Student Blog
What are OS/OT?

Feed Me! ⟩
November 7, 2016, by Jessica

Classes What are OS/OT?

This past week in pediatrics, we discussed OT’s role in feeding intervention. I knew OTs were involved in feeding, however I didn’t realize how common it is for OTs to address feeding in all types of pediatric settings — hospital, clinics, schools, etc. This can truly be a specialty area of practice, and you can get Advanced Practice in swallowing and feeding in the state of CA. In fact, one of our elective courses, OT 575 Dysphagia Across the Lifespan, counts for 24 of the 45 recommended hours of continuing education to obtain this advanced practice certification!

In lab, we were asked to practice feeding one another these kid-friendly foods, and analyze the different motor movements we were using while eating these foods of various textures. Also, it was a good opportunity to try baby food for the first time. Figured it might be a good idea to try something I would be feeding to someone else. What I learned: baby food takes like cold soup.

Trying new foods and going out to eat with friends and family is one of my favorite occupations. Food has always been a very communal experience for me. Growing up, my family would always eat our meals together around the table, and family get-togethers would always revolve around food.  Nowadays, meal times are opportunities to reflect on the day with my fiancé or to reunite and connect with old friends. I love going out to eat at new restaurants to try food from different cultures. As a typically-developing human being who has never had issues with feeding or meal times, I take for granted that it is not always this easy for everyone.

This is where OTs come in — we can help children who have difficulties with feeding so that they can participate during family mealtimes. Whether it’s working on oral motor skills or getting children to eat a greater variety of foods, we have a pivotal role in helping families make mealtime a little more enjoyable.

⋯

Play All Day ⟩
November 1, 2016, by Jessica

Classes What are OS/OT?

Hey everyone!

I apologize for being offline for a while — things have been so busy this semester with midterms and events! I wanted to update you all about another one of the awesome resources we have here at USC — our pediatric therapy gym! We are so lucky to have the equipment and resources to be able to practice what we’re learning in an interactive, hands-on way.

A few weeks ago we had our Sensory Integration lecture and lab, where we got to learn about the theory behind Sensory Integration therapy and interventions we could use during treatment. For those of you who don’t know what Sensory Integration therapy is, it is both a theory and intervention based on USC alum’s Jean Ayres’ work. It focuses on how a child’s body integrates sensory information (vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile) in order to navigate their environment effectively. Through Sensory Integration therapy, the goal is to facilitate an adaptive response, which is a successful goal-oriented action on the environment. For some children with sensory issues, their bodies and brains may not be integrating the sensory information from their environment effectively or efficiently, which can affect a child’s ability to participate in their occupations, such as play.

This is what I love about OT — what looks like “play” is so much more complex and layered than what it seems. And as OTs, we can use play as a means and ends in our treatment sessions with children, since play is one of their main occupations!

Here are some photos from our Sensory Integration lab, where we actually got to jump on all of the equipment and try it out for ourselves! Doesn’t it look like hard work?

⋯

Happy World OT Day! ⟩
October 27, 2016, by Alyssa

Videos What are OS/OT?

Greetings! Hola! Bonjour! Ciao! 你好! Today we locally, nationally, and internationally celebrate our wonderful profession and all of the work that we do! Fight on!

⋯

Can you feel it? ⟩
September 26, 2016, by JRoe

Classes What are OS/OT?

Hard to believe we are already entering week six and almost at the halfway mark! This semester has gone by so quickly! During this first half of the course, Adult Physical Rehabilitation, we have been learning about different assessments we may administer when we meet our clients. This past week, our focus was on sensation testing on the upper body. Sensation tests look to see if clients can feel things like touch, temperature, or pain on their skin. Without sensation, a person may be at an increased risk for injury, among other thing, and is very important to address. Clients who often have decreased sensation are ones who are recovering from a stroke or a spinal cord injury.

Our professors brought in all sorts of tools that could be used to test our clients’ sensation! One of the coolest tools was called a “pinwheel” and was used to test for pain. This test is commonly administered along the arm.

Another fun assessment to try out was the one used for stereognosis, which is what allows us to find objects with touch alone; the classic example being finding your car keys in your pocket or purse.

We also tested on each other for two-point discrimination, which measures how close two points can be to each other and still recognize them as separate points. 

⋯

All fun and games ⟩
September 26, 2016, by Jessica

Classes What are OS/OT?

What I love most about pediatrics is that we often use play, a child’s main occupation, as a means and ends to help a child meet their developmental milestones. And really, who doesn’t love to play?

This past week in pediatrics lab we focus on fine motor coordination assessments and fine motor activities, which included getting to play with a ton of games that can be used to address fine motor coordination skills. Here are some photos of a couple games we played in lab and what they could be used for in practice.

Mr. Mouth is a game where the goal is to catapult as many flies into the frog’s mouth as possible, while the frog’s mouth is rotating in a circle. There was actually a pretty steep learning curve to this game — it took many missed attempts to figure out that you needed to use less force to get the fly into the frog’s mouth. It can be used to help a child work on isolated finger movement or grading force, which are both important pre-writing skills!

Burger Mania is a game where you compete against another person to create a mini burger on the mini conveyor belt before it falls off. You pick a card, and it tells you the type of burger you need to make. The conveyor belt continuously moves, and you have to use these tiny tongs to grab each burger component one at a time to place on the burger in the correct order. This game can be used to work on a child’s ability to use tools, which is also another important pre-writing skill. This game was actually pretty challenging, given the time and speed components. It would be important to keep in mind a child’s frustration tolerance when planning to use this game in therapy.

Overall, pediatrics has definitely helped me with my activity analysis skills. Now whenever I see board games and toys for kids, I can’t help but think about how it can be incorporated into OT practice. Stay tuned for more fine motor goodness in next week’s post!

⋯