First Day Observing OT in the Public School

         I LOVED observing OT at a public school especially a public school that was like the school I started in. I honestly felt like I was home again with cows, right across the school, in a pasture. It was the best of both my worlds as a child. Big school in the country far enough out where you could see cows from the front doors. I observed at the Pea Ridge Primary School today and it was so different then observing at a preschool. I was back in my area where I feel the most comfortable. It went by too fast and too easy for me. I thought it was going to be a lot harder but it really wasn't.
        The thing that I learned the most and really shocked me about public schools is that they seem to be more focused on the classroom things like writing, counting, cutting and coloring, and so on. They seem to work more on the fine motor then the gross motor things. The children just seem to have a lot more of that fine motor. Another thing that surprised me was they don't work with disorders at that age because it is hard to tell what a child might have so they just see how developmentally they are behind and work with that. They also work a lot with strengthening their hands and upper body muscles if need be and then their visual concept.
            They would do things like tangrams and draw on the computer, cutting out shapes, letter magnet broad where you had to write letters with magnets, trace letters, and so on. They also really care about getting the right grip on the pencil so that they can write nicely. Some of the children also brought their classroom work to the room because they were behind and it was writing work so it helped on their goals too. Something else I liked about the OT was that she gave the children minutes on the swing or with a certain toy and set the timer for a certain amount of time so they knew they were for sure done when it went off.
             It is all about the visual-motor intergeneration in the public schools. I also learned that sitting on the edge of the chair will help with core strengthening and focuses their attention more on the task at hand. I had a child that was in in grade and could not write her letters like a 2nd grader should. She had to trace them to get them right otherwise it would look like a Kindergarden hand writing. She tried paper to paper and by that I mean look at one paper with the letters on it and then write the letters on another piece of paper and she couldn't do it as nicely as when she traced it.
              The children did other simple things like finding beads in some putty or just play with plain putty for hand strengthening. Drawing shapes and letters and then cutting out shapes. They also bounced a ball back and forth because most of these children cannot even focus on a ball being throw at them. They don't have that connection between the brain and arms. I saw one child try and turn his head with the ball and not just his eyes. It was hard for him to move just his eyes. He did it but it was hard at first.
               There is a lot more paperwork to be done with the public schools to keep your back safe and in check but being a teacher's kid, I accepted that. That is all the public schools are now it seems like. Even though, there are more evaluations to be done and more meeting to go to like IEP meetings, the paperwork that I saw today seemed easy and I understood it. The times frames are about the same you can keep a child from 30 mins to 60 mins. in a public school because of the school day and all that they would miss in the regular classroom. The OT can get 2 15 mins intervals done in a half a hour and that is how you would fill the time out on the paper.
                 I will agree and say that, after working with a brunch of preschoolers for the last 8 years, it would be nice to get that one on one with a child if possible especially in a public school where I first wanted to start out at. I just didn't know what I wanted to do in a public school but now I do and it is different but I'm still helping children. If you know me at all, I am a big fan of being able to read and write because to me that is how you get along in life so I would LOVE to help children with their fine motor skills more then anything.