OT Podcast

A group of fifth-year occupational therapy students at Gannon University discuss the role of occupational therapists (OTs) in schools. They interview teachers who confirm that OTs help students with motor skills, handwriting, and other needs. The students also discuss their own experiences in school-based placements, where they work with students in classrooms or in separate OT rooms. They mention treating handwriting, sensory processing, visual tracking, and hand strengthening. They also mention limited communication with parents, primarily during IEP meetings. They conclude by sharing their preferences for working with kindergarten and first-grade students. Hey guys, welcome back to Keeping Up with Occupation. Welcome to all of our future fans. My name is Abby. My name is Madison. My name is Jenna. My name is Olivia. Hi, I'm Morgan. And we are all fifth-year occupational therapy students at Gannon University. We are currently in classes right now, working to get our master's degree. If you don't know what OT is, well, you came to the right spot. Maddie, tell us what it is. Um, I'm going to explain to you kind of what OT is and what we do. So, occupational therapy is... Okay, so now we're going to be calling a few teachers and quizzing them on their knowledge about OT. Hello? Hello. How are you today? Um, fabulous. It's Friday. Okay, well I have a few questions for you. Okay, go for it. Alright. Does your school have an OT? Yes, they do have an OT. Okay, perfect. And... Are you, as a teacher, allowed to recommend students to OT services, do you know? Yeah, I think so. Um, usually by the time they get to me in third grade, they've either already been referred or they've been in with the occupational therapist and then they've, um, come out of it. Okay, and the last question is, do you know what the role of an OT is in the school? Uh, help us find and grow some motor skills, um, like their cutting, handwriting, how to hold a pencil, things like that. Okay, perfect. Thank you for your time today. Did I get 100%? You sure did. Okay. Hello? Hey. Hey. So we're doing a podcast and we're talking about school-based OTs, so we just have a few questions about what you know about OTs' roles in the school. Okay. Okay, so our first question for you is, does your school have an OT? Yes, we have a couple of them. Okay, perfect. Um, do you know what their job is at your school? Like what they do? Um, I, I don't know specifics, but I do know that they come in and help my students, uh, with, like, their fine motor skills and their, uh, gross motor skills. Okay, perfect. Good. And, like, handwriting and stuff, too. So, but you know that. Yes. Okay. Yes. Are you, as a teacher, allowed to recommend a student to OT services? Um, actually, yes. It is technically part of our requirements that if we see a student struggling, we have to require, we have to report them. Okay, good. Do you feel comfortable doing that and knowing the signs of when to do that? Um, yeah. The process is pretty easy. I just have to fill out a form online, like, through our school portal, and then it goes, when I hit submit, it goes directly to our OT, and then they will review it and come back to us in, like, with their comments. Perfect. That is nice. Okay, that's all the questions we had. Oh, that was easy. Yep. Thank you. Thanks. Welcome. Bye. Right now? Yeah. All right, so now I'm going to explain what OT is and kind of what our job is. Um, so we pretty much help people of all ages do the things they need to do, want to do, or have to do on an everyday basis. Um, we work with kids from birth all the way up to adults, um, and older people, like, in the nursing homes and stuff, and even at home. We work with them on all of their needs and what they need to do on an everyday basis. Um, and now we're going to talk about field work and our experiences. So since you guys were both in school-based placement, can we, like, ask you a couple questions? Sure, of course. I'm so curious, because I wanted to work in a school, but I didn't have, I don't have any experience, so I have so many questions. But Morgan, you can go first. Okay. The first question we have for you guys is, did you get into the kids' classrooms more, or did you pull them out and bring them to a room, like, a separate OT room? Um, I feel like it was kind of split, like, 50-50. Um, there were times, like, if we saw them in the classroom for the first session, then maybe our next session we would, like, pull them out and bring them to the OT room. But it really all just depended on, like, what we were working on for that day. Or, like, if we went to the classroom to pick up a kiddo and they were working on something that was OT-related, we kind of just pushed in the classroom to keep them in their natural environment. But if they weren't doing anything, then we would bring them up to the OT room and then do their sessions there. What did your OT room look like? Um, it was just, like, a small little classroom, and it had a table, and then it had all of, like, it had, like, toys around that they could use. And then, but mostly we just, like, would sit at a table and do the work there. But then, um, they could use, like, the trampoline or the bouncy balls after. I was going to say, did you have, like, sensors? It was a classroom, but it had the sensory stuff in there as well. That's funny because when I interviewed at my job that I'm going to do, it's for Head Start, and it was literally in a church. So, like, like a preschool Head Start thing. And their classroom they used was a gym. It was, like, a little corner of a gym, and it was literally, like, a table, like yours. But they had, like, the bicycles and the balls just, like, all around the gym. And they had, like, their supplies. So I feel like it's just funny because, like, that's what those youths do. I feel like you can turn to anything. Yeah, well, like, that's what I mean. Like, mine was totally different. The one OT room we had was the coach's office of a locker room. We just went in there because that's the space they had. And one other time we were in an autism support classroom. We just had a table in the corner, and that's where we were working. So wherever they had space for us is kind of where we went. I think it makes it, like, fun. I think that was the nice thing about the school I was in, though, is, like, the OTs had their own, like, designated spot. Like, we didn't have to just find a corner in the school that was empty to use. Like, we had our own OT room, which I thought was really nice. And I feel like that makes it easier for, like, other people to know, like, okay, this is OT. This is what they do. Like, this is their designated, like, space for them. Yeah, and it was, like, a great way for, like, the students to know, okay, you're coming to the OT room, and you're doing OT. It's not like they were switching places each time. Yeah. Okay. I want to know, like, what sort of things were you treating? Because I feel like whenever we say, like, OT in the schools, everyone's like, oh, they work on handwriting, like, fine motor skills. But did you, like, in outpatient pages, we saw a lot of, like, ADHD and, like, behavioral or, like, emotional regulation issues, developmental delays. Like, were you working with that a lot or not? Yeah. I think, like, with handwriting, a lot of our older kids we worked on, like, the handwriting with. But when it came to the younger kids, obviously, it was still handwriting. I mean, correct letter formation and all of that. But a lot of the younger kids, it was, like, emotional, like, regulating emotions, behaviors. But still, handwriting was mixed in. But then, like I said, the older kids, it was mostly just handwriting. Yeah. Going off of that, I saw a lot of handwriting also, but we also did a lot of sensory processing and visual tracking and visual scanning. That's, like, one of the main things we focus on a lot. Even finger strengthening, which goes into handwriting, obviously, but we focus on that a lot. I feel like it's just such an easy thing for, like, everyone associated with handwriting with OTE, so you probably get, like, a lot of referrals. That's kind of what I, like, when I was going into my fieldwork experience, I was like, oh, it's just going to be, like, handwriting every single day. But it wasn't that. It was, I mean, getting on the ground and crawling around looking for objects. Well, I mean, there's more that goes into handwriting than people think. Visual scanning is part of, like, why you might be having deficits and stuff. I mean, even, like, hand strengthening. People don't understand, like, you need hand strength to be able to even just hold the pencil. Think of it the right way. It's like writing a whole paragraph. Exactly. Endurance. So then were you able to have time to, like, talk to parents about how to do all this outside of it? Personally, like, we didn't talk to a lot of parents outside of, like, IEP meetings, but there were a lot of parents that would just, like, reach out to us. Like, I know one example is there was a kid in second grade, and he still is having, like, struggling with letter formation. And his mom was also a teacher, and she's, like, it's really bothering me. Like, he can't make his letters the right way. So she, like, reached out to us and was, like, is there anything you can provide me so, like, when we're sitting down doing homework, like, I can enforce it too. So that was nice. Because, like, an outpatient, after every session, you talk to the parents. Like, I'm curious, like, in school, like, do you have time in your schedule to even communicate with the parents and, like, call them on the phone or something like that? Yeah, I mean, really, the only time we did is, like I said, during IEP meetings or if, like, parents reached out to us. Or if we saw, like, a major, major concern, we would reach out to the parents. But the parents weren't in school, so it was kind of hard. Do you want to tell our wonderful listeners what IEP is? Oh, yeah. So it is an individualized education plan. So it is, like, unique to the student, and it really just, like, breaks down what their needs are to create, like, things that they can use in the classroom to help them be more successful. All right. Great answers. Great questions. Last question we wanted to ask was if you had a choice, do you have a preference of which grade or age to work with? Why or why not? I really liked working with the kindergartners in first grade, first graders, just because, like, they were so new to school and, like, this was new to them. So being an OT for them was, like, really life-changing. I mean, you got to start with, like, the most basic skills and then help them learn how to do everything. And they're just a lot of fun. Yeah, for me personally, I didn't see any older kiddos. I only saw up to, like, third grade. But I really liked that younger age group for the same reason. They're just so much more excited to be there. Yeah. No, I agree. Like, in outpatient, I loved the little ones. They're just more willing to learn and try new things. Well, I also had, like, the experience of working with high schoolers. And, like, we would go into their classrooms, and they were almost, like, too cool to be seen with the OT. So they, like, didn't really want to work with us. And so our sessions weren't that beneficial, I feel like. Whereas, like, the younger kids enjoyed coming to the OT room because it was fun. It was, like, probably playing rhythms. Yeah. So the way that fieldwork works for occupational therapy is there's level ones and level twos. So we were all in different placements for all of our fieldwork. But most of us weren't in schools. But, like, Jenna and Olivia, you guys both were, right? Yeah. Yeah. So since Jenna and I had school-based experience and you guys did not, we are going to play a little game. And she's going to read three questions or facts, myths, and we're going to play two truths and a lie. So wait until I'm done with all three before you hit the buzzer. And this is for points, so. Oh, gosh. Okay. So question number one. Only special education students receive OT services. OTs treat children in a school from 5 to 21 years old. And OTs can treat a variety of skills such as fine motor, gross motor, rest, play, and sensory processing. Yes! Okay, Morgan. That's the first one where you say that only special education students can receive OT services. Right. That is the myth. So as OTs, we're able to provide services to children at risk for academic or behavioral challenges as general students, so. We were all right. Well, that's what it's all about. All right. Okay, number two. OTs can help students transition to secondary education or at their job site. We can work with students to manage clothing such as zippers and buttons. Or OT can only provide educational relevant services. That was me. I was sure that was you. The last one's a myth. Okay, yes, you're right. So we can actually provide education relevant services such as handwriting, keywording, but also provide services for self-regulation to attend and participate in school or interact with peers. All right, I got to get this last one. Okay, number three. There is no difference between OT and PT. Both OT and PT focus on motor concerns and students can receive OT, PT, and speech services at the same time. This first one's a myth. Correct. So obviously we all know there's a difference between OT and PT because OTs focus on activities of daily living such as dressing, eating, social interaction, play, school, work, or sleep. And PT sucks. Okay, so we ended the game with a tie. So now we have two tiebreakers. And these ones are worth two points. They're board-style questions, so they're a little bit trickier. Okay, the first one. A six-year-old child with sensory processing difficulties is having trouble participating in classroom activities. Which of the following interventions would be most appropriate for addressing sensory modulation challenges in the classroom environment? A. Providing a quiet corner in the classroom with sensory-friendly materials for the child to retreat to when overwhelmed. B. Implementing a reward system for completing tasks regardless of sensory challenges. C. Modifying the child's schedule to reduce exposure to sensory stimuli. Or D. Encouraging the child to push through discomfort to build tolerance to sensory input. A. Good job, Abby! Yay! There's another one. Do we want to do another one? Somebody, if one of you two get it right, you can tie with Abby. Yeah, that was a lot of words. This one is a little bit shorter. Okay, so a kindergarten student has difficulty with handwriting and frequently reverses letters. Which of the following interventions would be most effective in addressing this issue? A. Providing worksheets with large, bold letters to trace. B. Teaching the child letter formation using a multi-sensory approach, tracing letters in the sand. C. Having the child practice handwriting for extended periods until improvement is observed. Or D. Encouraging the child to write smaller to improve fine motor control. I was going to re-ask what the question was. A kindergarten student has difficulty with handwriting and frequently reverses letters. Which following intervention would be most effective? I was going to say, though, can you read B again? I want to say it was B. Teaching the child letter formation using a multi-sensory approach. Yes, you're correct! Woo! Abby is our winner! No. Alright guys, we just wanted to say thank you for joining us on our podcast today. And hope you learned a little bit more about school-based OT and enjoyed some of our buzzer beater questions. But yeah, we're going to sign off now. Thank you again. Thanks for listening! Thank you! Hello. Hi. You ready to answer some questions about OT? Yes. I'll be honest though, I don't totally know what OT does in schools. Okay, well then we're here to tell you. What grade do you teach? I teach second grade. So our first question is, does your school have an OT? Yes. They come once a week. Okay. And then, do you know what their job is? Well, I know that students can qualify to get services with an OT if they already have an existing IEP. And I believe they work on fine motor skills. That's true. I mean, we do a little more than that, but yeah. So, what does your school do? I believe they work on fine motor skills. That's true. I mean, we do a little more than that, but yeah. So, this is just a question for you as a teacher. Are you allowed to recommend a student to OT services? From my understanding, no. Because I have a student who receives out-of-school OT services. And I asked them, like, why can't we just get them in-school services instead of them having to pay out-of-pocket? And they said it's because he doesn't have an existing IEP. And they don't make IEPs just for OT services. It's like in addition to an IEP for like a learning disability. Is that true, Olivia? It probably depends on the state. I teach in the state of Virginia. Specifically Prince William County. And I know it does depend on the school and the state. To our understanding, it's yes. But yeah, now I feel like I need to do some research on the state. Well, yeah. Virginia's Department of Special Education is different than Pennsylvania's. I don't consider dyslexia a qualifying factor for special education. I believe Pennsylvania does. I could be wrong. But I'm pretty sure. Anyway, so that's just like one example of the difference. Okay, well I'm going to do some research and get back to you then. Because now I want to know if you're technically allowed to recommend services. Yeah, I mean I would like to know that too. Okay, I'll see what I can find out. Thanks for participating. Oh, that was it? Yeah. Oh, okay. Alright, thank you. Bye.