🖍️ Coloring Occupation: Learning Occupational Therapy by Doing

 By: Emily J. Balog, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FNAP

I have never experienced art and occupational therapy as entirely separate parts of my life. I am an occupational therapist, scientist, professor, artist, and U.S. Air Force veteran. Over the years, art has become one of the ways I explore experiences, communicate ideas, and make complex concepts more accessible to others. In 2022, that intersection was featured in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy’s Occupation and the Artist series through The Anatomy of Human Occupation. My watercolor, The Knitting Brain, was also selected as cover art for the journal. Read “The Anatomy of Human Occupation” in the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy'

 

That collection explored connections among the human body, occupation, identity, trauma, and healing. It also reinforced something that has become increasingly important across my work: there are many ways to communicate knowledge.

 

Several years later, I found myself thinking about that idea again, this time from my perspective as a professor. How could I make learning the foundations of occupational therapy more engaging and fun? The answer seemed particularly appropriate for OT: learn by doing.

From Teaching Occupation to Doing Occupation 

As occupational therapists, we do not simply tell our clients what to do and expect meaningful change to follow. We engage people in the process. We use activity, experience, interests, creativity, and the occupations that matter to them. Why shouldn't learning occupational therapy be engaging in the same way?

 

I initially envisioned The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book for OT and OTA students learning the foundations of the profession. The areas of occupation are fundamental to how we understand human participation, but memorizing a list of definitions is very different from learning to recognize occupation in the world around us. I wanted students to interact with the concepts. And coloring gave me a way to do that.

 

The book begins with my original hand-drawn illustrations, which were digitally refined and adapted for publication. Companion educational pages extend the artwork into an interactive learning experience.

Readers explore the nine areas of occupation:

 

🚽 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)  
💵 Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)   
💊 Health Management
💤   Rest and Sleep
📚   Education
💼   Work
🛝   Play
 🧶   Leisure
   🏘️ Social Participation

Each section introduces an area of occupation using approachable explanations, examples, and imagery, followed by a corresponding coloring page based on my original artwork. But coloring is only part of the experience.

🔎 Look Closely 

Occupation-specific images are incorporated throughout the coloring pages, creating a search-and-find experience. Readers aren't simply given a definition. They have to look at the artwork, find examples of occupation, recognize what they are seeing, and make connections to what they just learned. 
     For students, that can lead to much richer questions. What makes an activity play rather than leisure? How is taking medication an occupation? Where does caring for another person fit? How can the same activity serve different purposes or have completely different meanings for two people? Those are the questions I want my students asking because they move us beyond memorizing terminology and toward thinking occupationally. There is also another layer that I particularly enjoy: coloring itself is an occupation. The learner is exploring occupation by participating in occupation.

 

Play demonstrates this idea particularly well. We can teach students the definition of play. We can discuss its characteristics and place within the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework. But we can also invite someone to look at images of movement, games, imagination, social interaction, performance, outdoor activity, and play across the lifespan and ask: Where is the play? What makes this play? What does play look like for you?

 

For pediatric occupational therapy, these questions are especially familiar. Play is not simply something children do when the “real work” is finished. It is a meaningful occupation and an important context through which children explore, interact, develop skills, build relationships, and participate in their worlds. And, of course, play is not limited to childhood. Approaching the concept visually gives learners another way to think about what play can look like across people, contexts, and stages of life.

Beyond the Classroom

As I developed the book, I realized the same features that could engage my students might also have applications in practice. A practitioner could open a page with a client and ask:
Which of these activities are part of your life?
Which matter most to you?
Which have become difficult?
What would you like to do again?

 

The images can become conversation starters for discussing routines, interests, roles, challenges, goals, and occupational identity. For practitioners working with children and families, pages exploring 🛝 play, 📚 education, 🏘️ social participation, 🚽 ADLs, and 💤 rest and sleep may offer particularly familiar ways to begin those conversations. The book is not an assessment or prescribed intervention. It is a flexible resource that educators and practitioners can use creatively when it fits the person, purpose, and context.

Making Occupational Therapy Easier to See 

There is another audience I had not fully appreciated when I started drawing: people who simply want to understand occupational therapy. Within our profession, we know that occupation means much more than employment. Outside OT, that is not always obvious.

 

Sometimes seeing occupation makes the concept easier to understand. A shower. A grocery cart. A textbook. A swing. A medication bottle. A ball of yarn. A bed. People spending time together. These are ordinary parts of life. That is precisely the point. Occupation is all around us. Occupational therapy asks us to look more closely at what people need and want to do, what those activities mean to them, what supports their participation, and what may be getting in the way.

🎨 Continuing My Own Occupational Story 

In many ways, The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book continues the ideas I explored through The Anatomy of Human Occupation, but with an important difference. This time, I don't finish the artwork. The reader does.

 

My original drawings provide the creative foundation, but someone else chooses the colors. They search the images, make connections, and consider the occupations represented through the lens of their own experiences. There is something very OT about that, too. The creator can provide the structure and possibilities, but ultimately the experience belongs to the person engaging in it.

 

The book is created through em's fine art, my woman- and veteran-owned sole proprietorship. It brings together parts of my occupational identity as an occupational therapist, scientist, professor, veteran, and artist. Across those roles, I keep returning to the same question: once we have knowledge, what do we do with it?

 

For me, knowledge dissemination does not have to occur only through journal articles, lectures, or presentations. It can also happen through experiences that make people curious enough to look more closely, ask questions, and apply what they are learning. That idea is reflected in the phrase I use across my work:

 

Turning knowledge into action, and action into impact. 

The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book is one creative way of putting that philosophy into practice. Color. Learn. Reflect. Discover occupation.

🎁 Try It Yourself: A Free Play Sampler 

Because Anne's blog focuses on pediatric occupational therapy, I wanted readers here to have an opportunity to experience the book rather than simply read about it. I've created a free sampler from The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book that includes the book cover, an About the Author page, a Meet the “Artist” in the Making activity, the educational companion page for 🛝 Play, and the corresponding Play coloring and search-and-find page. Use it with students. Explore it with a client. Color it yourself. See what you find and what conversations it creates. And if you see the value, consider purchasing the full coloring book for just $4.99 by clicking HERE. After all, learning by doing is something occupational therapy understands particularly well.

Emily J. Balog, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FNAP
, Author & Illustrator, The Occupational Therapy Coloring Book
, em's fine art
#emsfineart #occupationaltherapy #veteranart
 

 

 

Making a Difference at th Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center!

The Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center (RKSTC) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is a student-run pro bono clinic that provides occupational therapy services to children from birth up to 18 years. Under the supervision of faculty and a licensed occupational therapist, the clinic operates with student leadership and involvement. Therapy services are delivered by students under the direct supervision of a licensed OT. Offerings include consultation, evaluation, individual treatment, and parent/family education. 

The mission of the center is to educate future practitioners, and to empower families through the provision of educational and healthcare services.

 

To make a donation to support the clinic, click HERE. 

Get Ready for Kindergarten!!!

 

 

Image Credit: Carl Jorgensen

Parents frequently ask me what their child needs to do to get ready for kindergarten. I like to share this list of 25 “readiness” skills that kindergarten teachers have told me are important for a child to be successful in the kindergarten classroom.

Kindergarten Readiness Checklist

1)    Speaks in complete sentences

2)    Listens without interrupting

3)    Follows two-step directions

4)    Begins to share with others

5)    Is able to recognize authority

6)    Understands concepts such as “top,” “bottom,” “big,” “little,” “more,” “less”

7)    Able to follow basic rules

8)    Recognizes rhyming words

9)    Identifies some alphabet letters

10) Bathrooms independently

11) Button shirts, pants, coats, and zips up zippers

12) Can sort objects that are the same shape, color, or size

13) Recognizes and names at least 5 colors

14) Recognizes own first name in print

15) Recognizes letters in own first and last name

16) Begins to write some of the letters in own first name

17) Cuts with scissors

18) Trace basic shapes

19) Draws a line, circle, X and +

20) Works simple puzzles

21) Counts from 1 to 10 in correct order

22) Identifies the beginning sound of some words (C is for cat)

23) Runs, jumps, hops, throws, catches, and bounces a ball

24) Knows first and last name of parents

25) Adjust to new situations without parents being there

So get ready for kindergarten by practicing these skills with your preschooler and your little one will have a much smoother transition into school!

 

Art by Children with Special Needs!!!

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center is a student-run, pro bono pediatric occupational therapy clinic serving underinsured and uninsured children from birth to 18 years of age.  Last spring, an amazing art show and auction was held in which artwork submitted by children with special needs was donated, displayed, and auctioned to raise money for the center. The children were so proud to showcase their artistic talents! Attendees were healthcare professionals, artists, family members of UTHSC students, and the families of the children who contributed artwork. The event brought together this  diverse group of people  and showcased the talents and creative expression of children who receive occupational therapy services!  Check out some of the artwork below.

 

UTHSC Occupational Therapy Rap

Check out this UTHSC Occupational Therapy Rap Video that our amazing MOT students created!!!

      Click HERE to watch it!

 

This rap was created by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center MOT Class of 2020 in order to promote their occupational therapy program to incoming students and advocate for the field of occupational therapy. Enjoy!

Have OT services made a difference in your child’s life?

stockphoto@freedigitalphotos.net

Update!  AOTA Board President has responded to the concerns about the OTD degree requirement.  This is wonderful news!  Click on the link below to hear her message, and if you haven't had a chance, please click on the second link and sign the petition.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO

 

I'm an occupational therapist, and I love my profession, but the "powers that be" recently mandated that a doctorate (OTD) degree will eventually be required to enter the field of OT.  This is called “degree inflation,” and it will likely lead to increased costs of care for OT services, the closing of OT programs, and shortages of OTs. No doubt, it will cause irreparable damage to the OT profession! An OTD degree should be an option but not required.
 

If OT services made a difference in your child’s life or helped someone you care about be more independent with daily living skills, please take 1 minute to click on the link below and sign this petition to stop the OTD mandate.  Thanks so much, and please share!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

New Occupational Therapy Podcast!!! On The air: A space for teaching and learnng about OT

My good friend and colleague, Stephanie Lancaster, recently started a new OT podcast.  She came up with the idea for the podcast because she noted an absence of podcasts aimed at a general audience of individuals interested in occupational therapy. Her goals for the podcast are to promote and share information about the profession of OT to interested parties, to support learning and networking of OT students, and to provide a space for engagement and inspiration of OT practitioners in the field.
 This will be a wonderful resource for all OTs, OTAs, OT students, and other individuals interested in the amazing field of Occupational Therapy.


Here is a link to the website:

http://www.ontheair.us

And here’s the link to access the podcast via iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/challenges-and-accomplishments-episode-1/id1277267644?i=1000391661955&mt=2

The podcast will also be available on Stitcher and I Heart Radio in the near future. Feel free to share this information if you'd like to!

Image used with permission.

A Pro-Bono Student Run OT Clinic: The UTHSC Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy Center!

On February 9, 2016, the UTHSC Rachel Kay Stevens Therapy opened! The center is named after Rachel Kay Stevens, a UTHSC OT student who passed away suddenly in January of 2015.  In memory of Rachel and the amazing work she would have carried out as an occupational therapist, her family established a fund to support the establishment of a pro bono pediatric therapy center.

It has been an honor to be a part of this special project. For more information about the clinic, check out our website @ https://www.uthsc.edu/rkstc/

Here is a link to a news segment of an interview with Mr. & Mrs. Stevens: http://wreg.com/2016/02/09/rachel-kay-stevens-therapy-center-opens-today/

And the newspaper article in the Commercial Appeal of Memphis! 

Please help fund the clinic by making a tax-deductible donation! Just click on this link: uthscalumni.com/RKStevens

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY: It's the Little Things that Make Life BIG!

As an occupational therapist that will have been practicing for 24 years next month, I am privileged to have spent most of those years working in pediatrics.  In fact, when I first heard about the topic of this series of posts, my initial thought was that it would be much easier for me to write about the many ways in which I have benefitted from interacting with the children with whom I have worked.  As my perspective has shifted many times over the years as a result of connections I have made with others in my role as an O.T., one of the most powerful lessons I have learned also happens to involve a situation in which the thinking of others changed because of something that happened during an O.T. intervention.

About midway through my years as a school-based O.T., the kindergarten teacher of a child on my caseload approached me in the hallway one day after school.  She told me that the student, whom I will call “Carol,” had refused to follow directions given by the teacher in class earlier that day.  Evidently, the teacher had been calling on students one-by-by to go up to the front of the classroom and count to 20, as part of her assessment of their progress in math skills.  When Carol’s name was called, the child did not get up from her seat.  Even with prompting and encouragement from the teacher, Carol didn’t comply.  The teacher said she hoped to be able to document that the skill had been mastered by this bright little girl the following day and had emailed Carol’s mother to let her know what had happened.  Later that night, I got an email from Carol’s mom asking me if I had any ideas about what was going on or what could be done to remedy the situation.

As an O.T., I know that there are many dimensions of a person that go into his or her ability to perform a skill or to complete an activity – from vision and hearing, to focus and cognition, to motor skills and more.  Two things I learned early in my career to consider, especially when a child refuses to even try to do something, are motivation and emotion, and, with that in mind, I sent an email back to Carol’s mother asking her to bring Carol to school a little early the next day.

The following morning, after talking to the teacher to let her know my plan, I took Carol into the classroom and told her that I was going to do some “morning stretches” that she could do with me if she wanted.  After she had imitated my movements for a few minutes, I asked her what had happened the day before when she had been asked to count for the class.  “I felt way too hot,” she told me. “I wanted to do it, but I was just so hot.”

Realizing that motivation wasn’t a factor in her decision not to comply but that emotion likely was, I decided to shift gears.  I picked up a couple of beanbags from a bin in the corner and told Carol that I wanted to see if she and I could catch and throw together.  I said “Now!” as I released one beanbag to toss it to her, and she threw the second beanbag to me at the same time.  It took us a few minutes to get the rhythm just right, but after that we were able to keep things going without dropping either beanbag for several minutes at a time.  Once I could tell she was really focused, I said, “Let’s count each time we catch one and see how high we can get!” Without any help from me, Carol started counting and made it up to 24 before a beanbag fell to the ground.

“You’re really good at counting,” I told her, and she grinned from ear to ear.  “Do you feel hot now?” I asked.  “No!” she exclaimed. “That was fun!  Let’s do it again!”

“OK,” I said, “but this time, stand at the front of the classroom while we do it so you can practice counting there.”  After she had moved into position, we got started again, and she counted to 27 that time.  “Let’s try something a little silly,” I said. “Let’s do the same thing again, but this time let’s just pretend that we’re throwing the beanbags to each other.”  She willingly agreed, and that time we made it to 31, at which point I saw the teaching coming through the door. When I pantomimed dropping a beanbag, Carol looked up and saw her teacher and said, “Guess what!  I’m not too hot to count anymore!” 

Later that day, the teacher reported that Carol had counted to 20 in front of the class without hesitation, and then she leaned a little closer to me and said, “I didn’t think about why she wasn’t getting up to count yesterday.  It seems like she was just unsure of herself and so she was afraid or nervous.  Next time I run into a situation like that, I will think about the emotions that go into that kind of thing.”  In the weeks that followed, the teacher told that story to Carol’s parents, to the principal, and to the other teachers at the school; each time I happened to hear her talking about what had happened, I heard her end the tale with, “Who’d have ever thought that courage could be found through pretending to catch beanbags?”

Stephanie is an alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated with a degree in Occupational Therapy in 1991. As a school-based OT for almost two decades, Stephanie specializes in pediatrics and holds a certification as an Assistive Technology Professional (ATP) through the Rehab Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA). Her professional interests include providing intervention services for individuals with disabilities and working with their families and other professionals in the field to promote evidence-based practice and to decrease barriers for people through design, selection, and implementation of A.T. materials and strategies. Please visit her website @ https://stephanielancasterot.wordpress.com. 


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