SSU MOT 6691 & 6692

Here is a more detailed article about the benefits of having OT included in Telehealth services. It was even made available through the ACA. Something to think about for those looking for potentially flexible OT jobs.

I recently heard about OT being a Telehealth service. A community member in my district works as an OT through this system. Here is a brief overview. AOTA also provides more information on OT's role in Telehealth services.

You may already be familiar with this website. I remember coming across it, early on in the MOT program. There are a lot of ideas for different ways to integrate skill formation without actually practicing the specific skill.

Here are some more resources that are available for school-based OTs. You can sign up by entering your email. Worksheets focus on variety of fine motor and visual motor skills.

The results of this current research support the SMAF as a suitable assessment for use with older adults with moderate construct validity and responsiveness and a clear minimal detectable change of five, being defined. The SMAF focuses on activity limitation experienced in everyday activities, mobility, mental functions and communication. Any limitations in activities/ abilities are then considered in reference to available resources to determine if any handicap exists. Another assessment that may be suitable for use with older adults, especially as an outcome measure in community populations of older people, is the AMPS with moderate evidence for construct validity and responsiveness to change. Assessments were often found to have been modified to suit the needs of the clinical environment or to shorten the tool, but the actual modifications were poorly reported in the papers.Once the assessment is modified, the assessment can no longer be assumed to hold equivalent measurement properties to the original. The lack of information regarding the assessment tools measurement properties signals the need for further research including validation in older populations.

The article explores the validity of the LACLS-5 (Allen's cognitive level screen) to assess and distinguish adults living in the community with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia. Individuals with mild dementia scored less on all clinical measures than cognitively normal (CN) individuals, however individuals with MCI scored intermediately compared to CN adults. LACLS-5 was able to adequately discriminate between CN and dementia and between MCI and dementia but was unable to reliably distinguish between CN and MCI. Despite these results of tool's inability to distinguish between CN and MCI, LACLS-5 was found to be a significantly effective tool to assess functional cognition.

Population-based studies have shown that subtle functional changes can precede a dementia diagnosis by 10 to 12 years. Simple models adjusted for age and education showed that older adults with higher baseline ECog total scores, reflecting greater functional limitations, were at a greater risk of developing MCI at follow-up. Results of this study are consistent with the growing body of literature that demonstrates that subjective concerns regarding functional changes can be associated with biological markers of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, including greater amyloid burden greater brain atrophy, and greater risk of incident dementia. Deficits in everyday memory and executive function domains were the strongest predictors of diagnostic conversion to MCI.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record brain activation during cognitive testing in older individuals living in residential care communities. Using fNIRS, brain signals were recorded during a series of computerized cognitive tests, including a Symbol Digit Coding test (SDC), Stroop Test (ST), and Shifting Attention Test (SAT). An association between advanced age and increased activation in the right middle frontal region was observed during the incongruent ST. Although none of the participants had clinical dementia based on the short portable mental status questionnaire, the group performance was slightly below age-normed values on these cognitive tests. These results demonstrate the capability for obtaining functional neuroimaging measures in residential settings, which ultimately may aid in prognosis and care related to dementia in older adults. If families are educated to look for signs for family members that have dementia they are easily able to discuss long term planning and prevent adverse events due to impaired cognition.

No participants had cognitive impairment at preoperative baseline (Mini-Mental State Examination score >27). Differences in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and global cognitive change relationships were assessed using a voxel-wise intrinsic connectivity method, controlling for demographic factors and pre- and perioperative cerebral white matter disease volume. Clinicians have long known that some older adults develop postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) after anesthesia and surgery, yet the neurobiological correlates of POCD are not well defined. The current results suggest that altered RSFC in specific DMN regions is positively correlated with global cognitive change 6 weeks after cardiac surgery, suggesting that DMN activity and connectivity could be important diagnostic markers of POCD or intervention targets for potential POCD treatment efforts.

Current objective IADL assessments are lengthy and expensive, limiting their use in clinical and research settings. Medication and finance management are key IADL domains shown to be sensitive to dementia and critical to maintaining independent living. This article investigated the of use of a screening tool BEAM, brief everyday activities measure to assess IADLs like money management and medication management. As predicted, lower accuracy and longer time to complete the BEAM were both associated with worse executive functions, attention, and processing speed. The article concluded that the BEAM is an accurate screening tool that can be administered in a brief (less than 15 minutes) with limited supplies supporting its use in the clinical setting.

This presentation was done by an OT and it addresses the benefits of using aquatic therapy during treatment.

A blog about current issues in the world of OT. Some discussions cover more difficult topics.

This was inspiring to see in ScienceDaily. Proving that OTs are crucial members of multidisciplinary teams.

This looks at how a student's social and emotional development may affect their academic development. My school currently has some kids on the caseload for social and emotional development reasons only. Is this an area school-based OTs should focus on?

This clips shows how a school is using the Zones of Regulation to help kids who are trapped in the opioid epidemic (have parents who are abusing opioids).

This study used a pretest-postost control group design to determine whether or not the Get Ready to Learn (GRTL) classroom yoga program decreased challenging behaviors in children with ASD. The intervention group participated in the GRTL yoga program for 16 weeks while the control group went through their morning routine as usual. Challenging behaviors were assessed in both groups by using standardized measures and behavior coding before and after the intervention. The study found that daily classroom wide yoga interventions has a significant impact on key classroom behaviors among children with ASD.

This study provides evidence that supports the use of iPad applications as an intervention to increase fine motor and visual-motor skills in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Tips from a school-based OT related to your first year in the field.

If you're curious as to what the schedule is like for a school-based therapist, check out this blog.

Here's AOTA's overview of the services OTs can provide in school settings.