Hi Lorie, I am an OT employed by the education department in Queensland, Australia, and am part of a therapy team including speech therapists, physiotherapists, guidance officers, and specialist teaching staff (all employed by the department). We have moved recently to providing services in classrooms as well, and moved away from 'pull-out' therapy. This has involved a major shift in service provision, from one of direct therapy provision to more of a consultation and monitoring role. We are called in for specific issues arising from a child's disability (focusing on the educational needs) and then consult with the teacher and teacher aides to put a program into place to meet those needs. The teacher or aide then takes on the responsibility of implementing the program on a daily/weekly basis as required, and the therapist offers a monitoring service to ensure the program is carried out correctly, and offers suggestions on how to extend or simplify the task if needed. There is much literature that supports the notion that regular practice of skills (with or without the therapist present) is more effective than weekly/fortnightly intensive "therapy sessions". By incorporating it into an existing curriculum, or just as part of a regular school day, we have witnessed many successes in skill attainment, and have also been responsible for exposing greater numbers of individuals throughout schools to the benefits of occupational therapy! Regards, Sian. --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.mundingbspecs.qld.edu.au/ ******************** Unsubscribe by sending a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's body, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ------ OTnow messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] (and) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ********rC***********
