Here is a video from the CBS Early Show on an artist with autism who has a photographic memory for architecture. This is true talent. (PS – Have to mention this: be sure to check out his pencil grasp. Just goes to show you that as long as the grasp works for you leave it […]
Here is an informative post that was suggested to share – it is a large collection of fellowships and scholarships for people who want to study occupational therapy. The post can be found at http://blog.onlinecollegeguru.com/health-care/financial-aid-for-occupational-therapists/
Came across this new tool for augmentative communication called Tap2Talk. Seems like a nice alternative for augmentative communication. Watch the video for how it works. The positive features are: the price point, no Internet access is required, cool age appropriate tool and you can put in your own pictures and voice. One negative is that […]
Here is an interesting and informative website for any therapists who work on handwriting skills. Handwriting without Tears has created a website on handwriting standards. It includes a document with handwriting standards by grade level. In addition, you can look up standards by your state as well. There is also some (not much) research quoted […]
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology published research on 23 children (age range 8-18 years old) with cerebral palsy (21 hemiplegia and 2 spastic diplegia). The purpose of the study was to determine a relationship between muscle strength, tone and range of motion and functional hand skills. The results indicated that active supination range, strength and […]
I just finished reading about this creative activity idea in the current issue of Advance for OT’s. The article, written by Cumba Siegler OTR/L, explains how to create “fingarings” out of Sculpty clay. She describes how to create rings for the fingers out of clay. She then offers several activity suggestions for the “fingarings”. This […]
A researcher from NJIT, Architect B. Lynn Hutchings, offers suggestions for schools to make changes to the physical lay out of buildings to accommodate for students with disabilities. Some of her suggestions are: 1. Inter-disperse related services such as speech, occupational and physical therapy throughout the school 2. Auditoriums should have ramped aisles and stages. […]
Found out about this great article on writing and robots from @Pediastaff on Twitter. A young boy with dyspraxia has been testing a robotic arm to imnprove his visual motor skills. Read this story from the BBC News
Here is something to consider when working with children who have neurological disorders. A recent thesis study revealed that children in wheelchairs with neurological disorders have different skin temperatures than in children without neurological disorders. The study showed that in children with neurological disorders the temperature of the feet was three degrees colder and the […]
Pediatric occupational and physical therapists frequently practice independently within the schools and clinics. Unless you work for a large school district or children’s hospital, therapists can feel very alone when it comes to having a personal learning community around them. Sure therapists interact with children, parents and teachers but sometimes finding other therapists to bounce […]