The Individual Scholarly portion of this project was to support Lisa Pasternak in providing a weekly playgroup to her clients enrolled in Behavioral Health Network (BHN) Early Intervention and their siblings through a telehealth medium. This playgroup consisted of meaningful, developmentally appropriate videos, activities, and crafts curated by Lisa Pasternak or by this WNE OTD DEx group and approved by Lisa Pasternak. The goals of this playgroup were to provide a weekly structured activity for families, focusing on developmentally appropriate activities and videos while allowing for social engagement and support between children and families during this pandemic.
After observing three playgroups planned and facilitated entirely by Lisa Pasternak, this WNE OTD student collaborated with her WNE OTD teammates to plan and facilitate seven subsequent playgroups with the approval and supervision of Lisa Pasternak. This WNE OTD student also provided an additional month of planned playgroup video links, activities, and crafts in the form of Microsoft Word documents for Lisa Pasternak to use after the termination of this DEx project.
Quotes from Lisa Pasternak regarding Playgroup and our planning:
“We don’t want to just put them in front of a screen, because they’d be in front of a screen anyway, we want to make this more meaningful. You guys are doing that.”
“It may seem like trivial work to put all these [playgroups] together, but it has made a huge difference for me, and I truly truly appreciate you guys putting it all together.”
“It has lightened my whole week, it’s been very helpful for me.”
“Group via telehealth allows children to have a peer-to-peer experience that was removed from their everyday experience.”
“Erica and the DEx group have done an amazing job prepping for group being, able to plan for art activity, songs and stories around a weekly theme.”
Caregiver Responses and Feedback:
“Group is a great way to end our week and allows my child to spend social time with her friends during this COVID time.”
“My son enjoys coming to group with his brother and seeing their friends. Group always includes their favorite stories, activities, and songs which they look forward to all week.”
“Group is a great way for her to see other children and enjoy song time, especially the 'Happy Song.'”
“My son loves to dance and move to all the songs!”