25 Apr 2014

The Special Olympics and Kind Childen Supporters

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/23wxr5/my_class_competed_in_the_special_olympics_today/

This was on the front page of Reddit today. A teacher posted about her class competing in the special olympics today, and how kind the other students were. I opened the comments briefly for details. I will warn you, Reddit is wacky and often offensive, so I guarantee you there are plenty of rude comments within this. However, also tons of kind and sweet ones, so just be aware if you choose to read the comments, it’s at your own risk. I just loved the picture and the basic details. 🙂

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

23 Apr 2014

Making a Homemade Ice Pack

I really like the slushy ice packs you can make with this. Details within the link. Lots of recipes online. Just make sure that you in some way delineate the fact that this bag contains alcohol, and if you have children in the house, preferably use cheap vodka rather than rubbing alcohol, which is toxic if ingested.

http://www.diynatural.com/how-to-make-an-ice-pack/

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

20 Apr 2014

His walker is styling as a Scion :)

He needs a sports walker because he is speedy. I think faster than a Scion!! As he walked out and saw a man in a wheelchair coming he challenged him to a race. Ahahaha. A spunky guy. My fav. Met him at hospital as I helped them find main entrance when I was leaving my baby cuddling shift!

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

14 Apr 2014

The benefits of styrofoam

Even as a little girl we knew that styrofoam, while evil in many ways, was a great toy. Still love using left over styrofoam with my occupational therapy kids. Details to come when not on iPhone!! Me on left my twin Kristina on right. Early 1980s 🙂
Styrofoam

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

13 Apr 2014

Frustration with occupational therapy as a profession right this second!

Grrrr

Working on getting my business license with the city, and professional liability insurance, etc, as I become self-employed through my (in process) company Miss Awesomeness! 🙂

For professional liability insurance through HPSO, it asked if I was part of a professional association. I said yes. It gave me a drop-down list only. Guess what, everything in the world but OT was on the list. It was like "American Association of Latte Drinking Paleontologists Who Collect Dinosaur Fairy Wings" level specific otherwise. So I had to say no, I wasn’t part of one, to complete the application. Will call soon to ask them to add it.

For my business license with San Diego, it asked me for my license number, which I provided. Then once again, a drop down list of possible occupations for it. EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD WAS ON IT. But OT. So I couldn’t finish the application, because it was specific enough that I couldn’t find something even remotely similar that was valid. So I threw in physical therapist just so I could save the application to edit later as it wouldn’t even let me save otherwise. I will call the CITY tomorrow to ask them to add OT to the license.

Oh, and when I called my awesome banking/insurance company USAA that I use for everything, to see about their professional liability insurance, they had a policy place they use but they covered speech and physical, not OT. I asked the agent to call their insurance people and find out if that was deliberate or omission or what. He had me wait on the line while he spoke to their underwriter, and alas, it was true. They specifically don’t cover OT, although he couldn’t provide a reason. Speech and PT were on every single one of these options.

Of course I can still make all these things happen, some with using other companies, some with calling and asking them to add OT to the list, but it’s making everything harder when I can’t fully complete any of the tasks. Shocking, too.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: 2

3 Apr 2014

Empowering the bystander to prevent cruelty and violence in bullying

Dr. Wexler is amazing and I quoted the below paragraph from the article (linked at bottom), because I had never really thought before about the role of the bystander in bullying.

Since its inception, the Safe School Student Ambassador Program has decreased incidents of violence and referrals by 76%. Dr. Wexler explains “although much focus is given to ‘the bully’ and ‘the victim,’ the focus should be on the 80-90% of ‘bystanders’ with the actual power. The Safe School Student Ambassadors Program “empowers the bystander in order to prevent cruelty and violence,” and the Encinitas Rotary Peace Committee applauds their proactive endeavors.

http://encinitas.patch.com/groups/announcements/p/2014-peace-maker-award-turns-the-tide-of-bullying?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001&evar4=picks-2-post&newsRef=true

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

3 Apr 2014

Amen to this one

I feel like the author of this one has a school aged child!!! So inappropriate what schools have 4 year olds doing these days.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none

2 Apr 2014

April 2nd – Apps Free For the Day

I vote that you definitely download Toca Band!!

These apps normally cost money but today are free.

Functional Communication System – https://appsto.re/i66r93j
Functional Planning System – https://appsto.re/i66t6HW
Discovering Emotions with Zeely – Educational Tool for Learning Emotions –https://appsto.re/i66c6dh
EZCOMMA – https://appsto.re/i66c6dd
PICTURE CARD – Can you do it? – https://appsto.re/i66t9dG
Sorthings for Autism – https://appsto.re/i66t6Tq
Sequences for Autism – https://appsto.re/i66c6d2
Toca Band – https://appsto.re/i66c6dp
Sequences for Kids – https://appsto.re/i66t6TT
Teacher’s Assistant Pro: Track Student Behavior – https://appsto.re/i66r93F
ColorSay – Hear the world in color! – https://appsto.re/i66c68R
Gesture camera – https://appsto.re/i66r3vp

This list was copy/pasted from an e-mail by Mark Coppin at Mark.coppin (at) annecenter.org

He is an assistive technology director, and he is awesome. Saw him speak once. He sends out a daily e-mail with free apps of the day. You can email him to ask to be on it.

Category: Occupational Therapy | Comments: none