Word Search for Mother's Day

Not my proudest sample of handwriting, but the activity was challenging – we came up with a bunch of possible words to describe mom’s, then wrote them in and then added them into a bunch of nonsense letters to make our own word searches….

Foot fidget in action :)

The foot fidget made a huge difference to this kid that day! He was able to stay in the room for an entire academic session. He thanked me for it. 🙂 I told him I couldn’t take a picture of his face so he stuck his hand in the picture to say hi.    From classroomseatingsolutions.com (they gave me a free one at conference!)

First Strokes: Awesomeness

The golf tee thing, wrist monster, coloring in outlines, etc….

OTJobLink: Hmm…

Seamless Sensitivity Socks: SmartKnit KIDS, OT thoughts

The Social Express: Applications for OT

blah. Zimmermans.

CRAZZZZZY radical OT ideas…..

I want to go back to the basics with my kids when I start this next school year with my elementary schoolers. I intended to do it THIS year but um, it was my first time starting the school year (I started a year ago in April)  and things were overwhelming and I just didn't do it as planned. I want to make sure A) each child knows my name, my title, and why I am working with that child. B) Each child can tell me “Today is Month, Day, Year” C) each child can tell me how their engine is running (ALERT program language) and how their day is going , and then we can determine our schedule for that session – with several “mandatory” things from me as needed, but some discussion on the other things based on frustration level for the day, etc.

Here is my thought process before you scoff.

A) I bet you (invisible) money that if you ask most of the kids on your caseload, even ones you see all the time, and this includes speech therapy, PT, APE, etc, that many of them don't know your name. Don't assume. Flat out ask.

B) I bet you if they know your name, they still don't know your role (or they think you are speech) or why you work with them.

C) Many of them have NO clue as to their day/time orientation and that includes when weekends are, or breaks, etc.

D) We all have good days and bad days, and days where we can handle more than others. I want kids, even kindergarteners, to be able to discuss with me, on a very basic level, how they are doing. That doesn't mean a kid can opt for “Breaks” and easy stuff every time, but we can certainly discuss some of what we will do based on their engine level/frustration level. (IE maybe we don't tie shoes on a day that's having a lot of frustration!) I want the child to be able to start working on identifying their own body/mind cues and how it can affect their output. Perhaps lofty but I am optimistic.

For the record, many of my kids do know my name/title/date etc, but I want ALL my kids to get these concepts down, ASAP, next year….at least start the process. I'll have visuals, scripts, etc. I wouldn't spend a ton of time on these things depending on the child's goals, but at least want to have them addressed at some point early on. I want to work with speech on these things too of course. I recently shocked a speech therapist at one of my schools by pointing out most of the kids don't know her name the way she assumed they did!

Here is a conversation I had recently with a 5 year old new to my caseload.

me: what's my name?
child: (thinks) Miss Karen
me: what do I do here, what is my job?
child: playing with kids

So…I love that he thinks my job is playing with kids, but I need/want him to understand why I work with him….as should all of them.

Its 1130pm..I wanted to write more  (note to self – dance, handiwriter, calendar) but I am getting sleeepy. Tomorrow morning I am blocked in by a tri-athlon running through my area, so I guess maybe in the morning I'll write???  we'll seeee

Karen

Gotta love Pinterest for OT

I lied. After almost 3 hours of working out after work, a baked portobello mushroom, and some bed i’m um, ready for bed. but i have been glancing at http://pinterest.com/pediastaff/handwriting-strengthening-prewriting/  for a while today, I want to memorize every idea…lol. super cool link. BEDTIME at 930!

kd

Dear OT recruiters…

Dearest OT recruiters,

If you're going to call us, please, for the love of God, do your best to find out what area the person lives in. And make sure the location is current. I got a phone call at 6am this morning from a rehab company in Florida. Not appreciated. And it's happened at least four times that I've gotten a phone call before 7am by rehab recruiters.

Even though I love my job, even if I didn't, the whole “6am” phone call thing wouldn't be a great start.

Love,
Karen, MOT, OTR/L

How to make a million dollars in OT…..

Just kidding, thought I'd give the spam-bots a little tease. For some reason I am always wildly uninspired when it comes to OT topic subjects. Anyway, here is my plan for the week……post product reviews for PenAgain, Dycem, and Foot Fidget with a few days between in each one. Also post about conference little by little. My floor is covered with conference stuff I want to discuss. The other day two fourth grade girls decided they wanted to know my age. One guessed that I was born in 1890, and the other guessed 2008. Both were serious. And both need math help, LOL. I just couldn't stop laughing at either guess. 🙂 I have four meetings to go between now and the end of this week.  Have some new ideas to try – got one idea from Tonya's “cage” on therapyfunzone.com. We'll see how it goes. I'll report back shortly lol. PS: I was born in 1982!!

Ugh I kind of have a headache so I am going to stop writing now……tomorrow is Weds. My plan is to work, work out in a double whammy of craziness where I may or may not want to throw up, lol, and then rest/relax/do the Dycem product review/conference post. Let's see if it happens.

I heard from a blog reader today who is using lava/worms/bee paper with success. Any of you out there tried it and if so has it been helpful? I want to make some new types soon. So many ideas, so little time! Boo!

Hope you all have great weeks, lovely people 🙂