13 Oct 2011

Going to the CA OT Association Conference this weekend!

I am going to the California OT Association conference this weekend along with a fellow co-worker! My company, School Steps Inc, is based out of Sacramento, so I finally get to see homebase! I just got handouts I need to download as no hard copies will be available. I am going to bring address labels so I can quickly stick them on things at various booths instead of having to rewrite my address constantly. I also plan to bring business cards of course….and comfortable shoes! And a couple of fidgets like Tangle Jr's to mess with while I sit in course after course! I'm scheduled for all morning and afternoon Saturday and Sunday so it will be a lot of learning. Hope to network with a lot of other OTs!

I'm also compiling some tiny OT gifts to give to my awesome awesome mentor Tricia. 🙂

I got some more hair tinsel put in today again as it was mostly all gone. I got the most I've ever had – like 16 pieces! Purple and gold. I'm telling myself it's an October extravaganza for Halloween lol. I think it's still reasonably subtle so hopefully no claims of unprofessionalism will head my way! The kids (and I) love the sparkle. 🙂

I have been brainstorming a lot lately on things to get in dollar bins that can be used in different ways (a la the recycling therapist although I'm not quite so hardcore). I also got some of those popsicle molds and realized if I take off the tops, it's basically 4 containers attached together, so kids could sort 4 different things into the little bins. I also found some tiny tongs that LIGHT UP when you squeeze them closed, they came with a bag of gummi worms I got a long time ago. So of course I pulled that out.

I also added a toy car to my arsenal as I have a lot of young boys and Tonya once again of TherapyFunZone gave me some ideas on how to use the car with writing/drawing shapes/letters!

I had one triennial evaluation today (every three years a child gets fully re-evaluated to determine eligibility for special ed) at one school, then went to another to work on eval write-ups I should have done some make-ups but I am so swamped with paperwork that I knew I needed to finish the eval, and Wednesday afternoons are reserved for meetings/paperwork anyway really. Tommorrow I have an IEP, an initial OT evaluation IEP, and training in billing software, so I don't get to see ANY of my Thursday kids. That's a lot of make-ups as Thursday is typically my busiest day!

I haven't finished up my paperwork due tomorrow so I guess I better stop writing on here. I've gotten into a blogging mode lately. All the sweet comments and e-mails certainly contribute to my new burst of blogging energy. Thank you so much. As always, I assure you, you will eventually get a response if you emailed me. It will just be slow in coming. Thanks for your patience.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1

13 Oct 2011

Can strainer and pipe cleaners – OT tip

I recently posted about using a colander with pipe cleaners which I still think is awesome and fun! But I was browsing the dollar section at CVS the other day and found can strainers for $1 that basically can do the same thing on a much smaller scale…..since space can be a premium for traveling therapists,  it may be more feasible to carry around a can strainer than a colander.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

13 Oct 2011

OT Tip- mechanical pencils

For some kids with serious issues re-sharpening pencils or kids who need to learn to use less pressure, and/or kids who just like mechanical pencils, these are my favorites by Papermate. I've used them since I was a child and I have a student in a younger grade who uses them religiously now too. They are sturdier than most mechanical pencils.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1

13 Oct 2011

Mini Connect 4 – OT Tip

I stole this idea from TherapyFunZone's Tonya Cooley. She talked about the awesomeness of using a tiny Connect 4 because it really encourages a pinch grip etc. I found this – keychain sized – and can't wait to try it out….

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 1

13 Oct 2011

Monsters individualize fingers – OT tip

Monsters are great for individualizing fingers! “Blue monster, take a bow!” They are also great on thumbs for thumb wars etc as it encourages the thumb-up position so important in cutting and general neutral positioning!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

12 Oct 2011

augh!

i totlaly didnt share the most outstanding session of my day. lol. I work with a child who for whatever reason HATES going below the line with his letters – ie g, p, y. He has a goal to do that. I've explained to him that the worms ATTACK people because they get ANGRY because they are HUNGRY and need to eat the tails of those letters. He thinks it is funny and will deliberately go out of his way to either avoid using tail letters or will say he doesn't care if the worms attack him. So today I pulled out one of my fake worms. We were re-copying a form letter for a final draft and each time we approached a tail letter I'd make the worm dance in front of him and act obnoxious. It totally worked. LOL.

THEN we used the second half of the session to work on touch typing. I wrote “A S D F” on his left knuckles and “J K L ;” on his right knuckles with a red magic marker. We played one of those free typing games, Space Invaders etc, using only the home row. So at first I literally helped push his fingers down one by one (he had initial trouble individualizing), but slowly he started getting more proficient with his home row. He never had to take his hands off the keys or scan since it was written on his fingers. I got the idea to write on his fingers from some gloves I saw in a catalog.

He enjoyed it! And so did I. After that session I felt like it had been a good use of our time. 🙂 The End

PS: Notice the procrastination!!!!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 3

12 Oct 2011

Typical school OT day for me

I've decided I can write a little bit about certain specific stories as long as I remain vague on identifying details. I'm going to refer to ALL my children as “he” just to avoid he/she language, and also I think most OTs have a much higher percentage of boys than girls on their school caseloads. Just an anecdotal guess. And if a child is in K through 3 I'll say lower elementary, 4-6th I'll say upper elementary. There. We have that established.  And also, ALL my children are general education mainstreamed, with just special services as needed, ie one on one aide or time in the learning resource center, or speech/OT/adapted PE, etc. The other OTs in the district have special day classes meaning children with mild-moderate diagnoses in a classroom. So their days look different than mine!

So let's go through my day a little bit….

7:30am: Get to school. Work on an evaluation due the next day and other paperwork.
8:30am: Walk into lower elementary classroom and help individual children out during writing centers. I usually carry with me my “lava” (red pencil), a short fat pencil, a short skinny pencil, a small dry erase board (with 3 lines appropriate for younger grades), and a dry erase marker. That way I can write the writing prompts/sentences out on the dry erase board. Then, if given permission, I give their papers “lava” (redden the middle dotted line), and we start our writing with prompts from me to remember the baby letters versus tall letters etc…. to be clear, that's what I carry when I go into a push-in session for writing, meaning I am in the classroom. I bring a TON of stuff with me each day to each site for the kids who come to my corner.

9:50am: Recess for the kids….do some prep/paperwork, chat with teachers about kids (consulting)

10:30: Go into a lower elementary classroom and highlight writing for a young child who has serious fine motor difficulties. (I write in highlight, he traces). Then take him for pull-out for remaining fifteen minutes since rest of class is moving on. Work on handwriting and tweezers with bugs and theraputty with beads….

11: A child comes to me. We play the push-pin corkboard game (pushpins are game pieces) on a corkkboard with the alphabet in Sharpie on it in game board format. The child rolls bouncy dice (literally you have to chase them around the room) and whatever letter we land on, we practice. It can be just doing it 3x or a word starting with that letter or whatever, based on child's ability. I have discovered that two of my high functioning children with autism love making the game complex – we add on four extra invisible people. So the child gets a team of 3 and he names all his pieces, and I get a team of 3 and do the same. He rolls the dice for his 3 people, then he rolls for mine, and we have to keep track. For example, “Ladybug is the purple pushpin and she got a 6” “Kitty is the silver pushpin and she got an 11”. The game gets a little crazy when you are playing with 4 invisible people but they stay MUCH more engaged with their fake people. Also, a lot of children with autism have issues with winning/losing, but when you have invisible people playing on “teams”, it takes away SOME of that stress.

11:30: Lunch for the kids and therefore no one I can see. Paperwork/evals/talk to teachers/eat lunch in teacher's lounge to collect gossip/knowledge/consult etc

12:10: Work briefly with a child on re-writing a pen pal letter. Focus on logical flow, handwriting legibility etc. Have him write on every other line as he tends to write large. I had planned an activity to do with him, but his teacher hoped he could work on the letter so that was totally fine. I like it when they have work for me.

12:30: Another child comes to me. Play the push-pin corkboard game at his request with our invisible teams.
1pm: Run to IEP meeting for child, one with only a few goals and no parental issues so pretty quick this time.
2:20: Kids get out of school. Debrief/consult with teachers. Paperwork etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Get theraband for a child's chair. Get inflatable cushion for another child's chair. Give an aide carbon paper to encourage a child with light writing to use more pressure with the magic paper! lol. Speak to some teachers about scheduling children around IEP meetings coming up. Make copies out of a journal for writing samples. Score writing samples.

Tonight: Write up a huge evaluation! And organize my current toy bag a little, it's getting a little nuts!

So….that was a semi typical day for me! Oh, highlights: a little boy telling me earnestly why he likes the theraband looped around his chair “It's so I can work and play at the same time.” PS: I know it takes up more material but I much prefer to LOOP the theraband in a circle around the front legs of chair versus just tying a single piece to each side – the kids like to put their legs within the loop.

Another semi highlight: Me going to pick up one child and two others clamoring to go with me. 😉

Another semi hilight: Getting to hang out with awesome teachers and special ed staff and adorable kids!

I think that's it for now. I just wanted to write a lot. Probably mostly procrastination from this huge eval. 🙁

Thanks for the sweet comments lately!! Getting my head big. 🙂
PS: I didn't edit this/read this over, it's just stream of consciousness so don't judge harshly 😉

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 2

11 Oct 2011

sparkle sparkle sparkle!

The other day a child with pretty significant ADHD (not on my caseload) walked past me in the learning center (I was sitting at a desk doing paperwork) and instantly stopped saying “Sparkle sparkle sparkle!!” She started touching my hair. I have hair tinsel because I do LOVE sparkles. 🙂 I was like Ooh! Do I have any left? I typically get about 12 pieces put in but I hadn't seen any in a while so figured they had all fallen out. She determined I had four pieces left. Then she saw my face. “Sparkle sparkle sparkle!” she said, pointing to my eyes. I also wear glitter eyeliner. Because again, I do love sparkles. 🙂

That encounter tickled me…she was enthralled. I've also had children with autism (notice my person first language?) look me in the eye because of my glitter eyeliner catching their eyes. I'm a big believer in appealing to the child demographic as an elementary school OT, even if it makes me a little extra eccentric to adults, lol.

(Side note – if you put a child with autism in front of a mirror and put fingerpaint or face paint on their face, they will often look themselves in the eye longer. And if you put the child with autism on one side of a tunnel and you on the other, essentially turning the tunnel into “blinders”, they will also often look directly at you.)

I've also had two SEPARATE encounters where I walked into a 1st or 2nd grade classroom and a young girl sitting near the door in both cases immediately latched on to me saying “I like your glasses! I like your hair! I like your shirt!” etc, in one long breathless exclamation……both times I laughed and it made my day. It was funny it happened almost identically in two different classrooms!! I LOVE working with kids! They say and do the funniest things!

Just for the record though I've also had plenty of days where kids refuse to acknowledge my existence, haha. I just choose to remember the fun days… 😉

I've been using my push-pin on corkboard handwriting game with bouncy dice a LOT lately….pretty much all the kids are drawn to it. Then we proceed to use the lava/worms/bumblebee sizing rules….I know I was asked to put up an example, I will try to get a picture in the next day or so! Along with my long-promised Dycem post and Linda's daily living skills post! And soon a Pen Again post (those funky Y shaped pens)….a little girl today refused my normal pencils today, saying she wanted to use the “awesome pencil” (referring to the Pen Again samples I received today in the mail to review!)

I'm starting to feel significant stress for the first time this year as the demands increase, but overall still LOVING my job in the school system! SO much fun!

I just spent an hour on the phone with a long-term blog reader, Meredith, who is doing a fieldwork in one of my old haunts. It was lovely! Okay now it's 7:15pm and I should probably get some work done…..blah

Karen

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 3

4 Oct 2011

I interrupt this OT announcement….

Hey wait this is an OT announcement. I finally hit over 250,000 page views on this OT blog!! It only took me like five years, cough. 🙂

Today was a bouncing day with a bajillion kids and a bajillion teachers….I wore my cat out from afar as he is now asleep in my lap. Tomorrow is another busy day! I must go get toys and paperwork together! E-mails to be answered soon. 🙂

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 3