OT Blog

Last week our class had the opportunity to hear Fletcher Cleaves' story. Fletcher was an amazing football player that got a scholarship to play in college, but his football career was tragically cut short when a distracted driver caused him to crash and sustain a SCI. I have seen movies and constantly heard that a positive attitude makes a huge difference in recovery, but until last week, hadn't really met anyone that perfectly embodied that example. From the beginning of his SCI journey, Fletcher was positive that he would be able to do things that the doctor said he would 'never' be able to do. During the talk Fletcher said something that really stuck with me and that I will relay every chance I get, "How can we say 'the sky is the limit' when there are footprints on the moon?". This all happened because a woman was distracted driving, likely texting. At the end of the video of Fletcher's story that we watched it read "No [post/glance/searc

Today for class we implemented our activities that we analyzed. My activity was called "Let it Snow!", which consisted of making fake snow out of conditioner and baking soda. While this activity was obviously not something that people will do everyday, it is a beneficial activity for many populations. Instead of just taking an adolescent with a TBI or intellectual disability into the kitchen and having them prepare food, or write down measurements, participants have fun making a sensory friendly snow while also learning about measurements. Overall, I think the activity went very well. I realized that there were even a few things that I didn't think would be as difficult as they were, like opening the box of baking soda- that was hard! My group discussed ways to grade the activity up and down, and they even gave me some ideas of ways to change it that I didn't think of. I think in a field where creativity is so important, other practitioners are a great resource. As we

For class we had a lab time where we could print and organize our professional development binder. Things like immunization records, AOTA/TNOTA membership cards are placed in the binder to keep up with our progress as professionals. When I started going back to look for papers, I realized that I wish I had started this at the beginning of OT school, and known to just make a copy of the documents I had to keep everything important in one place. After doing this lab I will definitely continue to use the binder and add to it as I grow as an OT. Not only will this be helpful to me,  but to employers, and others to ensure that I am continuing my education and being an active member of occupational therapy associations.

In the TED talk titled Can the damaged brain repair itself?  Siddharthan Chandran, a regenerative neurologist, discusses degenerative disorders of the brain such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, and MS, and progress of stem cell treatment of such diseases.  Before January I had never watched a TED Talk, but after OT school began I realized how not only informative, but powerful these talks are. That is why I chose to consider TED Talks for this assignment. Alzheimer’s and M.S. have impacted and continue to impact my family, so I have a great interest in the techniques that are being developed to combat the effects of, or even stop diseases like this, which is why I chose to listen to and discuss this TED Talk. My main takeaway from this video (other than education on degenerative neurological diseases) is a sense of hope for a cure of these diseases. I have heard of ‘plasticity’ in the brain, which is the brain forming new pathways after an injury, but I have heard little about progress