

But this study made me rethink where that early energy goes.

Researchers followed 41 families and 12 speech therapists through a 12-week intervention. The strength of the relationship between the therapist and the parent, rated after just two sessions, predicted how much the kids improved by the end.

Not the last session. The second one.

So those first visits aren’t just about getting to know the child. They’re when the parent decides whether they’re a partner in this or just dropping off.

A few things that help early:
👉 Ask the parent what matters most to them, not just what the referral says
👉 Explain the why behind what you’re doing in plain language
👉 Give them one small thing to try at home, not a packet

Save this for your next eval, and send it to a therapist who’s always rushing past the parent to get to the kid.

đź“š Icht, M., Tayar, M., Mikulincer, M., Taitelbaum-Swead, R., & Ben-David, B.M. (2026). Parent-therapist therapeutic alliance: A neglected factor in pediatric speech-language intervention: A longitudinal study. Journal of Communication Disorders, 121, 106637.
cris.huji.ac.il/en/publications/parent-therapist-therapeutic-alliance-a-neglected-factor-in-pedia

10/12/2026

We’ve all been there. Fifty minutes of the parent in the car. Then the “quick” debrief that eats into your next session. Or the phone call you end up making at 7pm.

Here’s what I’ve learned. Parents don’t skip the room because they don’t care. Usually nobody ever told them they were supposed to be in it.

So tell them. Kindly, clearly, and early.

You’ll get better carryover at home, and you’ll get your evenings back.

Save this for the next “can you just call me later?” 📞

10/11/2026

Most of us were never taught what to do after a parent gets upset with us. So we do what feels safest. We get extra polite, keep sessions short, and hope it fades.

But the families who drift away usually aren’t the ones who said something. They’re the ones nobody went back to.

The researchers behind this study recommend naming the rupture directly and inviting the person to talk about it without getting defensive. That doesn’t mean a big apology or a long explanation. It can be one sentence:

“I felt like something was off last time. Can we talk about it?”

Then listen. Don’t defend, don’t fix. Just listen.

Save this for the next time a session goes sideways, and send it to a coworker who’s been carrying one of these.

đź“š Eubanks, Muran & Safran, Psychotherapy (2018). Meta-analysis of 11 studies on rupture repair in adult psychotherapy.

10/10/2026

If telling a parent their child isn’t making progress makes you reapply your deodorant, you’re not alone.

Most of us were never taught how to have this conversation. We learned how to treat, not how to talk to parents when things aren’t going the way we hoped.

Here’s the thing. Parents usually already sense it. Avoiding the conversation doesn’t protect them, it just leaves them guessing. When you name it early and come with a plan, you actually build trust.

I wrote out the exact words I use for this conversation so you don’t have to wing it.

Comment “CONFIDENCE” and I’ll send you the script.

10/09/2026

The training isn’t the problem. Expecting it to work on its own is.

Coaching parents is a completely different skill from treating kids. Even therapists with years of experience feel clumsy at first, and that’s normal. What makes it stick is someone reviewing real sessions with them, helping them figure out what to say next time, and keeping them going when it feels awkward.

Most owners know their team needs that. Most owners also don’t have a spare hour in their week to give it.

That’s the part I take off your plate. I work with your clinicians on their real parent conversations, so the training you already paid for actually shows up in the treatment room.

If your team has been trained but you’re not seeing the change, let’s talk. Link in bio to book a call.

đź“š Frater et al., British Journal of Occupational Therapy (2025). Small UK feasibility study with four OTs and eight families.

10/08/2026

Comfortable isn’t kind. It just delays the goodbye.

🎥 Dr. Becky said it about kids. It’s just as true for the conversations we avoid with parents.

Comment CONFIDENCE and I’ll send you what to say.

10/08/2026

Schedule is the reason parents say out loud. It’s not always the whole reason.

The other two usually come out sideways. A parent mentions their kid “isn’t really into it.” Or they ask, kind of casually, how long until you see a difference. Those aren’t small talk. That’s a parent telling you they’re not sure it’s worth the fight.

When we hear that, it’s easy to go straight to making the program shorter. Sometimes that helps. But if the parent doesn’t believe in it, a shorter version of something they don’t believe in still won’t get done.

What helps more is making the why make sense to them, and asking how it’s really going at home.

Save this for your next home program check-in, and send it to the coworker you always talk shop with.

đź“š Segal & Beyer, American Journal of Occupational Therapy (2006)

10/07/2026

A home program template is the dry shampoo of parent coaching.

👋 Hi, I’m Stephanie, a pediatric OT and clinic owner who specializes in training therapy teams to bridge the gap between the treatment room and the home. Everyday I share scripts for hard conversations and strategies for building real partnerships with families on this page.

You spend five minutes at the end of a session scribbling three generic exercises onto a pre-printed sheet, hand it to the parent, and watch them shove it into the bottom of their diaper bag before they even reach the parking lot. Next week, they come back and haven’t touched it, leaving you feeling frustrated because you know the child’s progress is stalling between visits.

Instead of relying on a generic sheet, you need to use an intake process that identifies exactly what a parent is capable of doing during their Tuesday morning routine. When you tailor the home program to their specific lifestyle constraints and verbalize the why behind the movement, they stop seeing it as extra work and start seeing it as a way to help their child hit their next milestone.

📲 Everyday I share behind-the-scenes looks at running a pediatric clinic and real talk on therapist burnout, so stick around and you’ll get the language you need to keep your providers engaged and your families coming back.

Address

1490 Flintridge Avenue
Eugene, OR
97401

Telephone

+15415159025

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Connect the Dots Learning Center posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to Connect the Dots Learning Center:

Shortcuts

Share

Category