Online Occupational Therapy: How Does it Work?
Are you ready to embark on the journey of providing online occupational therapy services? This post will guide you in taking a step in the right direction.
Raise Your Hand for Impact
Raise your hand if your heart warms and stretches when you know you have improved a child’s life. What a joyful purpose to serve. Therapists are inherently driven to influence the quality of children’s lives. As advocates for communities lacking equal access to quality therapy services, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists worldwide have joined our online therapy team. They experience the joy that grows from improving the life of a child. But what is the point of online occupational therapy, and how does it work?
Online Occupational Therapy – What is the Point?
Beyond helping children develop their skills and unlock their potential, our online services provide occupational therapists with a platform to remain present, accessible, and effective in schools. Our contributions include assessments, consultation, direct therapy, observation, supervision, and parent support, among others. Regardless of the delivery type, online occupational therapists remain accountable for students’ experiences and outcomes.
For more details, visit our blog entitled, Occupational Therapy: What it is and What it is Not.
Online Occupational Therapy – How Does it Work?
Imagine yourself as a service provider physically at your school. How do your services work? In the best interest of the students, you likely have a system that provides clarity, accountability, and action plans for service delivery processes. We do, too. Our differentiator is that our presence is online. Below are six considerations for driving success through online occupational therapy services:
- Connection – How are the Roads?
Ensure you have a quality, secure internet connection to the school. Have a support plan in place, including people who can help improve the connection. Your connection is comparable to a highway. More lanes and fewer cars mean a faster trip for you. Our technical support team manages connections so therapists can focus on services. Start your scheduling when computer labs are not in use.
- Presence – Where will you Park?
TinyEYE therapists are present in many ways for students and educators. The top three places we appear include computers, Smart Boards, and robots. Beyond the school’s therapy room, we access students across their educational environment to observe, team teach, and celebrate. What is your service goal for your student? How do you plan to influence change and confirm progress? These questions will guide your plan.
- System – What will you Drive?
To have a presence, you need a system. TinyEYE created an online therapy platform that provides therapists with tools for quality services from planning to delivery to home connections. Professionals today have access to many multimedia options for their online system. Starting with the end in mind and clarifying how you hope to interact with staff and students will help you select your online system and related equipment. In addition to driving our robots, occupational therapists increase their mobility when schools use remote or movement tracking web cameras. We can join students for lunch and seat work!
- Shared Tools – Help your Students Take the Wheel
Occupational therapists excel at creating and supplying tools that improve students’ participation in daily life activities. Online therapists are committed to leading engaging and rewarding programs for students. Consequently, we ensure schools have access to student-specific tools (online and tangible) for therapy and class participation. What can you incorporate to drive student outcomes?
- Partnership – Back Seat Driving is Essential
So far, you have a connection, presence, system, and shared tools. To leverage your impact on a student’s life, build relationships with others invested in the program. Clarify your purpose for each student and align yourself with others involved in the student’s programs. Some students will have more direct therapy time with you, while others will benefit from your consultation. Key partners include an ehelper who brings students to sessions, an educational assistant who carries over the program beyond therapy sessions, a teacher who incorporates strategies into the classroom, a special education teacher who clarifies service parameters and advocates for supports, and parents who count on us to make a difference. We are accountable for driving outcomes – we are committed to finding the way.
- Time with Students – The Reason you Made the Trip
When occupational therapists consider online service, they often explore a series of questions. How will I work with the child? How will I know what they are doing? How can I help them if I cannot physically support them? Continue to ask these questions because they lead to solutions. Remember, you have connection, presence, system, shared tools, partnerships…and you. Believe in your ability to influence change. Believe in your purpose to engage children in their lives.
If you were to start your direct therapy services tomorrow, communicate with your ehelper about how to best contribute to the session. Lead with gratitude. Three starting points that the ehelper can manage include:
- Ensure the student (or target space) is always framed within the video screen, even when activities require movement around the room. Be in charge of web camera placement.
- Manage distribution of tangible tools that you plan to incorporate. Present tools as and when requested.
- Apply verbal and physical prompts as previously planned.
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