The Therapy Hamster Wheel

The Therapy Hamster Wheel: Why This Summer Should Be Different

We are officially in the home stretch! We’ve cleared the hurdle of Spring Break, and the final quarter of the school year is staring us down.

As the weather gets warmer and we start eyeing those summer calendar squares, I want to talk about something I see happening to families every single year.

I call it the Therapy Hamster Wheel.

It looks like this: families doing everything right. You’re hitting speech therapy twice a week, OT every Thursday, and ABA on Fridays—all on top of a 40-hour school week. Your car feels more like a mobile office/cafeteria than a vehicle, and your "free time" is spent managing schedules.

And yet, despite the exhaustion and the packed calendar, you feel like your child isn’t actually moving forward.

The Cycle of Diminishing Returns
When we load our kids (and ourselves) with back-to-back clinical hours, we often hit a point of diminishing returns. After 40 hours of school, a child’s brain is tired. When we add 10+ hours of therapy on top of that, we aren't always getting "progress"—we’re often just getting "compliance" from a kid who is running on empty.

A Different Way to Summer
As summer approaches, I want to challenge you to think about this season differently. Summer doesn't have to be "school-lite" or a marathon of makeup therapy sessions.

What if, instead of more hours on the wheel, we focused on:

• Functional Rest: Giving the nervous system a chance to actually reset.

• Natural Environment Success: Practicing skills at the park or the pool instead of in a clinic room.

• Family Connection: Reclaiming the time usually spent in waiting rooms to just betogether.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing how we can pivot away from the hamster wheel and toward a summer that actually fosters growth through play, rest, and intentionality.

You’ve worked hard this year. Your child has worked hard. It’s okay to step off the wheel.