Reversals

I feel a little deja vu, like I've posted this article before, but I still like it!!

http://www.pediastaff.com/resources-dealing-with-the-reversal-problem–june-2008

School OT pediatric toolbox video, numbah 1

This is a video I created a few nights ago with my best friend Paloma manning my Flip camera. We just used my room’s floor so um, it’s about as amateur as you can get. And yes, there is a funny noise in the middle of it. And yes, I call my blog the wrong title. And yes, it’s not very technical. But whatever, maybe it will give you a few ideas, although most of it is pretty standard. I take criticism hard so while I don’t mind constructive criticism try not to hurt my feelings too bad, okay? 😉 There is one more coming, this is 9 mins and the other one is 7.  I think this video is mostly geared towards like prospective OT students or early OT students who need some ideas; experienced practitioners know everything in this video.
PS: I have a really old pediatric toolbox video on youtube from like 4 years ago! This video isn’t on youtube yet but it’s a goal eventually.

Great new to me OT peds blog

I spent an hour at least today looking over this blog, who, small world, is written by someone in Memphis who works at a place I WANTED to go volunteer/learn at, but they said no because too busy. 🙂 (years ago).

http://drzachryspedsottips.blogspot.com/

Too bad since I like this Dr. Zachry!!
I tried to figure out how to contact her but don't see how. I also tried to leave a comment and couldn't. Maybe I'll try again on the whole comment thing. Anyway, I am going to be using a lot of her ideas!

inventing new games instead of paperwork

So I was trying not to stress about all the work to do tonight paperwork wise, and somehow I end up gluing googly eyes onto cotton balls. What's up with that? 🙂 I was going through my OT toys trying to think of new fun stuff for tomorrow's final sessions, and inspiration struck. “Wolf and sheep”. I have a bunch of clothespins and a bunch of cotton balls – the wolf are clothespins, the cotton balls are sheep. Which now have eyeballs. Anyway I haven't fully decided how it will work but basically a bunch of cotton balls, maybe just one clothespin for each person, and then timing how many sheep we can each get in say, a minute. Or maybe I'll ahve each “wolf” get one sheep. I dunno. Something.

I also have a foamboard (?) from Target that is in the shape of a flower that I got in like the dollar section. I used Sharpie to write a color in each flower section and the pushpins are those different colors. They have to put the diff colored pushpins in their own flower section.

And I finally did the whole dried rice-with items inside thing and put it inside a larger container to avoid spillage…..

And and and. And I need to do PAPERWORK not invent new games.

KD

great OT comments…and now for OT thoughts…hmm

Gotten some REALLY nice OT e-mails lately – love it when I hear from long-term readers for the first time! Obviously need to respond now since they all typically include questions of some sort. 🙂 Will get on that soon. The good news is, this upcoming week should be the last one that is craziness with work.

I started photographing all my toys today, so that soon I can do a “here is ten bazillion toys to consider having”. I might also make a YouTube version of what's in my “pediatric toolbox” – I did one many years ago and I apparently have issues with eye contact, so maybe in this one I'll do better, haha. But of course first I have to get dolled up! Which is not how I look right now!

Alright…it's a beautiful day here…I am sitting in my bed looking at the beautiful ocean….starting to be sunset…my cats (one mine, one stray) are both chilling beside me….and I am working! I did take a walk/mini jog (truly like no jogging but enough that I can say I did, haha) outside earlier. I have some Sensory Processing Measures to look at, and a huge evaluation to write up, and some cursive to print out for board copying, etc…lots to do…so I'll stop procrastinating now.

I swear I also do play, my friend is coming over soon to spend the night, and then tomorrow I have Pilates + seeing a good friend of mine who was one of my OT CLASSMATES! She came to town to run the half marathon.  Of course we are doing In-and-Out. Can't wait to see her and also talk a little OT. 😉  Interspersed between all these things, yep, is work.

By the way, this morning the first thing I did when I woke up is buy like 50 dollars worth of Tangle Jrs, and then like 20 dollars worth of random toys from I think it was officeplayground.com….I had typed in favorite OT toys and it popped up and it had tons of great fidgets etc….btw I keep seeing people spell it “figits”…am I crazy or is that totally wrong?

I also bought some dry rice today to put in plastic jars and then put in marbles, so that kids have to put their hand in and dig around to find the marbles without looking…great for tactile discrimination, some proprioception, etc. 🙂

Okay….well…I said I'd stop procrastinating 3 paragraphs ago. I mean it this time. Just like I always mean it. :X HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Karen
PS: I swear I'm going to respond to all my emails soon, never fear 🙂 It may not be until next week though that I start really catching up!

A walk through elementary school lane…

 I decided to go through my old papers from elementary school to see how things went for me. I started kindergarten when I was four years old with my twin sister at a private catholic school in CA. Apparently I was not a huge fan of work and was also quite adept at writing my name backwards 😉
I never ended up in OT and have pretty good writing, so I guess it’s true what they say about reversals being common until around age 7! 🙂

 Reversals are common until around age 7.

 I apparently wasn’t always interested in working…

 This picture is a little disturbing. I think a person is being attacked in the sky.

 Notice the combo of uppercase/lowercase, also common at first

 wasn’t exactly sure how to spell Elizabeth apparently…

 Oh look, our beloved grids were popular even way back then. Notice my name.

 I went to private catholic school. Crucifixion…

 My elephant looks A like a platypus and B a lot like the elephant I would draw today.

 Yep, say no.

 Dang look at how nice my handwriting got!

 I was surprised to see how I wrote my name…

 OWL! I want to do this activity with kids.

 Apparently we liked phonetic spelling back then too..

 I wanted to have like a thousand kids with very specific bedtimes 🙂

hmm

i apparently meant to send this the other day and it failed and i didn't realize it….the first part talked about me being tired (so I deleted it, lol) but my PSs are semi amusing so I'm re-sending it….

PS: Making tennis ball friends (was it from school-OT.com or TherapyFunZone?
I can't remember) requires fearlessness….I used a clamp as I stabbed the
tennis ball so I could keep my fingers…..the kids like stuffing BUGS (like
Wal-Mart or Michael's cheap bugs) in their mouths! Fun to see tentacles
sticking out of his little mouth. One kid called the tennis ball a praying
mantis today…I said it sure was a fat one. 🙂 They also like sticking
pennies in their tennis ball mouths and then making them throw up. 🙂
PS2: I know I am a school OT now because I carry my apron in my car to wear
from school to school as I eat my lunch as I drive! (At stoplights or easy
things to eat, I swear I'm not like, eating a salad on the freeway, no hate
mail please)
PS3: I also know I am a school OT because my room at home looks like a toy
store exploded in it…never know when you'll find a purple centipede on the
floor  or a mouse-finger-light or what!
PS4: I am mad at TherapyFunZone and OT in Public Schools for constantly
putting up new posts that make me want to copy them!  🙂
PS5: I am delirious and going to bed…..

a recent comment

Here is a recent comment….
Hi Karen, I love your blog. I just started OT school, in fact, we had our first day of class today. I learned a lot about what to expect from your earlier posts. I am sure you are overwhelmed with work especially coming down to the end of the year. However, it is not always necessary to post about it. As a former teacher, I know how easily a profession can get a bad rep for complaining about being tired or having too much work, and I don’t want that to happen to you or OT. Your OT posts are so helpful and your passion really shines through. I don’t want others to be turned away though or people to stop reading because they are constantly hearing how tired you are. If you are too worn out to blog, just put it off we’ll understand, I promise! Keep up the good work and I hope you get everything done without too much stress!

So when I read this it hurt my feelings even though I know its with perfectly good intentions and actually a really good piece of constructive criticism…I wanted to ask what others thought. I know I post a lot how tired/busy I am but I also mention it’s my own fault, usually. And I post that also to apologize for why I don’t post as much or as nicely as i’d like….but I’d rather post regularly poorly than not at all, mostly because of how search engine optimization works and to let people know I am stll alive.

The good news is I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to be able to respond to quite a few FB comments, blog posts, emails, etc this weekend, and I think the worst of it is over!

So….i did want some feedback. Better to post less and stop saying how tired/stressed I am, or keep up with what I am doing ? I think in general I will try at least a little bit to be more cognizant of alienating people based on this comment. I hadn’t thought of if that way…

PS:I *do* appreciate the comment whether it hurts my feelings a little or not – it’s good for me to hear these things to grow from and ponder!

check out top link

http://www.childdevelopmentclub.org/freehandouts.htm
go here, check out top link..its a SIXTY SEVEN page PDF handout of great crafts. I only skimmed a few (I need to be working on an IEP) but one that immediately caught my eye is snack butterflies! So cute! Check it out. If I understand correctly Laura Effinger who wrote an Egypt blog has developed this website. Don't quote me on that, I read it all a little too fast for comfort.

A lot of interesting blog network development going on behind the scenes…I have not been contributing/participating yet because I'm in IEP heck (cough) but I hope to catch up eventually!!

PS: Thanks Ashley B. for posting this link on FB.

Six IEPs this week

Six. So I am really extra extra phenomenally busy this week. Hence, I still am weeks and weeks behind on answering emails. My hope is that this upcoming 3 day weekend will allow me to finally answer some of those questions/comments!! :crosses fingers::

Hey, I just learned that some of the fishing lures are kind of cool and may be good sensory tools, I will explore further at Walmart soon. Also, apparently fishing weights can be a way to turn a pencil into a weighted pencil?

Also, since I discovered aquarium tubing is not FDA approved, I bought some refrigerator tubing that is non-toxic, ie for water line, but it's much more hard than the tubing that was so pliable. Hmmm. I wonder if it will work. It's still coilable, but nothing like aquarium.

And finally, don't forget that google is your friend! Some amazing stuff on there if you search!
So I just finished work on 3 IEPs, time for bed!

Karen