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.