Student Blog
What are OS/OT?

Summit on Autism ⟩
September 21, 2011, by Floyd

Getting Involved What are OS/OT?

On Saturday, I went to an amazing event at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center for KiDA’s (Kids Institute for Development and Advancement) third annual Summit on Autism where First Lady Rosalyn Carter was the keynote speaker. I learned about the newest technologies that parents and therapists can use to support their child’s learning, such as iPAD apps for kids. I also got to learn about the newest research on the vast amount of treatments and the resources that families can utilize. This was a great learning opportunity for me because I got to understand more about Autism, its impact on the family, and the positive effects of family involvement.

First Lady Rosalyn Carter, a national advocate for mental health and caregivers, founded the Carter Center’s Mental Health Task Force — a board of experts and consumers that advocate for positive change in the mental health field. She spoke about her past experiences as an advocate for mental health and how it is in our reach in ending the mental health crisis.

One very cool study that I got to learn about was about a couple that set up digital cameras in every room of their home and recorded 24 hours a day of their child’s development from birth to the age of 3. By using different movement and voice recognition systems, they were able to map out what words or babble their child said and where and what time it happened. This way, they were able to figure out what environment stimulated the most words and what the child was doing to develop his or her language. Obviously, this is still taking them some time to gather all the information because it is over 26,000 hours of film that they have to go through. Best of luck to them!

Here’s a pic of me tabling and telling everyone about the great opportunities there is at USC’s Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy!

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Inter-Disciplinary Student Collaboration ⟩
September 20, 2011, by Kimberly

Classes What are OS/OT?

One of my electives this semester is called “Occupational Therapy in Primary Healthcare Environments.” In this class we are looking at the various roles occupational therapists can take in primary healthcare settings like family clinics, emergency rooms, pediatric clinics, assisted living facilities, etc. It is a newer field for OT and focuses mainly on prevention and wellness. Also in this class, we are part of a pilot study titled Inter-Professional Geriatric Curriculum (IPGC) where we get to work with students studying to be doctors, physician’s assistants, pharmacists, and physical therapists. With this team, we will go visit a resident at a local assisted living facility and talk with him/her from the lens of our different disciplines and provide recommendations based on our different areas of expertise.

In preparation to my group’s first visit with our resident, we decided to meet for dinner to discuss strategy and get to know each other. We got to go around and describe what really we do in our professions, discuss our expectations for this class, and then discuss an approach to going in and talking with our resident. It was so inspiring to see the collaboration that happened naturally for all of us. We are all pretty easy-going, but no one was fighting over turf, stepping on others’ toes or trying to push their agenda. Hopefully when I graduate and enter the field a year from now, these kinds of relationships and partnerships will be present wherever I end up working. It’s fun to be able to understand/respect the other fields of expertise while also contributing OT’s unique perspective.

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My First OT Elective ⟩
September 19, 2011, by Chelsea

Classes What are OS/OT?

The second year of the Occupational Therapy program at USC gives students the opportunity to take their first OT elective course — their first opportunity to choose a course they are interested rather than having it be required! After doing my third Level I Fieldwork in hand therapy, I had a heightened interest in the field and in the prospect of getting certified to be a hand therapist. Although there were many awesome courses to choose as my one elective this fall, I had no trouble making the decision to take Hand Rehabilitation with Lisa Deshaies.

So far it has been incredible and is “hands down” my favorite class! We have learned so much practical knowledge about the anatomy of the hand and all kinds of different hand deformities and injuries. Professor Deshaies keeps the class interesting by reading us excerpts that relate to the hand in Sports Illustrated, showing us videos of the progress and personal struggle of a patient she treated, bringing in actual hand and arm cadavers to get a more “hands on” anatomy understanding, and leading great class discussions. Currently, I’m working on a Hand Observation Log for which I have been observing how people use their hands daily for functioning, communicating, and other daily activities. Surprisingly, you can tell a lot about a person by how they are using their hands. Some of the best aspects of the class are that the class is at night so I don’t need to wake up early, and it is credit/no credit making it less stressful than my other courses . . . however, it can be a bit of a “handful”!

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People-Watching in LA ⟩
September 13, 2011, by Kimberly

Living in LA What are OS/OT?

I will be the first to admit that I enjoy people-watching.

Before you think I’m completely weird, you have to know that I take public transport all over LA all the time; and when you are sitting on a bus for 45 minutes across town, it’s hard not to observe the people around you. People-watching for me is more about wondering where they come from, where they’re going. I guess you could say I am an OT at heart, just trying to figure out who a person is from a few seconds we happen to be sharing the same mode of transport. The best part about LA is that it is so culturally diverse and rich. The individuals I have met on the train, bus, Metrorail, walking or even riding my bike all have a different life-path that has brought them where they are today.

My favorite part of riding public transport is when a conversation is actually struck. During OT month last April I had a pin that said “I Love OT” on my backpack and the guy next to me said he had to ask why I loved “overtime.” After a laugh I corrected him and pointed out that OT really stands for occupational therapy and proceeded to have a conversation about the profession. Before we were finished 2 people next to him had joined in and the whole bus-load was educated on what a great thing OT is.

People who ride public transport range from the smallest baby, to the man who can’t afford dinner, to the businesswoman carrying groceries, to the student riding to class. It is really a snapshot of our community and provides an opportunity to get to know others we might not see driving from point A to point B on the freeway. Sometimes I wonder what people think my story is. Well, all they have to do is ask . . . but for now I am content simply observing and smiling at the complexity of human life through the lens of a simple bus ride.

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Why I Chose Occupational Therapy ⟩
September 13, 2011, by Chelsea

Classes What are OS/OT?

Occupational Therapy (OT) seems to attract a diverse array of people, but all of which have a few key characteristics in common: they are amicable, creative, investigative, caring, and interested in many different things. I consider myself as falling into this category. I’ve always had many different hobbies ranging from playing tennis to doing black and white photography. Similarly, I have always had many different interests in school — mainly in the domains of science and art.

When I came to USC as an “Undecided” freshman, I started by taking a few biology and chemistry classes and a few art history and photography classes. I was having such difficulty deciding what to declare as my major that at the end of my freshman year I visited USC’s career counseling office where I discovered the happy-medium that was occupational therapy. I learned that occupational therapy required both creative thinking and scientific knowledge; and that you could find the therapeutic value in the activities you love doing and incorporate them into therapy. My first OT class that I took was Intro to Occupational Therapy with Kate Crowley and, from that point on, I knew I wanted to be an occupational therapist. Kate’s brilliant way of engaging her students makes everyone look forward to her class. It was so interesting to evaluate our own daily occupations and determine how they were impacting our health. I started to realize what an enormous role my hobbies had on my daily health and well-being and became more cognizant of how to balance my lifestyle.

Currently, I am in the second year of the Master’s program and I’m taking my first OT elective: Hand Therapy. One of our first assignments is to observe hands and record what fascinates you. People can be so creative with their hands and use them so intricately. I think it is such a good example of how occupational therapy allows you to combine creativity with science because the hand is so complex. Now I just need to think of a way I could incorporate therapeutic aspects of tennis and photography into hand therapy . . . hmmm.

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