Heavy clothes, calm bodies? Blast from the past
One more picture from the Marie Curie article in Smithsonian 🙂 Look at how heavy their clothes were. I wonder how scratchy they were. I’m guessing that perhaps, if nothing else, the heaviness was calming, even if uncomfortable texture wise! No seamless undies back then!! 🙂
I was recently reading Songs of the Gorilla Nation and she was talking about how she always wore leather and dark sunglasses, because the leather was so weighted and calming, and the sunglasses reduced input, etc. I thought that was fascinating because I know we all have seen people in um, unusual or interesting get-ups, and made assumptions. But we all know what they say, when you “assume” you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me”….lol
I want to write more soon about sensory profiles….we all have them!!
Finding and Marketing Your OT Niche
Guest post! Starting…now!
Finding Your Niche
Marketing Your Niche
Immerse Yourself in the Community
et involved with—and thus promote your services to—programs helping children fight obesity; teaching disabled children to drive; or creating awareness about autism. Hoping to work with the elderly? Scout out community mobility associations and groups dedicated to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Don’t have the time to devote to every group you come across? Identify the ones you are most passionate about and focus there; then consider sponsorship, advertising, and participation.
At the point that you’ve promoted and immersed yourself in the community, you’ve basically become a thought leader for your OT specialty. As a thought leader, you can apply your knowledge online through social and blogging as well as in your community. For example, if you focus on worker rehabilitation, you could provide educational seminars and blog posts on ergonomics and workplace injury prevention.
Reaping the Benefit
Charlotte Bohnett and Erica Cohen are both Senior Copywriters at WebPT, the leading cloud-based EMR software designed specifically for the rehab community. For follow-up questions or additional information about WebPT, please contact them at copy@webpt.com.
Norwegian alphabet…bet that AE combo is hard to teach
The Norwegian alphabet has three more letters. An AE combo, an O with a diagonal, and an A with a circle over it. Can you imagine teaching three more letters than we already do? For that matter, teaching special ed with much more challenging alphabets than ours…..aughhh
holding sick babies :)
Beautiful nesting puzzles
While reading a “birth story” from some mom in Australia that I found while playing on Reddit (playing on the Internet is like one big ADHD skit), I found this website with stunning toys. Unfortunately this store is located in Australia but I'm guessing with some basic sleuthery (ie, you know, a google search), they may be available here.
What we write is not always read with our own filter…
I took this picture at the airport to remind me to go re-read Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. I know I liked that book as a child and I too remember it mostly being about puberty. But here in an interview with the author she writes about how she actually wrote it to be about the child’s relationship with God. So I want to go back and read it through that “filter of her intent”, but also, to remind myself that sometimes we make things for one reason and it gets recognized for other reasons (sometimes good, sometimes bad). 🙂 I’m in the process of writing children’s books right now (simple ones, and one of which I hope to get out quite soon) and I want to start a chapter book soon, but want to keep things like this in mind!
Some favorite occupational therapy toys aka popular Christmas gifts :)
I know there are a lot of toy posts floating around out there, and I’m sure they are all way better than mine. But I did want to share three of my favorite things – play visions, safari, and zinkies. I use all of these quite a lot in occupational therapy with my kids and I am a big fan and my kids always want to keep them too.
Nobody is (unfortunately) paying me to say any of that either. 🙂 I can probably put together a more thorough post with more favorites soon, but this is just a quickie. As always use with caution, remember choking hazards, blah blah blah insert common sense disclaimer here. 🙂
NOTE: All these toys are intended for children who do NOT put things in their mouth anymore!! I’m thinking at least preschool age, I use it for elementary school aged kids.
http://www.playvisions.com/product/142635/563/_/Stretchy_Mice_and_Cheese
If you just check out playvisions.com in general they have some pretty neat stuff. I’m the biggest fan of their stretchy hyperflex stuff, but they have a lot of cool products.
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“Goodluck Mini Fun Pack” by Safari LTD
This is another one of my favorite things. I attached a convenient Amazon affiliates link where you can get a little pack, but if you want to go straight to the source:
My kids beg me to get these as prizes all the time (but I say no because they are a tiny bit expensive to give away one by one!) They are beautifully made and while they seem a little expensive considering how tiny they are, they are high quality and cherished. It’s surprisingly hard to find high quality tiny items. I use them all the time in games whether its to work on lefts, rights, centers, or following directions, or manipulating, putting into “bed” (ice cube trays), putting them into monster cheese etc.
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Zinkies! These are baby squinkies. They are super cute and tiny. Kids love these too.
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/build-links/individual/get-html.html?ie=UTF8&asin=B0085M4UK6&marketplace=amazon
Adapted Physical Education (APE): Truly Awesome APE activity
Last week an APE teacher brought in a little student she was working with into the learning center to say hi during the girl’s break (so we can all lavish some attention on that sweet girl!), and somehow we brought up nail polish and how it could be a relay (ie run, paint a nail, run back), then we all laughed about it and I forgot about it.
Today, the APE teacher (who is amazing), came walking in with that same student and check out those nails!!! They did the nail polish relay (they got permission from Mom in advance). The little girl was glowing with happiness and happy to show off her nails to all of us!
LOVE it. Now THAT is a great meaningful activity. 🙂
PS/Update: I got a text from the APE teacher with a picture of her own nails – the next week, the little girl got to paint the APE teacher’s nails on the relay, and she was so happy! 🙂