What now?

Even though I have already presented for senior project, I will continue to volunteer at Casa Colina because it is a requirement to volunteer for six months and 100 hours a with the facilities. While continuing to observe and volunteer at Casa Colina's Children's Service Center, I hope to gain more knowledge in order to pursue this career.

Fine Motor Hook Activity

For my final presentation, I had fun hook activities that I saw actual occupational therapists do. One hook activity I used was corn starch set up. Occupational therapist use the cornstarch as a sensory stimulating exercise for children with sensory issues. Another activity I had was a plastic bag sealed with lotion and a magnet inside. The plastic bag was accompanied with a glue stick with a magnet attached to the top. The activity was created as an exercise for children to practice holding paper down and using different grasps. The last activity I had was a paint pad which was mostly for fun. All that is done to the paint pad is using your index finger to draw.

Blog 22: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

In my block presentation I am most proud of how I was able to explain all the props I brought for my presentation because I believe it showed some of my understanding of my topic. Throughout my senior presentation I am proud how I was able to get so much experience.

(2) Questions to Consider

I think my block presentation was worth a P+ because I met all the P considerations and was able to keep my audience engaged.

For the senior project as a whole, a P+ also because I have always been up to par for all parts of the project.

(3) What worked

Finding answers and getting experience for my mentorship at Casa Colina worked for me a lot because it helped out in my presentation greatly.

(4) What didn't work for you

The timing of my presentation. I felt very overwhelmed within the last three days but I was able to get through it. To have fixed it, I probably could have  been working much more productively before.

(5) Finding Value

Senior project has allowed me to explore a field of study that I'd like to someday pursue. Through senior project I was able to see a few fields of occupational therapy.

Blog 21: Mentorship

Content

Literal

• Log to the right
• Kristin Horn at Casa Colina Children's Service Center

Interpretive

• The most important thing I learned from mentoring at Casa Colina in the Children's Service Center is understand what occupational therapist do for children. the duties of an OT that treats a child compared to an adult is very different. An OT that treats a child, treats the child for the better development of the child.

Analysis

• My observations of the social program, Kid's Crew, helped create my answers for my EQ. The improvement skills of children between the ages of four and eight with special needs was my focus and the social program gave me somewhat direct answers for my EQ. Talking to several of the otherOTs other than Kristin Horn also helped me develop answers for my EQ.

Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content

1) EQ: How can an occupational therapist best prepare a 4-8 year old child with special needs to thrive in a social environment?

• Answer 1: OTs can conduct group sessions where the kids can initiate in play.
• Answer 2: OTs can frequently expose the children to reality roles through natural interactions with normally functioning kids and adults.
• Answer 3: The OT can increase the child's self-awarenes through using the Goal Attainment Scaling(GAS) or Video Self-Modeling (VSM).
• Best Answer is Answer 1 because, with play, there is so much that the child can learn with the OTs supervision. It has the ability to somewhat combine the other two answers as well. There could be a play group that is conducted at the park or a playground with low and high functioning kids. The low functioning kids would be able to observe and learn from the high functioning kids as they play together.

2) I came down to my best answer through my interview with the OTs at Casa Colina. They shared with me that group session are the best way to really improve a child's social skills because it is like a hands on learning process for the child.

3) I had a problem with coming up with a second and third answer, mostly the third. To resolve this I went through my research and talked to the OTs at Casa Colina, like Sarah an OTR/L.

4) My main source to help answer my EQ was my mentorship at Casa Colina with Kristin Horn OTR/L during the Kid's Crew classes because through that I was able to observe the children learn different social skills. Another source that was helpful was an OT Practice magazine that another OT at Casa Colina suggested to me. The magazine concentrated on the social improvement of autistic children through taking them out in the community. I was able to figure out my second and third answer through this magazine.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Content

• Literal

a) I, Ashley Dalan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) Alison: A World of Free Learning is an online course where I did a child development course.

c) Link is to the right.

d) I went through the modules of the different lessons about different child development theories and 

the significance of play and took notes on the sections. 

• Interpretive

Above are screenshots of the course lessons I did and with some of the notes I took for the course. Some of the material mentioned in the course, like the 4 child development theories required more time to understand. For example, the constructivism and social constructivism theories were more difficult to comprehend because they were very similar but had one detail that made the theories different. 

• Applied

The component helped to give me extra evidence for my first and third answer. One of the modules gave more in-depth explanations about what is play and why we have it and what play does. For my third answer, i had to read about how children learn well through models. The lesson referenced to the Bobo doll psychology experiment, saying how children will reenact what they see.

Fine Motor Exercise

An example of fine motor movement is like type, drawing, or pinching. It involves the "little" muscles of your fingers. Some kids have trouble controlling their fine motor muscles, so there are a few exercises OTs use to improve the kids' fine motor ability.

The pictures above are of the kids from Kid's Crew at Casa Colina, doing fine motor activities. Volunteers would put the lite brite pegs in the silly putty, and the kids would have to stretch and rip apart the putty to find the pegs and put it in the canvas.

Blog 18: Third Answer

Content

EQ How can an occupational therapist best prepare a 4-8 year-old child

 with special needs to thrive in a social environment?

Answer #3 An OT can improve the child's self-awareness through various methods.

Detail 1 Self-awareness is when a person has the ability to be aware of his or her own cognitive functions, and the ability to self-monitor and self-correct behavior. An individual with impaired self-awareness may be unmotivated, uncooperative, displays poor judgement, and fails to see the need for compensatory strategies.

Detail 2 Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is a method to measure an individual's performance; it can be used to monitor one's participation. This is allows client-oriented goal and a track progress for the OT. An example, from OT practice is that the client, Samantha, set out a goal for her to maintain an appropriate volume voice. The OT would supervise and score her based on her behavior.

Detail 3 The other method OT practice mentions is video self-modeling (VSM) which is based on a theory where children learn social skills through watching. A child would watch him or herself perform a desired behavior. Like the GAS, the client or child would set a goal for themselves, in which they will practice.

According to Jennifer Flemming, a senior researcher in occupational therapy, "Self-Awareness".

According to Lauren Foster and Kelsey Lueger, from the OT practice magazine, "Model Behavior".

Conclusion Using one of the two methods to  increase a child's self-awareness will allow the child be conscious of his or her actions towards other, improving social skills.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview

Content

1) Do OTs consider a child's IEP when deciding the child's needs? If not, how do OTs determine what a child needs to work on?

2) What can you tell me about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA program)?

3) Would you say ABA is an effective approach to improve a child's social skills? Why or why not?

4) When it comes to social skills, how would you improve a child with ASD, ADHD, Down Syndrome or CP social skills? (What approach would you take?)
• Do kids with CP need help in social skills?

5) What can you tell me about didactic, naturalistic, and pragmatic approaches for communication intervention?

6) Of the 3 interventions what do you find most effective in improving social skills? How so?

7) Are there alternative ways to improve a child's communication skills other than group sessions?

8) How can parents help to improve their child's social skills considering the child's special needs?

9) Does a child's IEP influence an OTs approach to the child's needs during the therapy sessions? How so?

10) How would an OT conduct a group session with the goal to improve social skills for children with either ASD, ADHD, DS,  or CP? Would there be a different approach for each disorder?

11) What is the difference between how a speech pathologist improves a child's social or communication skills and how an OT improves a child's social or communication skills?

12) How does and OT improve social skills on a child who is considered non-verbal?

13) How can an OT increase responsiveness in a child with ASD?

14) How can an OT improve a child's social problem solving and cognitive-executive process?

15) What models of social competence or social outcome do the OT's here use to help them improve a child's social skills? (ie. heuristic, Cavells, etc.)

16) What can you tell me about the social information process for typical kids in this age range?

17) In what ways do group sessions treat the social challenges in children?

18) To improve a child's social deficit, what does an OT look for in the child's evaluation?

19) Can you tell me an example of how a child's social skills have shown growth through their time in group sessions and therapy?

20) How can an OT best prepare a 4-8 year old child with special needs to thrive in a social environment?

Thought Bubble?

Above is a picture of one of the lesson in Kid's Crew. In this lesson the kid's learned about what and what not to say. Things that the kid's shouldn't say should stay in their thought bubble, in other words, their head. In the exercise above, the teacher asked the kids, "Would this go in your thought bubble or would you tell someone this?". The exercise was also to help the kids know what to say to stay on topic on a conversation. 

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Content

EQ How can occupational therapist best prepare a 4-8 year old child 

with special needs to thrive in a social environment?

Answer #2 An OT can best prepare a child by using either didactic, naturalistic, or pragmatic styles of communication intervention based on the child's articular needs. 

Detail 1 Didactic approaches are effective in developing attention, understanding language, and initiating speech. DTI, Discrete Trial Initiation, is an example of a didactic approach in which a child continues to do a particular exercise until they produce a particular response. 

Detail 2 Naturalistic approaches are similar to didactic but just take place in more natural environments of the client. This approach uses intrinsic reinforces, which is the satisfaction of achieving a desired goal through communication. 

Detail 3 Pragmatic, also called developmental, approach encourages the development of multiple aspects of communication. The multiple aspects would include the use of gestures, gazing and vocalization, especially for kids who are non verbal. 

According to Rhea Paul,  doctor professor of Yale's Child Study Center, 

article on "Interventions to Improve Communication".

Conclusion By understanding a particular child's deficit in social skills, and occupational therapist can improve it through either a didactic, naturalistic, or pragmatic approach. 

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content

1) I found a Children's development course in which I have enrolled in and will take notes on. (Just scroll  down the link below the log in request)

2) To meet the expectation of the 30 hours, I'll track my hours on a log and as evidence, and I will keep notes of what I learn throughout the course.

3) This will explore my topic more in depth because it will allow me to understand the milestones of children and how a typical child would develop. This information will allow me to know what some kids should work on.

4) The log link is to the right

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Content

• Literal

a) I, Ashley Dalan, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b) I was able to complete the first part of my independent component through a MIT open course software by Abby Noyce. The second part of my independent component, I completed through my mentorship at Casa Colina and a new clinic I started shadowing at, Yes I can! Occupational Therapy Inc. 

Citation for course: 

Noyce, Abby. Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience, Summer 2008. (MIT OpenCourseWare: Massachusetts Institute of Technology), http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/biology/introduction-to-cognitive-neuroscience (Accessed 6 Feb, 2014). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 

c) Independent Component log to the right.

d) I completed part of the Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience course, where I learned parts of the interactions of the brain to the other parts of the body. Cognitive neuroscience concentrates on the interactions and involvement of the central nervous system. Through my mentorship I completed some observation hours.

• Interpretive

The cognitive neuroscience course represents part of my 30 hours of work through notes that I have taken on the class of several lectures that I reviewed. My mentorship hours is represent on the log through my observations of the different clients I observed. 

• Applied

I think the mentorship helped mostly with my foundation for my senior topic because I was able to learn all the sorts of things OTs help kids with. I learned that OTs help with ANYTHING that disturbs a child's occupation. I learned this at Yes I Can! Occupational Therapy Inc. when a child had sensitive feet with made it hard for the mom to cut his toe nails. Typically an OT wouldn't need to assist with this issue, but since it's affecting the child's hygiene, the OT needs to take part by finding ways to desensitize the feet.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

Content

1) Positive statement

• I am most proud of the examples I used for my answer from my mentorship because I felt that it helped the audience understand better. I was also a bit proud of my activity because I got a lot of feedback say that it reinforced my answer.

2) Questions to consider

     a. I would give myself a P

     

     b. I believe I met all the P consideration requirements and I didn't have any problems in the other areas of the rubric as well (professionalism, organization & creativity, etc.). In other words, I think I did a P worthy presentation.

3) My answer worked for me for the Lesson 2 presentation because I was able to reference to my mentorship a lot and learn about my answer a lot from my mentorship. 

4) To improve the Lesson 2 Presentation, I would have done a better powerpoint and perhaps rehearse more so I don't say "um" too much.

5) Finding Value

• I think my answer 2 will be " OTs can frequently expose the children to reality roles through natural interactions with normally functioning kids and adults."

Started at "Yes I Can! Occupational Therapy Inc."

January 10, I started at a new occupational therapy clinic called Yes I Can! which specializes for kids from 0-3 with suspected autism. The clinic is a bit different from the CSC. Both clinics have a "gym" or sensory room (that's what it's called at Yes I Can!) but the clinic for the 0-3 year olds have a messy room and a feeding/fine motor room.

This is the feeding and fine motor room. Some of the kids have trouble eating, like they can eat certain textures of foods. I was talking to the OT there, Mary Ellen, and she told me that there was a child that only ate ketchup and another child that would throw-up at the sight of apple sauce and the sight of anything that had a similar texture to it. This is when and OT would intervene because since the child is throwing up with the sight of the texture, it interferes with the child's occupation to being able to eat and hold food down.
This is also the room where some of the kids will read books to help with their attention and do puzzles to practice their visual and orientation. I saw a child today do an alphabet puzzle by being about to recognize and say the letter even though it was upside down or tilted to the side. They were also able to quickly find the proper spot for the piece.







To the left is the sensory room, where the kids typically play. The goal of the room is to have the child enter the room, have a plan of what they want to do in the room, and execute their plan. Some kids won't know what to do, or will have an idea of what to do but won't execute it well. One child would chose a toy, like the blocks, dump it out and just leave it. The OT pointed out that they just had trouble executing because they were able to decide on what to play but not able to decide how they wanted to play.






Below is a picture of the Messy room(left) where typically the kids paint. A child who was nauseated by the texture and sight of shaving cream was also queasy about paint. Too get them use to both textures, Mary Ellen had them finger paint and make hand prints. For some kids she also pours rice or beans in the table and hides items, like cars of animals, in it so kids that have sensitive nerves can play in it. I did see one child recently, sit in the bean bucket (right) because their feet were sensitive. The feet would curl up when the beans were poured in it.

Above is a pamphlet from Yes I Can! and gift I got from one mom and her kids c:

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

Content

1) How can an occupational therapist best prepare a 4-8 year old child with special needs to thrive in a social environment?

2) What kinds of play should these specific kids practice? Why?

3) What do you think is the most significant type of play a child within this age range should learn? Why?

4) Do you think social skills is an important thing to teach kids at this particular age (not regarding if the child has special needs) ? Why or why not?

5)  What kinds of communication skills do you think is significant to learn for these specific kids?

6) What social skill do you think the kid's have the most trouble learning? Why do you think that is?

7) Do parents, siblings or other family members play a significant role in encouraging and teaching social skills?

8) Do the kids in Kid's Crew show growth by the end of the program? In what ways?

9) What do you find most difficult about teaching these kids social skills?

10) Why are social skills so important to teach 4-8 year olds with special needs, rather than just having them learn as they get older?

First Day at CSC!

Today was my first day at the Children Services Center and I had a great time! I helped out with the Kid's Crew Program which is a social skills class of children 4-8, primarily serving kids on the autism spectrum, in which they learn greetings, appropriate body language, sharing, etc. Today I observed the kids ages 6-8 where they learned to do introductions. Since it was like a class, they got the chance to play outside where I played with them as well as inside where we played HeadBands.

Although before the class started I prepared the class by setting up the chairs in a half circle and covering the toys because it distracts the kids. When the class was over, two other volunteers and I cleaned up the classroom by simply putting the chairs back where they are suppose to go and wiping down the table. They wipe the tables down because the kids in the 4-6 year olds class drool a lot more and put their hands in their mouth.

While waiting to get picked up, I observed the two OTs working with other kids in the gym. I saw an OT have a little boy brush his teeth as one of the activities/ exercises which was interesting because its a challenge for some of these kids. When the last child left I cleaned the gym up by taking the hanging things off, and putting everything back where it was suppose to go.

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours check

Content:

1) I am doing my mentorship at Casa Colina Rehabitation in the Children Services Center (CSC) and will be starting mentorship with my family friend with a clinic called Yes I Can! Occupational Therapy Inc. tomorrow(1/10).

2) At the CSC my contact would be Kristen, who is in charge of the Kid's Crew Program and is an OT. The number of the CSC is (909) 596-7733 Ext. 4200 where the receptionist, Teri, will answer. You would just have to ask for Kristen. Another person you can talk to there is Sarah Yun, who is also an OT, or just email her at syun@casacolina.org. She is the one that made my schedule at the CSC to allow me to observe other OTs. My contact at Yes I Can! Occupational Therapy Inc. is Mary Ellen Florendo-Tan OTR/L (626) 667-7967.

3) I have done a total of 20 hours and 50 minutes, counting the 10 summer hours.

4) 8 hours of the 10 hours I did [not counting the summer hours] was office work and patient room checking. During this time I was working in the Patient Safety department where I helped nurses and made binders of the patients in the hospital. the last 2 hours and 50 minutes I did was in the Children Services Center where I prepared the classroom for the Kid's Crew Program. I observed the kids learn social skills and afterward was able to observe OTs work individually with kids.

5) Updated the contact info 

Blog 10: Senior Project, The Holiday

Content:

1) Over break I worked on my independent component which is an online class, Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience. I worked on two lectures which both had a video lecture so I took notes on that.

2) From the lectures I saw, the most important thing I learned was that cognitive neuroscience is the study of how cognitive processes can be explained by the structure and function of the brain. This was the most significant to me because this is what the basic idea of the course is which will be beneficial to my senior project because some OTs work with the cognition skills of clients. Knowing about cognitive neuroscience would allow me to understand the brains influence on how you respond.

3) I would seek assistance from OTs at Casa Colina in the Children's Service Center because they are the OTs that help kids who need to help to do things differently because of whatever medical issue they may have.