Student Blog
Classes

Flying Through Fall Semester ⟩
December 2, 2014, by Leila

Classes Fieldwork Videos

Hi everyone! I hope that you’re all doing fantastic!

The fall semester is quickly coming to an end and time sure does fly by when you are having fun. I want to apologize for the lack of blog posts, but I promise I will be coming back with more! (As soon as finals are over 😊) I wanted to share a little bit about the current immersion that I am in. Currently, I’m in my pediatrics immersion and it has been an amazing experience. Before starting this immersion I had little experience working with children. I mean, I’ve tutored children before and I have younger cousins . . . does that count? 😊

So coming in I knew very little about the developmental stages, the variety of diagnoses seen, occupational therapy interventions, etc. Fast forward 12 weeks, and I’m feeling a lot more knowledgeable. Similar to my other immersions, my fieldwork experience has provided me with the opportunity to apply what I learn! It’s also great to see practicing occupational therapists in action. It’s really amazing what OTs advocate and more importantly what the children can do!

Two weeks ago in our pediatrics immersion we had the opportunity to come up with an adaptive device out of cardboard. Talk about being creative, but it’s okay because we are OTs! Afterwards, we had to present an infomercial in front of the class.

Check out the video below! Warning: Video contains some comic relief and puns.

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Learning Handy Skills! ⟩
November 12, 2014, by Claire

Classes What are OS/OT?

This week, our adult rehabilitation course is focusing on hand rehabilitation and making splints! Here are some pictures of the splints that we made in lab.

There’s a lot to learn and I could definitely improve on some of the splints that I made, but it was fun to practice the skill! We made a neoprene thumb splint that is commonly used for children with cerebral palsy in our pediatrics lab course last semester. Now I have many more to add to my splint collection!

We will be having a guest lecture from an adjunct faculty, Lisa Deshaies, who also works at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center also (in about half an hour actually), and I’m really looking forward to it! Our textbook reading for this week was a chapter that was written by her as well — we are really lucky to have so many experienced OT faculty members and connections!

Edit: We just wrapped up our guest lecture! I learned a lot about hand therapy and physical agent modalities, and Lisa also helped dispel any fears we might have about pursuing hand therapy certification. We got to try out some of the equipment and therapy techniques. We were told, “If you’re going to use these methods on your patients, you should know what the experience is like!”

Here are some pictures:

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Electives ⟩
November 7, 2014, by Kristy

Classes What are OS/OT?

One of the many unique opportunities you have here at USC, is the chance to take elective courses during the spring of your 2nd year. This is the time where you can gain additional education on certain topics you are interested in, explore new interests, or build upon knowledge already gained in the program. Even though when we complete the program we are considered “generalist” OTs, you can “specialize” your electives. For example, if you are interested in Pediatrics, perhaps you will take a course in Early Intervention, School-Based Practice, and Sensory Integration Theory. Or if your focus intends to be Adult Rehabilitation, you may take Enhancing Motor Control for Occupation, Hand Rehabilitation, and Occupational Therapy in Acute Care. If Mental Health and Wellness is your niche you could focus on Lifestyle Redesign and Therapeutic Communication for the Healthcare Practitioner! There are so many combinations of courses you can take! And if you are someone who is interested in all of the above, that’s fine too! You can take any of the above and more! It is a great opportunity to continue to explore the field of occupational therapy and all it has to offer.

For myself personally, I hope to go into school-based pediatrics, therefore I am taking School-Based Practice, Sensory Integration Theory and Sensory Integration Interventions. The latter two classes fulfill part of the requirements for the Sensory Integration Certification Program. Through the certification program, I will gain knowledge in the foundations of sensory integration, education on administering the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) and interpreting the results as well as ideas for intervention to implement sensory strategies. I am really excited to start my electives in January and feel lucky that I have the opportunity to further explore my interests in pediatrics!

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Friday Quicktakes ⟩
October 24, 2014, by Claire

Classes Getting Involved

Happy Friday!

Today I wanted to share some snippets about my week, so here are a few photos.

This past weekend was OTAC! So great to see our faculty and alumni win awards, give presentations, and participate in the learning/networking experience! In the student track, we got to play with some toys and make our own for pediatrics OT!

Also, here’s a shout out to Rob, one of our former student ambassadors (transformed into Rose King in support of our 2017 OT Centennial Vision float!) and Caitlin, also an occupational therapy student in the USC program!

This week, our adult rehabilitation class did an activity analysis activity. Our team was assigned to do an activity analysis on “making a snack.” We shared a lot of different yummy ideas, perused Pinterest, and decided to make some Jack-O-Lantern quesadillas to reflect our Halloween spirit!

Did you know our classroom walls are actually giant white boards? We were practicing goal writing and developing treatment plans; our teams put all our ideas on the board and our professor gave us feedback. I secretly hope someone will come into our classrooms and leave beautiful drawings one day, like these.

Have a good weekend! 😊

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Yay USC undergrad OT classes! ⟩
October 3, 2014, by Claire

Classes

Today’s a shoutout post to all USC undergraduate students taking OT courses! A couple weeks ago, Leila and I had the privilege to visit OT classes at the main UPC campus to talk about the Occupational Science minor program. I was also lucky to give a HSC tour with some Bachelor’s-to-Master’s OT students earlier this semester. You guys really rock! As a current Bachelor-to-Master’s OT student (last year already, wow!), these assignments mean a lot to me personally. It was super exciting to see this year’s classes and see how much they have grown. In my freshman year (that was back in 2010!), I took OT310x Creativity Workshop and OT250 Introduction to Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. I remember a student ambassador coming to talk to us about Occupational Therapy, and it’s so crazy to see everything come full circle. Not only that, that year we had about almost ten students signed up for the Friday morning class, but this year, the class is now double its size! Thank you to all the students for hearing our spiels about how amazing occupational therapy is and how much we love USC OT, and I had so much fun answering any questions that people had. USC Pre-OT club is having their first site visit — go check it out!! Best of luck to all USC undergrads — hope to see you at other USC OT events or at the Master’s program!

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