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OTA 1170 Physical Dysfunction Fieldwork I is a one hour/week lecture and thirty hour clinical site experience. Lecture prepares for the off-site experience and future fieldwork IIs by requiring academic & practical competency-based assignments. The externship will be arranged and take place at clinical facility sites within the community under the direction of an academic fieldwork coordinator. Emphasis is to expose students to a variety of diagnoses and to develop professional behaviors and clinical observation skills. This is a designated service-learning course.
Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Project
Community Engaged Learning (CEL) Project
This assignment requires you to provide a service to your fieldwork site. Collaborate with your fieldwork educator and determine if the facility or a particular client may need adaptive equipment you can fabricate, a handout or home treatment program, or lead a group of clients. I chose to make a fine motor skills vest for residents at the rehabilitaiton facility can practice.
Connections
Connections
For my service learning project, I made a fine motor skills vest. I designed this vest with one specific client in mind, but it ended up being helpful for many others too. I had been working with a client for a few sessions to improve her fine motor skills. Although we used a lot of biomechanical approaches, I could tell she wasn’t that interested and was struggling to see how it related to her everyday life. When I started asking her about her routine, she shared her frustration with buttoning her shirt—it took her 30 minutes just to do 10 buttons that day! I wanted to find a way for her to practice buttoning without having to keep taking her shirt on and off, which led me to make the vest.
The vest includes various activities like Velcro, snaps, large and small buttons, lacing, and a zipper. Making it cost more than I expected since I’m not a sewer and didn’t have the right tools. Even with shopping secondhand and looking for sales, it ended up costing about $20. It also took longer than I’d hoped—it could have been a quicker project for someone who sews regularly or knows how to use different fashion tools. Since I was new to sewing, I spent about four hours researching, finding, and shopping for supplies, and then another eight hours sewing and assembling it to my liking. The vest can be worn over clothes for a realistic experience or used on a table or lap.
The flexibility to practice with the vest either on or off the body makes it accessible to more clients. Our department doesn’t have a lot of functional activities like this, so I felt it was a valuable addition. Several clients used it—not only to work on specific skills like buttoning but also for general finger strength and range of motion. The different activities offer varying levels of challenge, so it’s easy to adjust to each client’s needs. Overall, I think the clients enjoyed using the vest, and the department staff were excited and grateful for it.
This project gave me a real sense of purpose and showed me how much we can impact someone’s life. It also gave me a new perspective and gratitude for my abilities. I’m so thankful to be in this program and have opportunities like this. It was incredibly rewarding to make something myself and then see how excited the clients were to use it. This was a really fun, fulfilling project.
Reflection
Reflection
This service-learning project was incredibly rewarding and gave me a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Designing and creating the fine motor skills vest taught me the value of combining creativity with a client-centered approach. Seeing how the vest could help not just one client but many others made me feel proud and motivated to keep finding innovative ways to make a difference. This experience has changed how I view my role in therapy, reminding me of the real impact small, functional tools can have on someone's daily life. It also gave me a deeper appreciation for the skills I’m developing and made me grateful to be in this program, where I can learn through hands-on projects like this. This project showed me how rewarding it is to create something meaningful that truly benefits others.
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