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.

Pool noodle uses inspired by Pinterest
Shosh kabob pool noodle and pool noodle alien. Can string as giant beads or pattern if you have different colors. And make cool things by stabbing the alien with sticks etc. But you would not say stab to the kids! Lolol (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Mat man from handwriting without tears
The matman hanging in our school's OT land! Ugh I am writing on my phone and it autocorrected three times to batman! (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Using pins and cork board for OT equals awesomeness
The pictures show games made with Sharpie. Kids love pushpins. Obviously use careful supervision and judgment and don't use them if they are not fully cognitively aware or unsafe. Pushpins are great to increase hand strength and dexterity that can help with writing as it somewhat forces them by design to use the radial precision part of the hand. Even an ugly board appeals as they love the pushpin part. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Simple English
Read this to find out how to get Wikipedia simplified, ie if in OT you are helping a child or someone with cognitive issues do research. They don't all have simple english versions but it's worth a try. If you click this link, read the top paragraph and it explains how. :)  http://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/1hy03l/youshould_know_about_simple_english_wikipedia/ (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 15, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

The Pied Piper to Minimize special education stigma - OT thoughts
I'm sure I've said this before, but I use this to reflect so if it's redundant, well, I'm reflecting again!!! My philosophy with my OT kids in the elementary school is to play a "Pied Piper" where all kids, special education or not, want to be with me - I always have sparkles in my hair, often sparkle eyeliner, cool laptop cases or my bins have stickers...my keychain has silly key caps... I want to appeal to all the kids. When I show up to get a kid in the classroom, they are (almost always) happy to see me/come with me, and the other kids want to come too. I want the other kids to feel like my O...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 14, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

How to get to wear rings when you have arthritis and/or big joints.
So I learned about something relevant to OT and for once not about pediatrics! I learned about jewelers modifying wedding rings etc to be snapons for people who have big knuckles for whatever reason such as arthritis. So cool. Looks same on top and pretty discrete on bottom. See pictures of my friend's ring. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 11, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Welcome to OT Land!
We have one school with an actual OT room out of our nine elementary schools. We call it OT land hence the picture. I also have a pic of my end of year paperwork. Plus a cool pool noodle creature my fellow OT made inspired by a Pinterest creation. And i forget the other picture (I am awkwardly doing this on my phone as I wait for my stitches to come out thanks to a little bout of basal something on my forehead bleh). I hope whatever that last picture is is self explanatory lol. Oh yeah. Just saw it. No not explanatory. The eyeballs on my lock at work have been there over a year now thanks due to the day I went eyeball bomb...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 5, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Voice memos to help with memory or worries.
Sometimes I wake up in the night worried or scared of forgetting something. Or I am out without paper and don't feel or have time to type it. Hence voice memos on phone. The iPhone has it automatically so I assume others do too. Could be great for people with anxiety to dictate out their fears to voice them and hold them elsewhere instead of their head. Or for people with memory issues such as from traumatic brain injury. Using technology to make life better. That is what I call Centennial Vision. Love OT. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 5, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Zentangles in OT mental health
I was recently introduced to Zentangles and I am in love. You get special fine point Micron pens and there are a few basic rules which I semi ignore (google to read about them) but what I love is how it allows you to doodle but pay attention. And it can be very calming. It would be great to teach people with anxiety or let kids doodle while they listen in class. (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 5, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

My OT Zentangle
Yay for OT. I am slowly getting my blog mojo back. :) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - July 5, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

3D printed cast for broken bones
http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/06/dezeen_Cortex-3D-printed-cast-for-broken-bones-by-Jake-Evill-2.jpg what an awesome splint idea, lol  (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - June 30, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

OTs never stop learning
When meeting a fellow very passionate OT for lunch (Patti, LOVE HER) at a sushi place, we end up sharing ideas. In this case, a concept borrowed from S'Cool Moves. We used chopsticks as our tapping sticks and stuck the post-it to the soy sauce to use as a vertical surface, the music playing in the restaurant was our beat, etc. She had me practice it. It was surprisingly hard. It's got so many great benefits (the quadrant tapping) in regards to rhythm, bilateral coordination, rapid naming for sight words, etc. I'll hopefully explain more later as she also helped re-spark my OT mojo so I have like ten things I w...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - June 22, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Best OT quote ever
"Sometimes I wish I could do more for my friends, then I realize how helpful I will be when we start getting our hips replaced!!" - Brooke, former OT classmate (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - June 21, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Hula hooping is my new obsession....
I am LOVING hula hooping. Not with those cheap kid ones from CVS that nobody can do, but nicer ones. I will have to post some video soon. I keep thinking of all the ways I could use them with my kids. Also, I started doing some baton tricks today just for manual dexterity improvement, and mostly because I was hoping if I could figure out the baton I could figure out how to use it with the hula hoop.  I have a few elementary school girls, like in 4th grade, who I think would love the baton and/or hula hooping as little warm ups or breaks during our OT sessions. You know, mix fun with torture... ;)  I must remember that n...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - June 21, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

advocate as costume!
This is hardcore. One of my friends (a lawyer who would like to go into educational law) had her child dress up as an advocate for I think Halloween, or some other costumed event.  I know those of us who work with advocates would think that was super awesome! LOL! It wasn't advocating for school services but even so. What a cool idea. :) She gave me permission to post this picture because I laughed over it and wanted to share! What a cute kid.  (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - June 14, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs