Mary,
That has been my experience with school system therapy as well. Goals
have to be based on the educational goals for the school year. In
fact, in one district near me, the OT no longer makes separate goals.
Instead they look at the educational goals for the semester or 6 weeks
and sign on to the ones that OT can help with. Sometimes ADLs can be
addressed, but it usually has to be a Life Skills type classroom and
not a mainstream classroom for these goals. Visual perception, eye/
hand coordination as well as fine motor are often addressed.
Since education is the primary focus, therapy (all three) tends to
take a backseat role to the academic objectives.
It is definitely a different world than medical model.
Does anyone remember the old fable of the blind men being asked to
feel and then describe the elephant they are feeling? Each man is only
given one area of the elephant to feel (i.e. the trunk, ears, tail),
so each has a very different idea of what an elephant is. Seems to me
that OT is similar. Depending on the piece you have been exposed to,
you have a different interpretation of what OT is. None are
necessarily wrong, but none actually get the whole picture either.
How is that for different? Anyone ever compared our profession to an
elephant before? <smile>
Mary Alice
Mary Alice Cafiero, MSOT/L, ATP
[email protected]
972-757-3733
Fax 888-708-8683
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On Aug 23, 2009, at 7:49 PM, Mary Giarratano wrote:
In a lot of school systems, most of what OTs do is fine motor and
handwriting. The OT goals have to be educationally based, not
overlap other services and the parents want their children to have
legible handwriting.
I'm sure it doesn't fit your definitions but it is the way most
school systems work when the majority of pts do not have significant
motor issues.
Mary
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Carson" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 8:39 PM
Subject: [OTlist] A New One
You know, I like fillin' everyone in when I come
across OT
definitions/experiences that are off the scale. Well, this
Saturday was a
new one.
I was evaluating a woman whose daughter is a SLP working in school
systems.
What do you think the SLP told me was her understanding of the role
of OT?
1. ADL's
2. Fine Motor
3. Occupation
4. Upper Extremity
The answer is #2. In her experience, OT's worked only on fine motor
control.
PT does gross/large muscle and SLP does cognition. The SLP was
actually
surprised that I gave her mom a cognitive screen.
It just seems that OT is so pigeon-holed into either FMC or UE.
Will we ever
break these shackles?
Ron
~~~
Ron Carson MHS, OT
www.OTnow.com
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