Connecting with bloggers from the occupational therapy world and related industries can be a great way to breathe new life into your own OT practice. Once you find the best OT blogs for you, I recommend signing up for their mailing lists.
The OT discipline is built on many foundational theories. We're highlighting each of the top 25 OT frames of reference, all in one place.
Occupational Therapy ideas to promote fine motor development in children!
Top 10 Occupational Therapy blogs based on subject matter, frequency of posts, uniqueness, and ease of navigation.
Back to my blog home page: http://travelingotr.blogspot.com Today, I want to write about a lurking beast among residents of skilled and lo...
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY FIELDWORK TOOLKIT A list of important items for all your fieldwork and professional needs. 1. Range of Moti...
Lifemark Physiotherapy Saint John offers physiotherapy, massage therapy, occupational therapy, and other rehabilitation services in the Saint John area.
Starting today, I’ll be sharing activities that will improve fine motor skills. Remember the importance of working on foundational skills before you start working on fine motor activities. For example, you’ll want to make sure that your child has good postural control, and is skilled with large and medium motor tasks before moving on to fine motor skills. Control and stability are important prerequisite skills for fine motor activities such as writing and cutting! Hand Separation: The hand can be divided into 2 separate sides. The pinky and ring finger side is for stability. The thumb, index and middle finger perform manipulation skills. It is important to be able to separate the two sides of the hand when it comes to fine motor skills. As you can see in the photo above, I am stabilizing two coins using my pinky and ring fingers, yet I am still able to hold and manipulate a quarter using my thumb, index and middle finger. In the video below, I am performing translation skills. When I pick up the buttons and bring them into my palm, this is called finger-to-palm translation. As I bring one button out to my fingertips at a time, while stabilizing the others in my palm, this is called palm-to-finger translation with stabilization. This is a great exercise for working on hand separation! A similar activity is to have your child put coins into a piggy bank. Resource: Exner, C.E. (1997). Clinical interpretation of “In-hand manipulation in children: translation movements, American Journal of Occupational Therapy, (9), 729-32.
As many of you return to work or have started already, here are some tips for the upcoming school year: 1. Support your students - Whether the student's goal is a lofty one or a easy goal support the student 100% to achieve the goal. Maybe it is something the student really wants to achieve. Or perhaps a teacher feels it will benefit the student. Whatever it may be, if you do not believe that the student can achieve it he/she probably will not. Make it your goal to help them achieve their goals. 2. Be patient - Students learn at different paces. Make sure you give them time to respond. Whether it be to complete a functional task like dressing or to take a step allow them to initiate all movements or steps possible before you provide verbal or physical cues. 3. Model Appropriately - If you want students to perform a certain task a certain way try to model that task for them. If you can not model the skill see if you can get a peer or a video to demonstrate for the student. 4. Remember the goals - It can be hard to stay focused on a few goals when a student exhibits many needs. But, by focusing on certain skills you can provide more assistance in areas that the student, teacher and parents have indicated to be important. Therapists frequently catch glimpses of a student's daily routine so we need to rely on others to help to set the proper goals. 5. Ask for help - To repeat the sentiments in number 4, therapists catch a glimpse of a students day. Ask questions to the student, the teachers and the parents. The more informed you are regarding a student the more you can offer your expertise. Care to add any more tips to the list?
The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation is hoping to give away 2,000 iPads to children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and other special needs. But they need your help! GSF is a not for profit...
We blog on the most recent and interesting topics and news in occupational therapy. This is your one stop blog for OTs and OTAs.
I often get visitors to the blog looking for goal writing tips. A recent commenter asked about writing sensory related goals. While this is not something I am an expert in, here is my approach. I think that sensory based goals can be difficult to write because we have to know exactly what we want to measure, and we know we have to be specific and objective so that we can measure the effects of our interventions. We know when someone increases their ROM or strength and have portable tools to measure that, we have standard measures of ADL performance. As of yet, there aren't widely used, scientifically based tests or tools to measure sensory processing that we can just stick in our bag for re/assessment. (yes, some people do astronaut training or interactive metronome or whatever else, but I don't think that there's an item that meets those qualifications) So since most of us are not equipped to measure sensory responses through advanced measurement of vital signs and neural responses, we have to make our objective something else, something with functional relevance. Some sample objectives that you may be trying to improve with sensory strategies might be to increase tolerance for a non-preferred activity (seat work, being in a store, novel food), decrease outbursts or other undesirable actions, or demonstrate an ability to self regulate (identifying personal alertness level, self selecting appropriate sensory breaks). A frustrating thing is not just trying to be specific enough in this objective that you have something relevant to measure, but also accepting the fact that none of these activities exist in isolation, so there is no direct correlation for cause and effect. You can do all the "right" interventions and the goal can still be unmet. We're still going to use a SMART or RUMBA format for the overall goal. The following were my original sensory goals (rescued by the wayback machine), and you can see that they don't fit those formats. -pt. will tolerate 1 "unpleasant" stimulus per session -pt. to attend to seated activity for 10 minutes following sensory activity -family to report better sensory seeking behaviors at home These are are not very specific, and they don't really show what the performance component to be addressed is or what the OT method for improving this deficit will be. Remember that people are seeking (and paying) you for the Assessment and Plan section of your eval & notes, so it is important to be clear. When I was writing those goals, I asked a friend who had been in peds longer than me how she did it. Her responses are as follows: - Patient will demonstrate decreased tactile defensiveness by tolerating hair brushing and face washing without adverse reactions with minimal verbal cues. - Patient will demonstrate improved modulation of the tactile system by accepting 3 bites of one new food in 4 weeks with minimal verbal cues. - Patient will demonstrate decreased auditory defensiveness by decreasing ear covering by 50% independently. - Patient will demonstrate improved sensory modulation by self calming with the use of sensory techniques as needed 100% of time. - Patient will demonstrate improved modulation of the oral sensory system by mouthing one or less inappropriate objects during a treatment session without verbal cuing. - Patient will demonstrate improved modulation of the vestibular system by decreasing spinning by 50% without verbal cuing. You can see that these aren't all completely terrific either, but there is a great improvement over the others. We see the specific sensory area that was identified as problematic, the specific reason to the family that it needs to be addressed, and if we wanted to improve these farther we could give a success rate to know whether the goal is met (4/5 trials, etc). (Know that no one is going to self-calm 100% of the time, no matter how good your intervention is.) I like the specificity of these goals because it leaves less to chance that the success is from something other than OT intervention. With mine above, a kid might tolerate an unpleasant stimulus for many other reasons than the implied OT intervention. So being clear on what is to be achieved and with what frequency is important.
Editor’s Note: Last week we featured a link to a terrific article on why its so hard for children to sit still, which is the first in a series by PediaStaff columnist Loren Shlaes, OTR/L, being featured on the Rachel Lynette’s prominent general education blog, Minds in Bloom. Well, I guess the readers over there […]
Here is an article written by one of our OT’s that I thought would be great to share! Why is my child always putting things in his or her mouth? When a child puts something in his mouth, he o…
You probably already know that Facebook can be a great resource for special needs families. There are hundreds of special needs organizations providing help, support, resources and products for families...
A little about me, the blog, and my lymphedema story.
There’s a lot going on with the transition to these new diagnostic codes. That’s why we put together this list of questions and answers. Learn more here!
A short ‘n sweet explanation of the 8 schools of magic from 5th edition!
A blog by OTs about childhood development providing information and tips for parents and educators, while giving fun craft ideas for children.
Occupational Therapy strives to be an evidence-based profession. But when we get caught up in the daily grind, it can be difficult to find and put into use the best evidence in our field. If you are only being exposed to evidence once or twice a year at continuing education courses, it's going to be difficult to have an evidence based practice. Even though we often feel that we don't have enough time for (fill in the blank), there is a way to make time for things that you deem important. Instead of putting it off for another day, pledge to take 30 minutes today to research something important to your practice. This is the length of one treatment, one lunch, one TV show, two Facebook times. Just do it (just for today) and watch as the other important items will filter in around it. This might be a time where you can catch up on articles that you have marked or printed out from journals and just not gotten around to reading. Maybe you’d like to start looking into a treatment or evaluation technique more in depth (serial casting? Pinch and grip strength? Handwriting speeds?). There are multiple ways to access research at various points of the evidence ladder. The easiest is having a subscription to a journal (free to AOTA members) or search service (free when renewing NBCOT registration), but it’s certainly not the only way. If you work at a teaching institution, even prn, they should have access to some full text online libraries that are relevant to OT (and if they don't, you should advocate for something to be added). Many hospitals have libraries with actual staff members (so forgotten in our internet age) who may be able to order something for you via interlibrary loan. Some professional associations offer a subscription to an online search as a membership benefit. A membership in your university’s alumni association may carry access to their library. A search on google scholar may turn up an online journal with free access (such as the oft-used in my AOTA presentation Journal of Medical Internet Research). While it doesn’t replace reading a full article and evaluating the evidence yourself, many blogs (Your Therapy Source, ABC Therapeutics) discuss articles when they appear and spark discussion regarding their findings. AOTA posts Evidence Briefs for members in a multitude of fields. Additionally, you can also find summaries of certain topics on OT Exchange, or search the forum discussions on OT Connections. This is an important activity. You should be able to discuss your evaluation findings and treatment methods knowing that they are backed by current research. If you find a hole in the evidence, why not take an extra 2 minutes to shoot an email to a university OT program and suggest a study for their students to conduct? If you complete this activity, please briefly share in the comments what you were researching, an article you found, or any other pertinent information.
Staying organized seems to be a constant battle, but a total necessity to keep my sanity. As a traveling therapist, I have become pretty good at collecting piles of "stuff." Therapy notes, receipts, data sheets... oh my! Keeping client information and therapy plans in order is a must. I wanted to share with you how I organize my therapy binder and what works for me. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience. This means if you purchase something from my link, I may make a small commission. First things first. Let's be real, a pretty binder cover is a must. It's something you look at daily, multiple times a day at that. So why not make it something you enjoy looking at? I frequently make new binder covers, but the ones I am currently rocking are tropical. I am totally into pineapples and flamingos right now. You can download the binder covers I am currently using, here! They are editable! When you open the binder, the first thing you see are 2 clear pocket folders. I use one to stash receipts. The other one I use to keep copies of important documents that are often requested by the schools I go into to see students. I usually keep a copy of my professional liability insurance, my state SLP license, and driver's license.You never know when you may need that and it's nice to have copies on hand. I do not remember where I got my exact folders from (most likely Target) but here are similar ones on Amazon. Next I keep a copy of Speech Musings' data cheat sheet, The Speech Bubble's Quick Reference Chart, and the Speech Sound Development chart from Mommy Speech Therapy in page protectors. All have come in handy more times than I can count. I love having the speech sound development chart handy for teachers and parents that are concerned about their child's articulation. It's a very easy way to explain what sounds are still developing and what they should have mastered. Also in page protectors is a copy of my schedule and a Plan of Care list of due dates. Insurance companies requires a new evaluation and report every 6 months, so I like to keep a list handy of expiration dates so I don't miss one! All of my quick reference and go-to forms are in the front of the binder. In the back is where I keep all my student information. I use pocket dividers to keep all their information in. I'm obsessed with these pocket dividers. (Maybe it's a pocket thing, I love dresses wit pockets, too!) You can snag some similar ones, here. In each student's section, I keep a copy of their goals, their Soap Notes, and my therapy plans. That's it! This is what works for me. I would LOVE to hear what works for you because I feel like this an every evolving project. Happy organizing!
The Busy SLP's Organization Kit! Plan ahead for all of your IEP's all year long! Never miss another deadline!Save time and money using a weekly menu
Teaching instructional strategies and multisensory learning ideas from Dr. Erica Warren at Good Sensory Learning
When TPGA republished my BlogHer essay Autistic Lives: Not Less Valuable, about the murders of George Hodgins and Daniel Corby at the hands of their parents, one commenter criticized my lack of understanding for the parents' mental states, writing, This was not just a mother not willing to be as strong as you. That comment was a bifold WTF to me. It dismissed the point of my essay (the horrifying dichotomy in our society's perception of parents who murder their children: with disabled children, it's considered understandable because of caregiver stress; with non-disabled children, it's considered unforgivable). But that commenter was also making a huge assumption about me. Because I'm not strong. I'm lucky. I have a great husband, great family support, Leo goes to a great public school, he has great respite -- and I belong to great, neurodiverse autism communities both offline and on. Those communities are generous in sharing their experiences and helping me learn to both understand Leo better, and be a better parent to him. They are strong. I am not. [image: Me and Leo in front of a giant redwood tree.] [I'm actually prone to depression, and have been in a serious funk for months. If you know me, you might have noticed -- I'm usually a 78 RPM girl, but right now I'm set to 33 RPM. You might not have noticed if you're only used to dealing with my awkward or brusque sides, because those haven't changed. Or you might not have noticed unless you're waiting on a deliverable that requires me to synthesize multiple moving parts. You might not notice because I can rally in person if you're not expecting much in the way of coherent thinking or speaking. Small talk? Coffee? Beer? Retweets, Facebook posts? Sure. I just can't process much that's non-linear at the moment. Thing is -- and I want to be clear on this -- my depression has very little to do with being an autism parent. Some of it has to do with parenting, most has to do with not being able to fix very, very broken matters: divorce affecting people and children I love, or seeing the best people in the world wrestle with cancer. There's nothing I can do about the divorces and disease. And I'm a fixer, a doer. Helping, fixing, signing off, pressing send, checking that box and moving on to the next task is what keeps me fulfilled and happy. Not being able to fix things fucks me up -- there's no non-NSFW way to describe it. That is why, when Leo was first diagnosed with autism in 2003, and media portrayals of autism were all horrorshows and head banging and soulless eyes and doom, I went into the deepest depression of my life. With horrible insomnia (I usually sleep like the dead), and occasional pulling my car over because the rules of the road would cease making sense. I was depressed because I thought my son was broken, and I didn't know how to fix him. And it took years, but I eventually realized that parenting is not about fixing. It's about supporting, accepting, finding best practices, and fighting for your kid's rights. It's about unconditional love. And it's about putting your kids first. About making other people see your kids -- and kids like them -- the way you do, the way every kid deserves. About accepting the changes kids bring to your life, even if they weren't what you expected. I don't want any autism parent to have to go through the new diagnosis depression grind I did; that is why Thinking Person's Guide to Autism came into being. But even the most fabulous autism book in the world can't magically fix everything for parents as long as our society continues to portray autism as The Worst Possible Thing That Could Happen To Your Child. There's still the initial shock to get over, accepting that this Worst Possible Thing could happen to you. And then, hopefully, the epiphany that autism is not The Worst Possible Thing, after all. That you're all going to be OK, and that you're not alone. But even parents who ramp up quickly to accepting their child as autistic still need time to adjust. Anyone does, when they go through a significant reality rearrangement. Depression and anxiety are understandable during that transition. And anyone who is depressed deserves help. The need to get help is all the more critical when the depressed person is a parent or caregiver. For me, the tragedy sets in when those parents -- through isolation, lack of support, or through communities that reinforce negativity -- continue to believe that autism is The Worst Possible Thing, are never allowed to consider the joy so many autistic children bring to their families, never get to make contact with the many many amazing autistic adults whose stories and very existence defy mainstream negative autism stereotypes. I don't know what I'd do or where I'd be if Leo and I didn't both have supports and understanding and community. And I worry, a lot, about the children and families who don't have what we have. That is why I do the work I do. Anyhow. I'm now a veteran autism parent, and I'm lucky. I don't worry over autism as a nasty boogeyman that I can't fix, or could fix if I tried hard enough (a quixotic and demeaning approach at best) -- I worry about my beautiful son, who is autistic. I worry about what he needs from me, and whether I'm a good enough parent, a strong enough person to provide it. Mostly I just do my best to support him. It's not always easy. Sometimes it sucks. Like right now, when Leo can't be in the same room as his little sister, because he's in an aggressive phase, and she's a shrieker. But you have to understand that my resulting, heart-cleaving sorrow over Leo's and Mali's standoff is no different than when Leo's sisters are locked in an impenetrable yelling cycle. My sorrow comes from the helplessness of not being able to instantly make everything better for my children, these three people who were ripped from my soul and whose unhappiness has the power to destroy that soul entirely. I'm going to be fine, I've waited out periods like this before. When my kids aren't trying to take each other out, they are my joy and solace, as is my husband. And I have my techniques for keeping my nose above water -- I do a crossword puzzle every morning to keep my brain from rotting out entirely; I listen to our local, reinstated classical music station in the car; I make myself checklists of tasks that result in physical manifestations of done-ness, and allow myself to attack them in phases if need be. It all helps. I'm not strong. But I'll get by. Sometimes, that's all any parent can do.
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published research that compared two different handwriting interventions. Seventy two first and second grade students either received intensive handwriting practice or visual perceptual motor activities during a handwriting club for 12 weeks. The post test results indicated the following: the intensive handwriting practice group demonstrated significant improvements in handwriting legibility neither group showed significant effects on handwriting speed and visual–motor skills The researchers concluded that the handwriting club model can be an effective short term intervention for RTI Tier II. Reference: Tsu-Hsin Howe,Karen Laurie Roston,Ching-Fan Sheu,and Jim Hinojosa. Assessing Handwriting Intervention Effectiveness in Elementary School Students: A Two-Group Controlled Study Am J Occup Ther January 2013 67:19-26; doi:10.5014/ajot.2013.005470
RehabVisions & our therapists are no strangers to dementia. We asked Regional Clinical Manager Jolene Denn to share how her team approaches dementia.
Looking for occupational therapy quotes to share on social media, pin-up in your office, or just refresh your OT spirit? These inspirational OT quotes are for you!
Yes, I used the "D" word--decluttering. We're about halfway through the school year and I'm getting antsy. Streamlining my work and also my workspace helps me calm down. Step One--desk files. Today my single file drawer looks like this: You'll probably notice that there's a little free space in the front of drawer, a wooden wedge used as a spacer to keep the files from sliding down and flopping around and even room in the back for Mr. Froggy to hang out. Two weeks ago this drawer was crammed full. What magic happened? Well, I took out a small set of files, about 2" worth, whenever I needed to get up and stretch my legs or whenever my brain was so fried that I couldn't write a single word more in the student's progress note or eval report. When I was super frustrated I'd take the 2" thick stack of files and go into another room in our building, just for a change of scenery. It's amazing how you can think better and work faster when you leave your desk for a few minutes. Most of the files were no longer relevant. Not talking about student information here but class programs from the 1990's and handouts on various diagnoses that are quickly available from http://omim.org/ and other reputable organizations. By working on a couple of inches of files at a time over about two weeks my files shrank from overstuffing the drawer to nice and lean. Student files are kept in a locked cabinet. When I receive a student file from a fellow OT I purge it--removing duplicate copies of reports and printouts of forms that are available via our online record keeping. Sometimes I'll treat the student as if s/he is brand new to our county and I'll do a records review at the school, reading recent evaluations by the psychologist, educational diagnostician and others. It gives me a better picture of the student's abilities and needs and I feel more up-to-speed in knowing him/her. Next challenge--decluttering those e-mails!
by Nikki Schwartz Neurofeedback can be very helpful for a variety of of people. If you get a chance, check out What is Neurofeedback ? Neurofeedback or neurotherapy works by helping the client to...
Therapy can be provided from a variety of clinicians, including physical, occupational and massage therapists. Similar interventions are used by all of these professionals because these interventions yield positive results.
If a fire headed toward your house, you might be tempted to rescue a precious memento like a photo album or a child's blanket. When dementia heads for the brain, there's no chance of saving your memories.
Keyboarding in early elementary grades continues to work on developing familiarity with the keyboard. That means knowing all the letters and learning about where they are on the keyboard. It also…
The Best Jobs in America offer great pay, work that's satisfying and big growth opportunities.
Once a piece of adaptive equipment is put in place to use with a student, therapists need to follow up frequently. Whether the adaptive equipment is a pencil grip or a tablet, on going assessment is needed. Here are 5 follow up questions to answer after implementing adaptive equipment: 1. Is it being used at all? May sound ridiculous but we all have seen many pieces of adaptive equipment gather dust. 2. Is it being used when it was suggested for use? For example, perhaps special adaptive seating was recommended for seat work but it is being used during floor time on the rug. 3. Is the tool suiting the needs of the student? Once the equipment has been used, make sure is it helping the student to accomplish a functional goal. 4. Does the equipment need to be modified in any way? If the tool is not accomplishing the task, can it be tweaked or does a different modification need to be put into place. Children grow very quickly, always recheck for sizing. 5. Is the student comfortable using the equipment? Check to make sure that the student agrees with using the equipment. If the student is not on board with using it, the equipment will not be used. Also, is it truly comfortable to use the equipment? Check for fatigue, skin breakdown, pain level, etc. to ensure comfort and a pain free experience. Modifications and Interventions for School - Reporting Forms This book, in printed or electronic format, provides pediatric therapists with over 60, reproducible reporting forms with hundreds of suggested modifications and interventions for students. Track progress once modifications are put into action. Find out more at http://yourtherapysource.com/modifications.html
[Source: Medical News Today] Infants who sweat less in response to scary situations at age 1 show more physical and verbal aggression at age 3, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Lower levels of sweat, as measured by skin conductance activity (SCA), have been linked […]
One of the important skills of being an SLP, is the ability to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching strategies and instruction. Whenever I get a new 'toy' I tend to use it a lot! Last
Junior hasn't been feeling well so I am a bit behind on posting yet again. A few weeks ago during our outing to ToysRus we picked up a game and puzzle. Many of Junior's games are now far too "babyish" for him and he doesn't want to play them. We are always on the lookout for new games that can be adapted and are more age appropriate for him. He thought this Smurfs game looked cool and it was something we could adapt for him(we spotted some other games that he really liked but will be waiting until we find them on sale). I started by placing strips of velcro on the back of the game board(I placed the rough side on the back of the board so we could attach it to his felt board/puzzle board). I then placed a small piece of velcro on each space on the board(the triangle which you see on each space). Another piece of velcro was placed on the back of each playing piece so they will stick to the board. To play the game in the typical manner you draw a card to take your turn. In Junior's adapted version of the game we put velcro on the back of several cards and placed them on his game spinner Now you are ready to play. For Junior we attach his head switch to the game spinner which allows him to take turns by himself. The board is velcroed to the felt board which allows it to be placed up in front of him at eye level. He can then see the board and help move his playing piece. We were also excited to find an Angry Birds puzzle for him. He loves puzzles but needs the 24-28 pieces size to be able to do them on his puzzle board. Most are very babyish so it is nice that they have some cool and bigger kid looking puzzles. You can click the link above for more on how we adapt the puzzles. Junior can't grab the pieces but I start by putting a few pieces together then I place the other pieces up on the board so he can see them. He then uses eye gaze to choose the piece he wants to put into the puzzle. I then use a pointer to point to different parts of the puzzle and he tells me yes/no until I get the spot he wants to put it. It can take a bit of time but he really loves his puzzles.
