by Avry Umali
It's the first fieldwork experience for Cohort 4 occupational therapy students!
I remember we were all excited prior to receiving our corresponding fieldwork sites. Now that we have seen how occupational therapy works in various settings or how these sites can benefit from occupational therapy, its time to reflect upon them and share the experience with our other classmates.
It's the first fieldwork experience for Cohort 4 occupational therapy students!
I remember we were all excited prior to receiving our corresponding fieldwork sites. Now that we have seen how occupational therapy works in various settings or how these sites can benefit from occupational therapy, its time to reflect upon them and share the experience with our other classmates.
It would be interesting to find out where other people went and know what you think of your site! Describe your fieldwork site (you don't have to write down the name of the site for privacy). Add in the skills or things that you've learned there and maybe add in what you think their site or program can improve in. Your suggestions and comments are welcome!
1 comment:
preparing for the first day of the first fieldwork felt like preparing for the first day of junior high: impossible. where will i go? what will i do there? will the kids be nice to me? what should i wear?
i ended up at the institute for the junior blind with tiffany and kate. i mention their names because one of the best things i learned was what an asset our fellow fieldworkers can be. i wouldn't have had nearly such a successful experience if i hadn't been able to go to them to test out ideas, seek reassurance, and gain insights.
there were two parts to our experience at junior blind. we spent time in classrooms (mine was the elementary room) and we also spent time in the residential portion of the facility. during the students' summer vacation we spent our entire day there. the classroom environment was very structured and my teacher was incredibly supportive and open to my ideas. on the residential side of things we were pretty much left to our own devices which was intimidating, frustrating, and also exhilarating. the unstructured days of summer vacation gave us ample time to try activities and also to really bond with some of the teens.
the population at junior blind covers a wide range of functional levels. some students could neither walk nor feed themselves. some were not blind at all, just severely autistic. the more verbal and higher functioning kids were sometimes left to their own devices as staff members devoted time to the challenging behaviors of other residents.
OT services were mostly delivered through the school and outside agencies. i found myself wishing that i had more experience in order to implement OT programs for daily activities during nonschool hours as well. maybe someday.....
Post a Comment