Occupational Therapy Settings I'm Interested In

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I tend to be more partial to the pediatric setting only because my nephew is who inspired me to pursue occupational therapy in the first place. He spent a lot of his early development getting rehab services after suffering from a TBI at four months old. I remember watching my nephew fall behind developmentally and then be brought back up to speed and thinking "I have got to figure out what those therapists did!" While this definitely impacted my perspective on occupational therapy, I have always had a fascination with how individuals develop and what biological and environmental factors influence physical, mental, and social growth during development! Some of my favorite experiences were made while shadowing in the school system and outpatient pediatric clinics. While both settings were high energy and worked with the same aged population, they worked on different skill sets. In the school system, which is a public agency funded by the government, they were limited in the amount of time spent with each client and worked generally on handwriting and processing skills. At the outpatient pediatric clinics, which are private for- profit agencies funded by private investors, therapists worked on more general ADL's and skills that were being compensated for. The early stages of life are so pivotal and as an occupational therapist, I want to make sure each individual is given the tools they need to be successful in anything they want to be as early as possible! Right now I am most passionate about pediatrics and feel like that is where I can make the biggest difference, but I am not opposed to stepping out of my comfort zone, widening my scope of occupational therapy, and learning more about other populations and settings!

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