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.