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!!!!

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 😉

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

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. 🙂

OT brain overload

Today I went to one school to do my weekly self-regulation “seminar” with some kids with various special education needs, saw one kid for half his normal time then bolted to a second school for two meetings in a row, then bolted back to the first school to do an evaluation. I brought in THREE giant bags of toys for this one evaluation – I really need to work on streamlining my evaluation tools.

I read a recent article in Advance – which I typically skim and find like one interesting thing in – from this lady who talked about pulling up to schools with like a carnival in her car, but is getting away from that (ie not bringing OT clinic to school)  and trying to stay more in the classroom. I agree that is an ideal situation, but there are so many variables that affect it. For example, the teacher has to have an open mind/reasonable attitude about your role/presence. (And I realize being a good role model/example is a good way to start building that relationship….). But also, and somewhat even more importantly, SCHEDULING gets in the way. If you have tons of kids in tons of schools in tons of grades with tons of different “special” events and special subjects (ie rotating art, music, computers, etc), it is a NIGHTMARE to schedule kids, period. And that's pulling them out. Pushing-in requires really careful coordination with a teacher to always make sure they are going to be doing a “valid” exercise when you are in the room – ie, not watching a movie. Many teachers will say “Oh, 9am to 930 is great for writing” and then you show up and they are on the playground until 9:15 and you've lost half your session…

Don't get me wrong, I push-in when I have to legally and/or when I think it is most appropriate, but depending on caseload/availability, it's not always feasible….it seems like some schools have a global attitude that is more accepting than other schools….every school has its own culture! And I learn different areas of culture….like in all of my schools, the special ed teachers (“educational specialists”) tend to sit in their own rooms with each other at lunch whereas the lunch room is typically filled with general education teachers. I don't know if that's normal or not. I personally like doing both…you learn a lot in the lunch room/lunch time chatter in general. I guess gen ed sticks together the way special ed sticks together, and occasionally we get teachers who are bridges who like to hang in both areas!

I REALLY love working in my school system this year. Last year I was insanely stressed out learning my new job in the midst of IEP season. I had some great training but there is still a learning curve. This year I feel much calmer, even in the midst of ten thousand evaluations. I don't know why. Especially since I have some really challenging cases this year in terms of advocate involvement. 🙂

I think one of my big strengths is communication with parents via e-mail…..it's a lot of fun sharing what kids are doing with parents. I type fast/write fast/think fast/read fast so I get a lot of joy from that.

My brain feels full today with all the things I am trying to figure out. I know I have an eval Friday and Monday at one school for two young kids, that I have three evals I need to write up ASAP for kids ranging from Kindergarden to 5th grade, that I have more I need to schedule ASAP to stay within legal timeline, that I need to stop by to get some more theratubing from a fellow OT for my kids chairs and give her a pair of preschool scissors Faber-Castell has that I love, bring in some fidget choices for another child, and then of course just my typical treatments/consultations etc. Tomorrow I have a full day of kids that I need to plan for tonight, organize my toys for, etc…..typically I do a combination of either fine motor or visual motor or both + some handwriting….obviously it all depends on the kids goals though. Sometimes its a little scary putting all this out into the world….not that I think I am saying anything horrrible, but I definitely leave myself open to criticism.

My newest favorite tool is LAVA/WORMS. Sizing/line orientation can be a big issue for kids using the 3-line paper with a dotted middle line. I got the suggestion from a special ed student that LAVA works well. So you take a red pencil and cover the dotted middle line with red which is your lava. There are tall strong letters that can go through the lava like h, l, k….but also baby letters like a, e, r, that will burn if they touch the lava. Incidentally, if their letters drop below the line and they aren't supposed to, ie the a gets a little too low, the worms attack. The worms are only okay with familar tails like y, g, p….anything else is trouble. I draw in tiny worms and say Oh nooo the worms are attacking if they go too low, and I draw little lines coming from the top of the letter and say Ohhh ITS bURNING ITS BURNING if they go too high and touch the lava …….most of my kids respond really well to the drama of lava/worms.

The two biggest issues I run across is A) kids wanting to draw their own lava line and making a mess of it, and B) wanting to draw in worms/other bugs too and it gets messy…..but seriously, I've seen some really nice handwriting come out of the lava/worms. 🙂

This is the longest post I've had in a long time. I need to be thinking of a blog carnival post for World OT day coming up.

I still promise to respond to all my OT emails soon. I am getting 1-2 blog emails a day now which is a little crazy considering all my best posts are like 4 years old lol.

Dycem for OT

I am not ready for the official review because I want to include a picture I take, but I want to say I LOVE The Dycem place mats (in shapes like a turtle) because when the child is dealing with something that might fly away, like a bead or a pom-pom, those semi-sticky mats are awesome and keeps things from getting away and minimizes frustration. I am using the Dycem placemats a lot now and want to order some more, and the other OTs liked it too. More soon.

Can I mention I love my job working in an elementary school system? The teachers/colleagues/SLPs/OTs/principals/etc are soo fun and awesome! I drive home smiling thinking of random events that occurred during the day. Well I guess not always smiling depending on how many meetings or crazy things happened that day, but most days. Like today.

I also want a scooter board. And a few yoga mats. And a few weighted lap pads and/or vests. Etc. Maybe for my birthday which is coming up!! (October 21st)  I will buy myself some of that stuff! I am obsessed with buying new toys!! Okay. More later.

Quotes of the day…

Playing a push-pin game with a kindergartener. I had a pink ball pushpin and he had a black normal pushpin. “Our pushpins are different because yours is a sphere and mine is a cylinder.” Wow.

Walking past a kindergarten playground at another school: “SIMON SAYS KNOCK YOUR EYEBALL OUT!!!!!”

Having fun with my kids and my colleagues! Started putting pictures of the child's grasp in the OT evaluation report (just the child's hand, no identifying features) and it has been well received to have that “custom” picture. 🙂

I've been showing a lot of the teachers the stuff with styrofoam, golf tees, marbles, clothespins, cotton balls, etc, and they are enjoying it!  🙂 Gives them ideas for fine motor centers.

I got to help a special ed teacher in training learn how to score the VMI the other day, that was nice. I also got to give a little informal talk to a couple of high schoolers today visiting a learning center – showed them my toys and told them what OT was and they were all like COOL! 🙂

For those of you who have recently emailed me – I have really been getting more blog emails than ever before – I promise I 99% of the time respond, I am just slow. I have them all saved as new to get too, I promise!

OT cleaning

Every night I come home with about 3 bags of toys which I promptly dump all over the floor so that I can repackage for the next day.  The last few days I've been bad about repacking and so things have gotten mixed together. You could barely walk in my bedroom because of all the toys. Now I've separated the golf tees from marbles from pipe cleaners from glittery poms from cotton balls from clothespins from fat pencils, skinny pencils, triangular pencils, fat short, fat long, skinny short, skinny long, pencil grips, fake bugs, yarn, straws, etc. So you can walk in here now. The bad news is, I stepped on a bamboo skewer and it really freaking hurt!

I've started taking pictures of my kids' hands while they are writing, during their evaluations, to copy/paste into the report as a visual. I literally only take the picture of the hand so it's otherwise not recognizable/a privacy issue. It helps explain their grip better. (I still am confused as to why some people say grip and other say grasp interchangeably yet I've joined the bandwagon).

My favorite new activities that I've been using constantly lately:
1) Corkboard alphabet game using push pins and dice, practicing the letter they land on. Home-made. And/or just sticking a pushpin in each square, kids are fascinated by pushpins.
2) Sticking pipe cleaners into colorful colander turned upside down, in any pattern/method they choose.
3) Sticking bamboo skewers into styrofoam and having the kids find beads in their theraputty then string them on the skewer.
4) Sticking golf tees into styrofoam and then having them balance marbles on top.
5) Using clothespins and/or tongs to sort fake bugs.

I think that's it for now. I want to start using paper clips and staples more often too. I am really getting great ideas on Pinterest (pinterest.com/funkist/ot-ideas) should take you to my area. I have like 10 more I want to add but Pinterest was having a temper tantrum earlier so I could not.

I feel a lot less stressed out this year so far, I think a lot of it is that I now know more what to expect and how to navigate the system, who people are, etc. I've enjoyed more kids learning my name. A few of them even come up to hug me. Including strangers. One little girl I've never met came up to me while I was sitting down and gave me a big squeeze hug and I was like um, hi? AHAHAHAHA

I had this conversation recently with a 5 year old:
Boy: This table is dynamite!
Me: So we are going to explode?
Boy: I am a parrot,  I will fly away!
Me: What about me?
Boy: :::looks at me sadly:: You're going to die.

LOVE working in an elementary school setting! (Okay, four elementary settings) lol

Whew

6 meetings in 5 hours + an eval today! Tomorrow includes an IEP meeting, treatments, an eval, and an OT meeting. I guess I should go get ready for tomorrow eh? My goals for this week include writing about Dycem and Linda's book! Also catching up on blog reader e-mails. Hopefully I can meet those goals!!!

PS: I saw an interesting article on a link between autism and atheism today……

Oh my beloved neglected OT blog..and neglected readers

Somehow I've had a ton of e-mails from OT blog readers lately – I'm still down to less than 70 in my mailbox so I hope to get to them soon!! I think about my blog a lot but not much makes the leap to it since I always worry so much about privacy laws! Rightfully so, too…

This week I have a lot of meetings, plus several OT evaluations, so I need to prep my evaluation tools and for the meetings tomorrow…..I should probably get going on that, eh? 🙂

I'm still working in my head on a “typical day” post….have to kind of muddle it up a little so it's not a TRUE depiction of a day but a good representation….