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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.....

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