Knowledge Check 3/27

Before beginning occupational therapy school, I worked as a rehab tech at a PT, OT, and speech clinic for a year. I was the tech to all therapists, but the physical therapists were the majority there, so I spent most of my time with them. One of my main responsibilities was alerting the therapists when the patient arrived, then follow the therapist's instruction on what to get the patient started on while they finished up with their current patient. If they were coming for a shoulder injury, almost always I would start them on the arm bike. I never questioned this until I began OT school. Some of the patients would be on there for a whole ten minutes and not have a clue what the point of the activity was, sitting there waiting for their therapist to come give them instruction. 

Another preparatory method used in this clinic was the finger ladder. Unlike the arm bike, though, a physical therapist did not like this activity and did not want any of the other therapists to use it. The finger ladder was usually just stationed on a table, not mounted anywhere, so it was easily moveable. This therapist would hide the finger ladder in different places and if it was found, he would take it and hide it again. He realized that it was a mundane task that does not motivate patients to reach higher and stretch their arm. Rather, he would have them perform an activity that they found useful, like hanging their coat up. It was always a funny game in the clinic wondering where the finger ladder was hidden, but I now realize that he was doing the clinic a favor by trying to influence the therapists to use a more meaningful activity, rather than just a ladder, to get the patients to perform the tasks and improve. 

Session 17 Independent Work

I listened to the podcast titled “Au-some Swimmers” Role of OT in Swim Lessons for Kids with Autism. They discussed an event where the orchestra put on a sensory show specifically for kids with autism that used Harry Potter music, the conductor used a wand, and more ways to relate the show to the movies. I had not heard of these any events like this before, so I was fascinated as they discussed this. I think it is very heart-warming to create an entire show for this audience, gearing it specifically to their needs and allowing them to enjoy the theater.

An occupational therapist and a student then come on the podcast and talked about how they have been involved in a group called “Au-some Swimmers” at their local JCC. The students at the University of Buffalo have to go out into the community and work with a group of people that do not necessarily have occupational therapy, but could benefit from it. Students then chose this group. One aspect that the group struggled with was communicating with the children with autism and motivating them to complete the activities. The occupational therapy students and the therapists were able to bridge that gap. Though they did not specifically know how to teach kids how to swim, they were able to build the communication aspect between the children, allowing the lifeguards to teach them how to swim easier. I found it fascinating how the OTs were able to tweak different parts of the program to improve it, not knowing anything about swimming, but just about how to help children with autism. They were able to recommend better times for classes to give the children the majority of the pool, rather than sharing with a large group of the community. Knowing first hand how important it is to document progress, the OTs kept track of each step the children made including putting their head under the water, blowing bubbles and more, in order to be able to take the next step each class. This also allowed them to give progress reports to the parents, since they had everything documented, so that they could keep up with the improvements of their children. The knowledge and skill set that the OTs brought to this program even though they did not know much about the specific activity was extremely inspiring and fascinating to learn about.