Pediatric OT Evidence Review

Earn 1 hour of continuing education by joining OT Potential after taking this course.

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In this 1 hour course, we will be diving into an incredibly helpful journal article that summarizes the evidence behind pediatric OT interventions. 

The authors take 52 pediatric OT interventions for children with disabilities and rate the evidence behind them. 

They organize the evidence into a traffic light infographic—where green means “the evidence supports this intervention.” 

This alone makes the evidence ratings super easy to scan and more accessible for therapists  (and families and policy makers)! Then, they even go so far as to draw out common principles between green light interventions. 

To discuss how this research applies to your occupational therapy practice, we are excited to welcome to the podcast, Michelle DeJesus, MS OTR/L. Michelle is a pediatric occupational therapist working specifically in pediatric outpatient rehabilitation and early intervention. Her and I will talk through what it looks like for busy therapists on the ground to leverage this evidence to improve their care.

Primary Journal Article Explored

When you log in, be sure to check out the OT Potential Club’s written breakdown of the following research article. Then, share your questions and thoughts with fellow practitioners.

• Effectiveness of paediatric occupational therapy for children with disabilities: A systematic review

Supporting Research and Journal Articles

• State of the evidence traffic lights 2019: Systematic review of interventions for preventing and treating children with cerebral palsy
• Occupational therapy practice guidelines for early childhood: Birth–5 years

Mentioned Resources

• 10 principles of neuroplasticity
• The Boy Who Could Run But Not Walk
• Ten Fingers Ten Toes—Twenty Things Everyone Needs to Know: Neuroplasticity for Children
• Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children’s Behavioral Challenges

Learning Objectives

• You will be able to describe 2 trends among interventions with a strong evidence base. 
• You will be able to identify the 4 common components of activity-based green light interventions. 

Agenda

Intro (5 minutes)

Breakdown and analysis of journal article (5 minutes)

• Quick intro to pediatric OT trends
• The problem with research…
• What was the aim (and purpose!) of this research?
• What were the authors’ methods?
• What were the results?
• What intervertentions did they find—and how did they rate them?
• What was the discussion and clinical implications?
• Conclusions and Future Research
• Takeaways for OT Practitioners

Discussion on practical implications for OTs (with guest Michelle DeJesus) (50 minutes)

• Can you tell us about how you found OT?
• Can you tell us about your current OT work?
• What were your initial impressions of this article?
• How do you currently partner with families and is there anything you would do differently after reading this article?
• The evidence behind activity-based/top-down approaches is robust—does this align with what you see in your own practice?
• The authors identified 4 key ingredients that activity-based/top-down interventions have in common. Did those resonate with your work?
• Do you think studies like this are widely shared among OTs? How can we make them more so?
• What do you think are some barriers to implementing research like this? 
• What needs to change so we can provide evidence informed interventions like we talked about today?

Target Audience/Educational Level

Our target audience is occupational therapy practitioners who are looking to learn about Pediatric OT Evidence Review. The educational level is introductory.

Financial and Non-financial Disclosures

It is the policy of OT Potential to disclose any financial and non-financial interest the provider or instructor may have in a product or service mentioned during an activity. This is to ensure that the audience is made aware of any bias of the speaker.

We here at OT Potential have no financial stake in this topic. Our guest, Michelle DeJesus, naturally has a financial interest in her practice, Neuplay Therapy, but will not be promoting this on the episode.

Speakers

Michelle DeJesus, MS OTR/L:

Michelle DeJesus, MS OTR/L (she/her/hers) is a pediatric occupational therapist in Miami, FL. Her experience spans across various pediatric settings including a hospital-based pediatric rehabilitation center, prescribed pediatric extended care centers (PPEC), private practice, and home health. She most recently launched her own home-based private practice called Neuplay Therapy where she is able to serve children in their natural environment or via telemedicine with an emphasis on providing family-centered care that is rooted in evidenced and brain-based approaches.

As a Latina OT, Michelle strongly believes in the power of mentorship, representation and entrepreneurship to pave paths for emerging leaders of diverse backgrounds. She utilizes social media and her blog Michelledot.com to mentor underrepresented students and promote action towards a more equitable and inclusive profession and practice. Read full bio.

Sarah Lyon, OTR/L:

Sarah’s passion is helping fellow OT practitioners translate evidence into daily practice. Sarah earned her BA in religion from St. Olaf College, then earned her master’s degree in occupational therapy from New York University in 2011.

Since then, she’s worked in numerous facilities, including a critical access hospital, an acute trauma hospital, and a state inpatient psychiatric hospital. Sarah is the founder/owner of OT Potential. Read more about OT Potential here.

This course was designed to meet your continuing education requirements

We designed the courses in the Club to meet the requirements for “online” and “independent/self-study” courses. To verify the requirements from your specific state (within the US), check out our post, OT Continuing Education Requirements. If you are outside of the United States and have questions, please contact us.

We are proud to be an AOTA Approved Provider and to meet the requirements for your NBCOT renewal.

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