The Verdict on Universal Sensory Screens

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 01 March 2010

ADVANCE Newsmagazines

Posted on: March 1, 2010 | By Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L

The Verdict on Universal Sensory Screens

Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L

Vol. 26 • Issue 5 • Page 7
Sensory Scene

School-based screenings for young children are common, but what do they test, and are they enough? They are usually generalized for fine- and gross-motor skills, basic perception and social/emotional development.

All of this information is important and very valuable, but for some children essential insights into the quality of performance of specific skills are not addressed in what TOTEMS (Training Occupational Therapists for Educational Management Systems) used to call "quick and dirty" overviews.

Some children seem to be missing the ability to "stay with the group" (I often hear parents say this about their young children). Discovering why often falls to the OT doing a specialized assessment.

Many preschool and primary-grade-school directors respond by suggesting facilitators who stay with the child during school. These individuals do excellent jobs, but they are also expensive and make the child stand out from his peers.

Screening for developmental issues can help both the parent and the school administrator decide on the best placement for the child. While the majority of early learners do very well in typical programs, there are those who do not. This is when seeking an alternative/modified program may be advisable.

For the child with sensory/developmental issues, school can be a scary place. Try to think about going to the same place every day but not being able to recognize it as familiar. Think about going to a familiar place but finding noise, smells or light noxious. Put yourself in the shoes of a child with postural instability who has been asked to sit at a table for any length of time.

Knowing these things before the child enters the classroom can make the difference between success and failure for a young learner. It is also good information for parents, and for teachers to have on all children.

A unified assessment process should include a parent checklist and an assessment at admission or early in the school year. The parent checklist should include items that address self-care, family participation, self-calming and interests as well as the standard motor/task areas.

You would also ask the teacher to fill out this checklist, then compare the results. A sample of a checklist that I developed is available online at www.advanceweb.com/OT. It is copyright protected but may be used with permission and acknowledgement of authorship.

It is important to (gently) explain to the parent that life on "Planet Home" is very different from life on "Planet School." It is often hard for parents to understand that they have been "trained" by their child to anticipate areas that may be stressful for the child. As a result, the parents often enable the child to circumvent a challenging situation.

Parents of young children are often focused on whether the child is "having fun" and whether he is "happy." Teachers, meanwhile, are focused on the physical, intellectual, emotional and neurological actions and reactions impacting learning. These two different perspectives can cause some tension between parents and teachers when a child is having difficulty in school.

The occupational therapist can play a pivotal role in the assessment and learning environment by explaining development to the parent and the teacher to increase understanding and keep the focus on the child's success. The OT can also help explain the crucial importance of early intervention and discourage the "wait and see" attitude many parents may choose if they do not fully understand their child's issues.

Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L, is the author of Learning Re-enabled, a guide endorsed by the National Education Association and the International Learning Disabilities Association. She is director of the Modified Developmental Preschool in Dunwoody, GA, and executive director of Children's Special Services, LLC, in Atlanta. She can be reached on the at www.childrens-services.com or YourTherapySource.com.

Evaluating Children Preparing for Preschool

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 04 January 2010

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Posted on: January 4, 2010 | By Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L

Evaluating Children Preparing for Preschool

By Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L
When a family is preparing to send a child for preschool, the occupational therapist can help by giving the parents a definitive profile of the child's current abilities. The following assessments may be appropriate.

For an OT-developed, criterion-referenced developmental checklist in .pdf format, click here. It is copyright protected but may be used with permission and acknowledgement by Susan Orloff.

Test of Pictures/Forms/Letters/Numbers/Spatial Orientation and Sequencing Skills determines a child's ability to visually perceive pictures, forms, letters and numbers in the correct direction and to visually perceive words with the letters in the correct sequence. Difficulties with these skills would relate to reading issues and/or written language problems.

The Denver Developmental is a test of developmentally based activities incremented by chronological ages. It isolates the areas of personal, social, fine-motor, adaptive, language and gross-motor.

The Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (3rd edition) is a standardized test that evaluates visual discrimination, form constancy, visual memory (sequential and non-sequential), visual closure and directionality.

The PEER is a multi-task evaluation that combines neuro-developmental, behavioral and health components. It provides normative, scored observations that help define developmental areas of concern. It evaluates developmental attainment, associated observation and neuro-maturation, as well as a task analysis of the input (visual, verbal, sequential, somatic), storage (short-term memory, experiential acquisition) and output (fine motor, motor sequence, verbal sequence and verbal expressive) functions.

The Visual Motor Inventory (VMI) is a standardized test that identifies significant difficulties some children may have in integrating or coordinating perceptual and motor (finger and hand movement) abilities. Visual-motor integration is the degree to which visual perception and finger-hand movements are coordinated.

The Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities tests the child in the three spheres of visual motor/perceptual development. It provides a psychometrically sound assessment of visual-motor, visual-spatial, and fine-motor skills.

Bipolar Disorder: Pediatric/OT Perspectives

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 03 February 2009

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Latest News

Written by Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L | 19 November 2008

The Medical College of Georgia issued the following news release:

Kate Baly remembers how great it felt when she finally learned to tie her shoes. While her three sisters had no trouble learning such simple tasks, it took the Atlanta native years of therapy to learn how to do things most people take for granted.
Ms. Baly had a stroke after birth, leaving her left side weakened. The occupational therapist who helped her learn to tie her shoes also inspired her career choice.

Responding to the “latest buzz-words”; helping parents understand sensory integration
ADVANCE Newsmagazines

We are often the first people that parents speak to, after the teacher, when there are problems in school. Today, in this information age, parents come into the pre-therapy sessions with a lot of words, some knowledge, and many challenges of their own to overcome.  How do we, as practicing occupational therapists, explain occupational therapy, diffuse parental defensive behaviors and initiate possible treatments while simultaneously functioning as an educator for both parent and child?

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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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