Two weeks till spring break!!!

I haven't had time to update in a while. So much has been going on lately... good, bad, and everything in between. But for the most part, things are good. : )

The first exciting news is that I moved (part-time) down to Ocean City with a classmate. My commute is cut in half, and she is just awesome to live with. We work on assignments together, take mental health breaks together, we joined a local gym so we can motivate each other. We threw a wine and cheese party last week and half of the class came. Pictures will probably be uploaded eventually on our class Facebook @ http://stockton.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7756246723&ref=mf. (There's lots of other pics too, so check it out).

Today was week 4/10 of fieldwork and I still absolutely LOVE it. We went on an outing to the mall with a class, and mostly stayed with one student. We worked on functional tasks such as navigating through the mall, finding elevators, asking for directions or assistance as needed, purchasing and managing change, etc. It was definitely a test on my patience today & I realize I need to just let things happen sometimes, as slow as it may occur. My FW supervisor Angie is just fantastic and she is the Einstein of SI and ped OT altogether. I'm very lucky to have such a dedicated teacher. I'm coming out of my shell more and more and I feel 75% comfortable now. There are behavioral issues I'm still not used to, but I guess I'll get over it with experience.

I gave a presentation this week about the TVPS (Test of Visual Perceptual Skills). My group and I had to discuss it's purpose and background, then we showed a video demonstrating the visual discrimination subtest which we used on my little sister, and then we showed the class how to score it and discussed other psychometric properties of the test. If you don't know what this test is, it's for ages 4-19. The test assesses visual-perceptual strengths and weaknesses; using non-motor visual perceptual testing. This includes testing the following visual-perceptual categories: discrimination, memory, spatial-relationships, form-constancy, sequential-memory, figure-ground and visual closure. It was relatively easy to administer and score. Oh, and in fieldwork today Angie administered a VMI on a child and let me score it... that one is complicated to score, in my opinion... well, this student made it complicated. Anyway, she didn't administer it to exact standardization, so it won't be used as a valid assessment.

One of my favorite classes right now is OT Skills II, which is an activity analysis class. We do lots of craft projects and then discuss grading as well as adaptation. We look at the component areas and the physical demands of the activity and all other aspects (cognitive, social, cultural, environmental, etc) involved with the activity. Last week I learned how to KNIT! It was definitely more complicated for me because I'm left-handed so my teacher had to teach the 3 of us the backwards method to knitting. I was frustrated for the most part and had no desire to continue my project after class ended. I need to turn in a sample by the end of the semester, so I drove over to the craft shop and bought myself some SUPER SOFT and pretty yarn which totally inspired me and feels so good, so now my motivation is back...hmm, Sensory Integration?, More stimulating tactile input?, or the desire to pass the class? Take your pick.