This question came up for me in regards to my own work as I read through the Forum. http://Community.advanceweb.com/forums/28/ShowForum.aspx   ...

I have to admit, the COTA job market is no longer what it was 10-12 years ago. Back then, you could expect a phone call almost daily from a recruiter (head-hunter) trying to convince you why their company was better. If the phone calls ...

Back in February I had posted a blog listing some helpful oral motor sites & articles and Samana Khan had left me a comment asking if I knew ...

Being careful what you say and how you say it is one of the key elements ...

Today's tidbits are links to something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. When you work with children you quickly come to learn that with all the goals met and challenges overcome from time to time you also come across the case that ends up breaking your heart. We don't give up though - we keep teaching and coaching and trying to make a difference in the lives of the children we work with. ...

What can you do when you run into a situation that you can't find a answer for? Everything you try fails? Others who try may have the same failures. Then someone comes up with one off the wall idea that solves the problem.

This past week the catch phrase around the clinic was "Think outside the box".  After running into a couple of different situations that one or more of us could not find the best answer ...

Who do you call when you are looking for specialized advice to use with a challenging patient around a treatment technique? What do you do when you are interested in changing your niche or interested in going back to school? It is a given that people in business keep a list of others that they can call on to help them, and most importantly people who they want to help.

They call it business networking.

Do ...

It's that time of year again for all OT's, COTA's and Occupational Therapy students to promote and to share the importance of Occupational Therapy. We are in the profession that is so commonly misunderstood. Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy are fairly widely recognized and what their roles are in rehabilitation is usually understood. When it comes to Occupational Therapy, especially in pediatrics, there ...

Why is Occupational Therapy such a great career? There is something for everyone. I was reading Wendy Spoor-Hof's OT Advance Blog dated March 13, 2008 regarding the article in Us News and World Report listing ...

This is a concept that would not only be a benefit to the patients, but it could help ...

The 2008 business meeting of the American Occupational Therapy Association took place in Long Beach on Saturday, with reports from AOTA officers and executive director Fred Somers. 

AOTA ran in the black for the third year in a row in fiscal 2007, with nearly a $200,000 profit, showing a strong comeback since its 2004 fiscal low point. Membership dues still account for about 37 percent ...

Each year the RA challenges its members to individually support the AOT political action committee (PAC), the organization that funds AOTA's lobbying, both on Capitol Hill and within the states as requested and needed. Each year many RA members rise to the challenge. But until lately, the assembly has shied away from requiring such support. The debate is a legitimate one: should the congress of AOTA state ...

Earlier tonight, Dr. Wendy Coster of Boston University delivered the Eleanor Clark Slagle Lecture to a crowded auditorium of occupational therapy practitioners. The Slagle Lecture is always dense and thought provoking, and this year was no exception. Dr. Coster's talk was titled "Embracing Ambiguity: Facing the Challenge of Measurement." Coster has worked on several assessments, including the Pediatric Evaluation ...

Possibilities are the theme of this year's AOTA conference, and the message was in no short supply at the Opening Ceremony earlier today in the Long Beach Convention Center. AOTA President Penny Moyers Cleveland told the audience that with a strong profession and a strong association, there were no possibilities that occupational therapy could not make reality.

Keynote speaker Warren MacDonald put a face on ...

Motion 1 was a hot topic on AOTA listservs prior to the conference. The motion asked the Representative Assembly to create a committee to establish competencies in upper extremity rehab for entry-level practitioners. While Motion 1 was defeated earlier today, the RA took three subsequent actions to support occupational therapy's role in physical rehab and strengthen the focus on core sciences and practice skills in ...

The RA has passed the motion to implement a voluntary credentialing fieldwork educator (VCFWE) program. The motion requests that an initial training program be implemented at the 2009 AOTA conference.

The task group who worked on the motion felt that the program should be urgently addresses and therefore moved up the timeframe which reflected a substantial financial savings for AOTA.

The VCFWE program ...

  After 3 years of ball tossing, the 2008 RA ahas just pproved a name change that will add EI to the name of the School System Special Interest Section.

It happend a few minutes ago, after some discussion, and against the recommendation of the task group that discussed the issue yesterday afternoon.

The new name of the SIS will be the the School System and EI Special Interest Section, nomenclature ...

Registration officially opened this morning at the Long Beach Convention Center! While early birds could be seen picking up their name badges and wondering the grounds of the convention center and conference hotel (the Hyatt), the majority of attendees won't arrive until tomorrow for the opening ceremony, keynote speaker and the grand opening of the exhibit hall.

Pre-conference institutes and seminars included ...

We at ADVANCE have packed our many, many bags and are ready to go to Long Beach for AOTA's national conference! We look forward to bringing our readers all of the latest conference coverage daily live from Long Beach. Check out our Web site at www.advanceweb.com/ot for up to the minute commentary on conference activities.

Coverage ...

At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I would like to propose a challenge of mixing it up and changing things around.

My inspiration for this came from multiple sources. The first source was when I worked with some patients who fractured their humerus on their dominant side. Needless to say these patients had to do everything with the other hand. I mean everything; please use your imagination.

(Okay, ...

Maybe this is just that your caseload ...

Did you ever feel at home with a group of strangers? Have you ever been in a group with people you never met before and find you share a deep commonality? It seems to me that there is a lot of that going around lately.

I recently spent a weekend in a group of thirty people at a conference in New York City to learn how to utilize the principles of restorative yoga ...

This part time work trend seems to be the norm these days not only in our field, but in many. ...