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.

OT Review of iPad App Dexteria for Fine Motor Skills
I was approached by BinaryLabs, Inc to review Dexteria on the iPad (and two other apps to come soon). Dexteria works on fine motor skill development and there are three components to this particular app. 1st component: Finger sequencing and isolation: Place your thumb on an anchor point (either hand), practice isolating your other fingers in a varying sequence that the iPad provides. I see this being a great tool for the right person! I work with children in lower grades of elementary school, so it tends to be slightly too challenging. They can keep the thumb anchor point but then can’t isolate the correct finger quickly...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 17, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Therapeutic Handling Lab Demo
Wow. I was going through old Youtube videos and I found an old Google Video I had made that got transferred over to Youtube. This was probably from 2006, so early on in OT school, after a therapeutic handling lab. Obviously, as you can see from this video, I was trying to rehash what I had learned in terms of hand placement and progression...just sharing as it is a blast from the past!!! And the kind of things current OT students will learn...although hopefully with less awkwardness ;) (Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G))
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 16, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

My elementary school OT day in a nutshell....and oh a shameless request too.
http://www.indiegogo.com/missawesomenessOkay all, I'm trying to raise money to fund my first children's book (already written!) as well as educational ipad apps and some other branding initiatives for Miss Awesomeness! In other words, stuff you could one day use to work with your kiddos!!! My campaign ends next week and so I'm going to be as annoying as NPR only for a single week. Actually I'm exaggerating, I could never be as annoying as NPR during their drives when they ask for money every single second of the day. I'll ask every few days for the next week and then it's over. Seriously even a few dollars helps, not kiddi...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 15, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Meditating as a NICU cuddler
Census was down in the neonatal ICU so things were very quiet. I spent some time holding a baby who just needed to be held upright for a while after feeding. The nurse said he is always awake in his bed, but when held he falls asleep almost instantly. This baby has his own room and I held him for over an hour as he slept as there was nothing else to do so why not. :) In cases like that it's a form of meditation, sitting there quietly with nothing to do, nothing to see or interact with besides your own mind. Reminding yourself to just "be" - be present, that the baby benefits from the rise and fall of your breathing, your h...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 14, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

To be....
Census was down in the neonatal ICU so things were very quiet. I spent some time holding a baby who just needed to be held upright for a while after feeding. The nurse said he is always awake in his bed, but when held he falls asleep almost instantly. This baby has his own room and I held him for over an hour as he slept as there was nothing else to do so why not. :) In cases like that it's a form of meditation, sitting there quietly with nothing to do, nothing to see or interact with besides your own mind. Reminding yourself to just "be" - be present, that the baby benefits from the rise and fall of your bre...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 14, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Heavy clothes, calm bodies? Blast from the past
  One more picture from the Marie Curie article in Smithsonian :) Look at how heavy their clothes were. I wonder how scratchy they were. I'm guessing that perhaps, if nothing else, the heaviness was calming, even if uncomfortable texture wise! No seamless undies back then!! :)I was recently reading Songs of the Gorilla Nation and she was talking about how she always wore leather and dark sunglasses, because the leather was so weighted and calming, and the sunglasses reduced input, etc. I thought that was fascinating because I know we all have seen people in um, unusual or interesting get-ups, and made assumptions. B...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 10, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Does music help attention? Does white noise help attention?
  Something I saw in I think Smithsonian magazine about using music to help your brain. I liked what they noted about people with attention deficits and how they may calm down in a paradoxical way - ie how taking the equivalent of speed calms them while it "speeds" the rest of us up. Very interesting neurologically.Anyway, the thing about anxiety - that USED to be the case for me, that when I was frequently (severely) anxious, I listened to Enya while lying in a dark room and practicing diagraphagmatic breathing. But eventually when I thought of Enya it made me anxious because the two became so linked. So then I cou...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 8, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: white noise calm focus music anxiety attention arousal alert Source Type: blogs

Volunteering in the NICU :)
Every Sunday afternoon I have my volunteer shift in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) pronounced NICK-U. Today I was somewhat of a pacifier fairy...flitting from crib to crib replacing pacifiers. Almost every shift I learn new techniques or new lingo or something about working with the babies. I definitely appreciate my occupational therapy background while volunteering. It gives me a really helpful understanding of the importance of the vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile systems of these babies among other things.Some of the medications that the "drug babies" take while weaning can cause hypertonicity, meaning ba...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 7, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Board copying the longest words in the English language :)
The other day I had four of my 3rd graders copy "supercalifrag....ocious" which is 34 letters long, off the board to practice changing their focus near and far and from vertical to horizontal. I used a crazy long word to make it silly and exciting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_EnglishI'll probably occasionally use this list (between 27 and 45 letters) just so the kids have bragging rights of copying off the longest words in the dictionary, but I also like to have them copy names of things they like. One of my kids loves Pokemon and he knows when he sees me on a certain day of the week he can ...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 4, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Toys'R'Us has a Differently Abled section
I recently found out via Advance magazine that Toys'R'Us has a "Differently Abled" section where you can find toys suited for children with special needs.http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3261681 If you click the link above, it takes you to an explanation of the guide for differently abled kids, including where to get paper copies on bulks (ie for therapists) or how to look at it online. I haven't checked it out in detail, but until the Advance article I've never seen it mentioned, so thought I'd share that it might be a good resource for finding toys for kids with special nee...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 4, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Top Ten Most Popular Baby Names of 2012: How easy will they be to handwrite? :)
According to BabyCenter.com, the most popular 2012 baby names are:Male Names, starting at most popular:Liam, Ethan, Noah, Mason, Jacob, Jack, Aiden, Logan, Jackson, LucasFemale Names starting at most popular:Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava, Isabella, Mia, Ella, Emily, Lily, ChloeHow does this relate to occupational therapy? Any occupational therapist who has ever had to teach handwriting and teach a young child how to write their name, knows how crucial teaching a name can be. It's often the first thing the child starts writing, starting in preschool, and has to jot hastily down on every piece of paper for the rest of their live...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 2, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

The American Academy of Pediatrics says recess is really necessary. CONCUR!
Recess is ImportantI agree 10,00000000000% (maybe I should have spent more time in math understanding percentages).  Recess is SO IMPORTANT - think back on your life and how valuable that break was to you. I know we have a lot to cover, but if it's low quality because the kids need a break and aren't paying attention, then it's not really helping.  Giving the kids an unstructured short break outside gives them a way to decompress, learn social skills, be creative, get some sensory motor input, and more. Our schools have a 15 minute morning recess and a 15 minute lunch recess and I am very glad they do. It he...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - January 2, 2013 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs

Hi, Teach123 Fans: Lava Paper!
Hi Teach 123 Fans who came from here:http://teach123-school.blogspot.com/2012/12/handwriting-lava-paper.htmlI was thrilled to see that Teach123 had posted our lava paper! (I created it originally but was just drawing it in on paper each time, Tonya of TherapyFunZone.com used Photoshop to make my dreams come true). Anyway, Teach123 has an AMAZING blog with great ideas for teachers and I originally found her through Pinterest where she showed off a genius idea for reducing visual clutter as well as helping not overwhelm a child who sees a ton of work in front of them.http://pinterest.com/pin/79868593363169839/"Cut a fil...
Source: Occupational Therapy Students (B)e(LO)n(G) - December 8, 2012 Category: Occupational Therapists Source Type: blogs