OTA 2310 OT Prof Issues II

OT PROMOTION

I participated in an OT promotion assignment. The purpose of the assignment was to develop a way to advocate for the OT profession by increasing public understanding or visibility. With a group of fellow students, I created a social media post about the beneficial role OT can have in the lives of neurodivergent kids, specifically how OT can benefit behavior challenges. As a parent of an autistic son, I am involved in many social media groups for parents. My experience is that when parents of newly diagnosed children ask for advice ABA is the most common topic brought up. I don’t see OT being discussed frequently in these groups. I wanted to change that and hopefully start a discussion on social media and give parents and caregivers information about OT. We created visually pleasing graphics with concise information. We then shared these on our personal pages, pages intended for OT professionals, and in the many parent groups I am a part of. We had great feedback from professionals, parents, and caregivers. I was able to have some meaningful conversations with other parents.

One of the learning outcomes for OTA 2310 is to be able to collaborate in groups effectively demonstrating professional behaviors. This assignment was a great opportunity to do that. I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to share with this assignment, and it was important to me. But I was working with other students who also had ideas. At the beginning of our discussion, it felt like they weren’t getting my vision, but after effective communication and collaboration, we came up with something great and included all our ideas.

One of the SLCC student learning outcomes is that students express themselves creatively. We were able to use a lot of creativity in this assignment. With our intent to put this information on social media, we wanted to make sure it was something that would catch the attention of users as they scrolled through their feeds. A big part of the assignment was being creative and making sure it was visually appealing.

In my time spent learning about pediatrics in this program I have learned a lot about the ways OT helps kids and their families. I was able to use much of that knowledge as we decided what would be the most important information to use. We couldn’t tell everything that OT can do in one social media post, but we used our clinical reasoning to decide on the most important things we wanted to share with caregivers of neurodivergent kids.

My professional goal is to work in pediatrics with families. This assignment impacted my personal and clinical growth by allowing me to practice respectful conversations. Not everyone agrees with me, and some families feel strongly about the benefits of ABA.  I appreciate having more experiences where I can communicate with others who don’t agree with me, the more I do it, the better I get. I want to be a clinician that supports families, not judges them for the choices they make. The more practice I get with this, the better I will be prepared to be an empathetic clinician. I am grateful for this assignment and the growth that came with it.

UOTA POSTER SESSION

 Incognito AAC Device

             The Incognito AAC Device addresses the education area of occupation, a very important occupation for children and adolescents.  The Incognito AAC device is a discrete communication device designed specifically for individuals with selective mutism for in-classroom use. Selective mutism is a severe anxiety disorder where a person is unable to speak in certain social situations.  Regular classroom supplies, like notebooks and binders, are adapted to provide nonverbal communication between student and instructor without drawing any unwanted, anxiety provoking attention to the student.  The device is easily tailored for individual needs.

I was excited to present at a professional conference. I knew it would be a good opportunity to network and meet other people in the profession. I received good feedback from people that liked my idea, some saying that they could see it helping other students as well, not just those with selective mutism.  I like knowing that my idea might spark ideas for other professionals who work with kids and teens with anxiety disorders. This was a wonderful learning experience. I especially loved the personal aspect of it as I focused on a way to help my son. In my coursework at school, I have learned over and over about the importance of treating the whole person. It was powerful to look at communication through a whole person lens and address barriers beyond just the inability to speak

             I am very interested in presenting again at a professional conference. I have gained a lot of confidence through this experience. I am interested in pediatrics, specifically mental and behavioral health. And am excited to look for more ways to share my ideas and connect with other likeminded OT professionals.