Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) RSS feedThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Because what if the IEP team gets hit by a bus?
I just burst out laughing. The IEP team got a long e-mail from a parent asking us for clarifications in a variety of places, which can be overwhelming of course, especially right before bedtime (coughsleephygienecoughypocriticalOTcough). Anyways, the mother specifies an area she wants clarified and then writes "We all know what this is referring to but just in case the entire IEP team gets hit by a bus." I freaking burst out laughing. Often a parent or a IEP team member will request clarification just in case the family moves to a different district or service provider, so that there is not ambiguity. But I...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - November 6, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

OT goals from the Rural South....
I know I've shared this before but I just stumbled across it on my old Tweets and had to laugh.From when I was an OT in rural Georgia, my first year :)This man was asked his long-term goals for OT and he said "To be able to flip a bird, scratch my butt, and slap my wife."  AHAHAHAHHAHAHA gotta love the rural deep south....he was a hoot.I switched from posting on Twitter as Funkist to posting as MsAwesomenessOT....MissAwesomeness was taken and MissAwesomenessOT is too long.  I also have my pinterest still at www.pinterest.com/funkist/ot-ideas :) Soon I am launching missawesomeness.com with a new look ...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - November 5, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

You know how Google+ has circles?
I run around high circles, baby. Or whatever that expression is. You get my point. Not Google+ circles though, that was just my poor analogy. Moving on. I did a google image search for occupational therapy for several reasons, including curiosity, and so I am glad I am not a cat for I would have already used ten thousand lives.  On the very first (very long) page of images, there are multiple people I know in person, which statistically seems unlikely.  One is a picture from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital showing two of the staff member OTs that were there when I was volunteering. The second is a picture o...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - November 1, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Legal Code Word Anagrams and Other Fun Anagrams to use in OT drama
In conclusion: Go check out your name and those of your friends/family and then those that cause you troubles, and prepare to scan through and laugh as you find appropriate ones. We had another potentially troubling character whose anagram lead to "Ninja Cheerios" as the best fit, which let me laugh hysterically in a time that should have been fraught with fear...ooooooohhhhhh skeeeerrrryyyyyyyy, ::eerie howls heard distantly::: Some of my name examples: Ask Bony Nerd Yaks Bend NorYaks Born Den Yaks Born EndYak Bends Nor Yak Born DensYak Born Send Yak Born EndsYak Snob Nerd I also just did the ...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 27, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

The Journal of an OT Shadow Part 1
In conclusion - I'm hoping to continue to share what Shadow is willing to share about the learning out loud process of figuring out what OT is even when it doesn't make sense at first (or ever, haha), but also encouraging her to get that it is TOTALLY okay if it's not this glowing, nicely organized piece...maybe next time it will be all over the place, that would make me even happier...;) )  (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Man with amputated leg has awesome Halloween costumes
http://i.imgur.com/owOvGcU.jpgThis guy definitely fulfills our OT ideal of living life to its fullest. Love the creativity of his costumes incorporating - yet not - his amputated leg!  (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

AnonymousOT - love her blog
I was searching the Internet for something I had written about a child's handwriting progress as I wanted to bring up the picture for his upcoming IEP meeting - essentially when we started together, it was some of the worst I had seen - I had all these papers with a single line or two on them with pencil, then red marker scribbles on the rest. Now the handwriting is so amazing. Anyway, as I searched, I came across a mention of my name and it was in this post, http://theanonymousot.com/2013/06/21/therapist-burnout/ Now that I link it, it sounds like maybe AnonymousOT was talking about burnout for us, but actually...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 7, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

"Learning Out Loud"
I loved this article as it really speaks to what I appreciate and what I strive for - a constant transparency to a process from beginner to expert and all the problems along the way that have to be solved, as well as true curiosity about experiences for all, thinking outside the box, etc etc.  http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/Great-Leaders-Learn-Out-Loud.aspx (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 7, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Resonating words for me and hopefully my OT kids
I'm trying extra extra hard this year to remember that LEADERS MAKE LEADERS, NOT FOLLOWERS. My goals for my kids this year that really resonate are to teach them the following vocabulary words in relation to our sessions together...I can use simpler words as necessary or just the concept, but to reinforce the ideas that each kid can think these things on varying levels of understanding - I only do elementary schools and most of my kids are K-4 as I have a high functioning caseload, so some of this is lofty, but I think awesome and helpful and possible to help think of themselves differently even at a very young age. ...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 3, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Blowing gum bubbles and teaching how to do a ponytail, OT style
I work in elementary schools and obviously we work on functional classroom based tasks. But sometimes, for example, I'm asking a little girl to show me how to wrap a rubber band around a pile of popsicle sticks the way they sometimes do in class, working on basic functional utensils exposure, etc. I volunteer the information it's like doing a ponytail. She says she doesn't know how (and is way old enough to be capable). I promptly ripped the ponytail holder out of my hair to have her watch me slowly and carefully go through the steps, then helped her. We had just done a lot of challenging work writing and focus...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 3, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Even hula hooping becomes occupational therapy :)
Tonight I was trying to help a friend/new hooper how to do the "snake" like moves where you hula hoop on your chest. She was struggling and as I watched to analyze the task and break down where the issue was, I realized that it was due to her stiffness in that she struggled with scapular retraction, bringing her scapulas together in the back - she tended to subtly compensate by leaning slightly backwards so it took a while to figure out. I put my hands solidly on her hips to isolate and began to work with her on isolating her upper body and circling with emphasis on scapular retraction- but she needed more assist...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - October 1, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Kids Say the Awesomest Things, OT style
A little boy with a significant speech impediment corrected my speech today during our occupational therapy session. I told him to pass me a crayon which I have always said "crown" and never even realized was incorrect or that people might be confused. He looked at me and condescendingly said "It is CRAYon not CROWN". Yep.  ========I was walking up to our room with my two OT kids. The girl volunteered to me that she was Irish and German. The little boy piped up "I'm Irish because I like to dance like this", and with a serious face, started bouncing up and down with his legs in a jig while his arms stayed by his side. ...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - September 30, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Miss Awesomeness is a GIRL - Tales of OT
One of my moms told me this story about our little OT boy. She was talking to her son about me and she referenced me as Miss Awesome. He (who is also in speech therapy) said indignantly to her, "It's Miss AwesomeNESS, Mom. She's a girl!" (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - September 27, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Antonyms, Ants, Aunts: How awesome our OT kids can be
A little boy (the same one who corrected my pronunciation of "crayons") and an aide and I were working together on a worksheet as a form of us learning from each other - I needed to see the kinds of things they work on, and the aide needed to see ways to work with him from an OT standpoint.The worksheet said "An aunt crawled up my arm" and the boy needed to figure out what was wrong. We had to cue him, and eventually asked him "there are two kinds of aunts... (we pronounce both like the bug here!) and he said "red and black?" and we were like yes, that is true...okay, well, how about one is a name starting with ant....he s...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - September 27, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Sweet moments even in frustrating therapy sessions...
Recently I had a 2nd grade boy who was reaching the limits of his and our patience at the end of a day. The speech therapist and I were checking in with him. He was stamping and the speech therapist asked him "Which stamp do you think is my favorite?' He promptly handed her a butterfly.  She asked him, "How did you guess it was my favorite?" He often has trouble expressing himself and using his words, but his answer was immediate: "Because it is beautiful."  (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - September 21, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs