Conference Flashback…Me, Erik Johnson aka Army OT Guy + Virtual OT Anita Hamilton…

So I needed to dump my photos onto the computer from my iPhone so I can take pictures today, so then I got into a quick photo spree of Picasa to Blogger….but now it’s time for me to join my mummy. We’re headed to lunch, then dessert at Fruitlandia for pico de gallo (a fruit salad), then travel Scrabble, then TWO different Mother’s Day walks in a row. Yep, that’s love. All her choices. So gotta go. But wanted to say bye for now, many many many many more pictures to come! Plus many posts!!! And product reviews! And etc etc etc etc!!!

Preparing to write about AOTA conference stuff

A picture is worth a thousand words, eh? I seriously have about twenty saved posts in Blogger with titles of stuff I want to write about from conference.

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