A Career In Pediatric Occupational Therapy

I am incredibly glad that I learned about occupational therapy. While I've always had an interest in the medical field and social services, I did not know what occupational therapy was until several years ago. My first time around in college, I thought I would end up working overseas in relief and development or with marginalized populations in the U.S. When I graduated, I began to explore health care careers. As I researched physical therapy, I happened to read about occupational therapy. I was intrigued. After more research and consideration, I decided to pursue this career path. Since then I have been taking prerequisites, doing observation hours, and dedicating myself to becoming an occupational therapist.

My career goal is to become an Occupational Therapist and specialize in pediatrics. I want to specialize in pediatrics because I have always loved to be around children and be able to help them in whatever they need. Also, pediatrics is important to me because kids are our future and if I can help kids for their future I will be glad to do so. Helping kids become more independent on their activities of daily living makes me happy because I am helping them to become more independent and make them feel like they can accomplish anything. In order to be able to do this I have to get a Master Degree and I plan on getting this degree from Loma Linda University. In five years I see myself working in the Occupational Therapy setting and working with kids. I see myself, making others

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Occupational therapy assistants and aides help patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working.” OT Career Path.com also states that, “occupational therapy assistants assist with the rehabilitation and care of patients with mental, developmental, physical, social, and emotional disabilities” Occupational therapist may provide many different forms of service from setting up materials, moving a patient, explaining exercises, preparing reports and implementing treatment plan as prescribed by the Occupational Therapist. An OTA’s duties vary greatly an example of their duties include helping patients acquire fine

Upon first entering college, I struggled deciding at such a young age what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Through babysitting and volunteering with pre-school aged children at my church and through a school program called STARS, it became evident to me I had a love for helping children. It fascinated me to see how they viewed the world around them and how quickly they learned new truths everyday. Nevertheless, I knew I would not get the full enjoyment interacting with children as a schoolteacher because the teacher to student ratio is so large. Classroom demands would make it much more difficult to devot individualized attention to each student, and I did not like that concept. So

I have been able to see the joy on a child’s face when they finally make a shot, the joy on their face when they learn how and when to cross the street, and the joy on their face when they realize that they have the potential to be anything they want to be in life. Being able to watch this all happen has allowed me to realize that I want to see these kinds of amazing reactions every day for the rest of my life. On top of this, I want to be the one to allow them to have this reaction. To me, it is the best feeling in the world when I know that I have helped someone do something they felt they couldn’t do before. This being said, my volunteer work has persuaded me into the direction of the medical field. I feel this has happened because the medical field gives me an enormous variety of ways to impact lives

While shadowing occupational therapy professionals at Montgomery General Hospital, I gained much insight into the profession and the day-to-day duties and responsibilities of a COTA. The entire facility caseload consisted of geriatric patients, and many of the diagnoses were due to cognitive deficits or recent falls due to weak lower extremities. Diagnoses observed were dementia, CVA, a hip fracture, a total knee replacement, osteoarthritis of the shoulder, bilateral upper extremity/lower extremity weakness, and total blindness.

Assisted young children between the grades of preschool to 8th grade in their education. I decided to volunteer because the children of today will be the children of the future and the more smart and educated they are the better they will be in the future. Another reason I helped was because it is hard for young children to adapt to the lifestyle of constantly moving from one place to another. Since their parents are migrants it can have a negative impact on them and their education. I remember one little girl is from Florida but every summer her parents move up to Michigan to work in the fields, but once the harvest is over they move back to Florida. She was behind in school and with the help of teachers and myself we motivated and helped her out so she was able to catch up. I really enjoyed volunteering the past two summers ago at the summer migrant program. If I had another opportunity to help I

Many times when a people think of an occupational therapist, they might think of a career counselor and personality tests. They might think of a therapist telling that this job would be “the perfect fit with their personality”. But that is far from what occupational therapy is. Occupational Therapist work with people recover and learn skills that are valuable to be part of society. Occupational therapists work with all age groups of people. They work with people who need assistance due to serious health problems (stroke heart attack amputation), delay in growth (mainly in children), or pyschological problems (Alzhemier’s, PTSD) (“Modern occupational thereapy”). They teach patients the

Seeing and feeling like you have cured or helped someone is a very rewarding feeling. Occupational therapists fall under the health science career cluster. OT’s help troubled patients with their fine motor skills through therapeutic activities.

Occupational therapy enables people to live life to its fullest, no matter their age, history, or limitations. By majoring in the Human Biology, Health, and Society program in the College of Human Ecology, I am one step closer to achieving my dream of becoming an occupational therapist and fulfilling the college's mission of "Improving lives by exploring and shaping human connections to natural, social, and built environments." Through the College of Human Ecology, I will develop a strong background in human biology so that I can understand the physiological and biochemical aspects of health issues, and apply perspectives from the social sciences to those issues. These skills are pertinent to being a successful occupational therapist because the issues I will encounter are psychological, as well as biological. The Human Biology, Health, and Society major will give me the necessary skills I need to help patients make the imperative adjustments in their daily routines to live life as smoothly as possible. Knowing that I enabled someone to complete a task that I effortlessly do every day and take for granted is an immense honor because I know that I am impacting the world, one person at a time, by improving their life.

Field Work 24 weeks in OT setting where I want to focused on based on Field work 1.

My plans are to give back to my community by working as an occupational therapist at our local hospital, the Fairfax Community Hospital. My strengths are definitely housed in my communication skills, and I love being an aid to others. This career will fulfill my desire to encouragingly help individuals gain independence. One day when there was no school I spent my day job shadowing the occupational therapist at the Community Hospital in Fairfax. My interest of becoming an occupational therapist came from my mom. My mother is a nurse at the Family Medical Center in Rock Port, Missouri. My interest has never been medical, but my mother suggested this career for me because of my personality. Being an aid to others is my dream career. Helping one

Occupational Therapy is a type of therapy that works on everyday skills like writing and reading, and also they help with kids who need assistance walking and talking. Most occupational therapists can be found in schools, doctors, and hospitals. Their goal is to help kids live a better and more effective life. School occupational therapist, like the one I am job shadowing, she works with mostly with young special needs children ages ranging 4 to 6 years old. Occupational therapy can be found with all ages ranging from young to old. I personally would love to pursue a career as an occupational therapist that works with smaller kids and special needs kids in schools.

I adore the elderly and their perspective on life. Up until the point I left for college I have volunteered at Pelican Pointe Assisted Living, a nursing facility. For five years I accompanied residents through their daily adventures and activities. Assuredly I made several friend who I still exchange letters with. Each resident has varying degrees of required assistance in continuing their daily activities. Among those that aid are occupational therapists. Because each patient's needs are so different, a high level of creativity is needed to provide the most effective care. My career aspiration is to work with the aging populous as an occupational therapist. Currently I am majoring in Public Health and will be adding a major in kinesiology

In pediatric occupational therapy family centered practice involves working with parents, families, and the child with special needs. Family centered practice goes beyond just child-related goals but to change the quality of life for the whole family. Intervention with the child can an important impact on life participation for the whole family. For practitioners it is important to understand individual barriers to life participation for the child, parents, and other family members. To date there is not a valid and reliable tool that exist to for occupational