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.