Ep. 70 Listener Questions: Pediatric OT in the Real World (Round 2)

Send us a Text or Voicemail Cerebral palsy interventions work best when matched to a child's GMFCS level, and one umbrella review sorts the evidence into green, yellow, and red. Michelle reviews what it found across postural control, postural management, and tone management, including one green-light intervention you may not expect, a few popular approaches the evidence doesn't support, and why the same intervention can be right for a child at level II and wrong for a child at level V. We bre...

Send us a Text or Voicemail Weighted blankets show up in therapy rooms, bedrooms, and shopping carts. Lacy and Michele discuss three recent reviews on weighted blankets for sleep, pain, mood, and daily function. Learn who they seem to help most (and who they don't) and where the research still has gaps. We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original articles too. Dawson, S., Charlton, K., Ng, L., Cleland, J., Bulto, L., Page, M., & Attrill, S...

Send us a Text or Voicemail Pediatric OTs use play in nearly everything we do, but how much of it is actually play? In this episode, we review the play-work continuum, which separates free play from play as a vehicle for goals. Michele also shares 10 ways to apply it in your sessions, from writing goals for play to setting up the environment and how to facilitate safe rough-and-tumble play. We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original article too. &n...

Send us a Text or Voicemail Sensory garments are everywhere and frequently marketed to our clients and families — but almost none of the research asks what happens after a parent clicks "buy." This episode discusses a study with off-the-shelf sensory garments and their impact on participation for autistic children. The results split in a way that may change how you talk to families about these products — and expose a bigger problem with how we measure outcomes for autistic kids in the first p...

Send us a Text or Voicemail Up to 50% of kids with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) also have ADHD — and that overlap changes how motor gains actually stick. We're back with another episode on CO-OP: goal, plan, do, check, and 8 strategies for building motor skills through problem-solving instead of repetition. If you've been using a repetition-based, motor-learning approach with a child and haven’t seen much success, this episode has an alternative worth trying. And....if you missed...