ACE: Accessible, Child-focused Education

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 07 November 2008

ADVANCE Newsmagazines

The word "ace" first originated from the Latin word "as," meaning "a unit." It originally meant the side of a die with only one mark. According to the Wikipedia entry for the word, "Since this was the lowest roll of the die, it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the highest playing card, its meaning has changed to mean 'high-quality, excellence.'" Unfortunately "high quality" quality" and "excellence" are not words we often hear today when speaking of this nation's public school systems. Our schools, in many cases, have sadly reverted to the "lowest roll of the die."

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More on Mitochondrial Disease

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 02 April 2007

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Since my article on mitochondrial disease came out (ADVANCE, Jan. 8, 2007), I have received many e-mails asking for more information. Most of the questions were about the tests that are involved in diagnosing this condition and what we as occupational therapists can do both during and after testing to help our patients and their families in this process.

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Autism/PDD or a Sensory Issue: suggestions for making a clinical decision

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 16 November 2006

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Autism as a sensory issue is very tricky, so many things over lap and intertwine. The classic indicators seem to almost be the same. In fact, I really hold to the opinion, that the two diagnoses are irrevocably meshed. Having said that , however, there nonetheless remains a need to differentiate between these two distinct issues.

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Evidence-based Practice: what when and why

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 29 December 2005

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We hear a lot about “evidenced-based practice”, but what is it and why has it become so important?

This is a simple question that creates a very complicated answer. First, let’s respond to what it is.

The Journal of the American Medical Association defines evidenced-based practice as, “Evidence-based medicine de-emphasizes intuition, unsystematic clinical experience, and pathophysiologic rationale as sufficient grounds for clinical decision-making, and stresses the examination of evidence from clinical research. Evidence-based medicine requires new skills of the physician, including efficient literature-searching, and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature.” (JAMA. (1992 Nov 4;268(17):2420-5) Copyright 1992, American Medical Association).

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