I found this website that works to promote the use of evidence-based practice for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. I found in particular some evidence on how effective visual supports are in early childhood settings. There was a study completed that found visual supports to reduce transition time, increase on-task behavior, as well as increase task engagement and social interaction. 

This is a review of an article found in the International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. The review focuses on research that is available on families who have children diagnosed with autism and how they cope. This review discusses the psychosocial needs of children with autism and how families manage the barriers that their children may face.    

In working in a school system with many COTA's, I am learning the responsibilities OT's have in supervising COTA's. I found these frequently asked questions about the responsibilities of OT's and COTA's in a school system and I think its something worth looking at if working in a school system. Unfortunately, these are through the state of Nevada board of OT. I tried looking up information on Ohio's responsibilities but could only find a PowerPoint, which I could not bookmark for Diigo. If interested further in OT and COTA's responsibilities, look into comparing the state of Nevada and Ohio's regulations.

Since I am currently working in a school setting, I decided to look up professionalism in schools. This article mentions teachers but since OT's work in schools as well I think this is a great article to read for OT's. It discusses many current day topics such as etiquette when communication through email, social media communication, as well as avoiding cliques.

I found this ten-step process for resolving ethical issues in the school from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. I thought this was a really nice guide and one that can be used by OT's as we look to our Code of Ethics. 

This article discusses the importance of clinical reasoning in a time when evidence-based practice is becoming more prevalent. It is stressed that clinical reasoning is so important because randomized clinical trials can still be incomplete and hard to generalize. Clinical reasoning is vital to incorporate with randomized clinical trials to meet the responsibilities that the patients have entrusted in their health care professionals.

This is a forum entry about implementing evidence-based practice within the VA. I found this interesting since evidence-based practice is something that not all OT's follow but we learn a lot about in school. The article talks about how some believe in evidence and some believe in clinical experience. This is probably an issue that will always be around, but reading different points of view is always helpful as we become OT's.

This study was done in 2004 and looks at the development of clinical reasoning skills of undergrad OT students. The student participants took part in a 5-week intensive problem-based learning course before going into fieldwork. (This study was completed when a bachelors degree was required for an OT degree) The results concluded that the intensive problem-based learning course in the OT curriculum can promote development of students clinical reasoning skills.

I thought this was a great article relating to the psychosocial needs of clients. Working in an SCI unit, a lot of our clients have mobility issues and quite a few of them have service dogs. In reading this article, it discusses how social participation for people with disabilities is an important factor for OT's to consider. This research helps to demonstrate that having a service dog helps clients to increase leisure activities and community participation. It also found that the use of service dogs, allow people to participate more in meaningful occupations.

This website provides good lists on how to be professional in the workplace.