Skip to main content

Specialty & Board Certifications

After graduating from an accredited OT school, you are prepared to be an entry level generalist practitioner. During OT school and clinical rotations, you might have found a particular area of practice that really interests you. AOTA offers board certification in 4 areas of practice: Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Mental health and Physical rehab. Each area has different requirements and applications. Here is my story of how I fell in love with pediatrics.

 While I was preparing to apply to OT school I did an internship at a private clinic that specialized in therapy of children with autism and I shadowed/observed a therapist that was board certified in pediatrics. At this point in my OT journey, I was still unsure of what area of practice I was interested in, but I was wanting to go to different settings to figure that out. Before lunch on my first day, I knew that pediatrics, specifically children with autism, was an area that I was extremely interested in. I spent the next 3 weeks excited to go the clinic each morning and sad when the day was over. I would ask the therapist I was with questions about her OT background, what made her choose pediatrics, what she enjoyed most about her job, etc. As she answered my questions, I began to realize that her responses were along the same lines as the reasons why I enjoyed pediatrics and all I wanted to do was listen to her talk. By the end of the 3 weeks, even though I had seen such a small window of pediatrics, I was sold that it was an area that I wanted to practice in. I was so in love with pediatrics that I spent my spring break at the clinic and I went back again a week after I graduated. Even though I am still very new to the OT world and all it has to offer, my internship at the pediatric autism clinic was what made me realize that pediatrics is an area I want to practice in. 

 In my Foundations class, we talked about the different areas of specialty and board certification and it was then that I thought of my internship and my mentor. I looked up the requirements of the pediatric certification and saw all that it entailed. Holy guacamole! It is quite a list! While I am nowhere near seeing if I can meet the qualifications of becoming board certified in pediatrics, it is a good long term goal to keep in mind. Until then, it is back to studying Anatomy.....

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the OTPF?

The OTPF stands for Occupational Therapy Practice Framework. It is composed of ideas, concepts, and philosophies that guide OT. It addresses domain of OT, the OT process, occupations, and client factors. The domain of OT is the areas in which OT's have a great wealth of knowledge and expertise.  This is what defines the focus of OT. Client factors, performance skills, performance patterns, context, environment, and activity demand are all under the domain of OT practice. Each part of the domain brings a different part of occupational therapy to the table.  The OT process is the actions that a practitioner takes when providing services that are client-centered and focused on engagement in occupation. This is what defines the delivery of OT. Throughout the process, occupation remains central. There is also collaboration with the client throughout the process.  Occupations are ordinary, part of daily living, and are often taken for granted. They can be special when the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Expanding on Theory

The Neuro-Developmental Treatment Frame of Reference is a theory that is used to analyze and treat posture and movement impairments based on kinesiology, the study of human movement, and biomechanics, the study of forces and mechanical laws and their effects on movement in living organisms. It takes into account planes of movement, alignment, range of motion (the degrees of movement that a client has), muscle strength, base of support, postural control, weight shifts, and mobility when making a plan for intervention. The goal is to get the client to engage in meaningful occupations, which is done through assuming that posture and movement impairments are able to be changed. This theory can be used with children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. According to this theory, to be functional means that the client would be able to engage in meaningful occupations. An occupational therapist would look at upper extremity movement, specifically: reaching, grasping, releasing objects, self ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do's and Don'ts of Presenting

Presenting in front of any number of people is something I find extremely intimidating and very anxiety provoking. I do just about e verything I can to avoid talking to more than 4 people at a time. My senior year of college I took an online public speaking class to avoid speaking in public to a random group of people. As a result, I continue to struggle with presenting and unfortunately, online public speaking isn't an option in grad school. One of the topics we cover in our Leadership II class is how to best present yourself during speeches, projects or interviews. A resource we were given was titled "6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation". I was intrigued. As I read the article my eyes were opened to just how much your body language impacts what you say. The article talks about how a group of people skilled in reading body language went to a tech entrepreneur competition and watched contestants body language and how it correlated to the scores they rec...
1 comment
Read more