Children's Hospital Therapy Services

Overview of Occupational Therapy (OT)

• Speaker: Madeline, Occupational Therapist
• Work Areas: Inpatient (PICU, General Surgery, NICU) and Outpatient departments
• Role: Help children gain/regain independence in daily activities (occupations)
  • What is an occupation?
    • Daily activities (e.g., dressing, cooking, schoolwork, sports)
• Focus: Client and family-centered approach
  • Collaborate with families to set goals based on their needs
  • Encourage autonomy in children
• Personal Experience:
  • Enjoys learning about new diagnoses and treatments
  • Values being part of children's recovery, e.g., helping them stand in bed after trauma

Overview of Physical Therapy (PT)

• Speaker: Ray O Weber, Physical Therapist
• Role: Experts in mobility; help patients access their environment
  • Goals:
    • Encourage independence through movement
    • Assist with activities like crawling, walking, running post-surgery, using wheelchairs/walkers
• Challenges:
  • Getting kids moving when they're unwell
• Approach:
  • Use play to engage kids while encouraging movement
• Rewarding Aspects:
  • Witnessing patients' recovery and independence
  • Joy in seeing children able to play and move post-illness/injury

Overview of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)

• Speaker: Caleb Brown, Speech-Language Pathologist
• Work Areas: Med-surg floors and PICU
• Role: Address communication and swallowing problems across ages
  • Communication Disorders:
    • Difficulty with articulation, phonological disorders, apraxia
    • Language disorders (receptive and expressive language impairments)
• Feeding and Swallowing Team:
  • Collaboration between speech and occupational therapists
  • Work with patients on safe swallowing, chewing, and feeding
• Rewarding Aspects:
  • Observing progress in communication and feeding, improving lives of patients and families