ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

Here is a picture of the wheelchair ramp on the front of the building. Thanks to a particularly unstable weather cell in our area we had violent winds this morning. While working with a small group of four year old children we heard THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK outside the building and I immediately thought that I was hearing hail. When you are an adult it is sometimes reflexive to think about boring things like repair bills for damage - the noise was extremely LOUD and I was envisioning the dents all over the roof and hood of my car! Thankfully I don't work in the world of adults and so the self pity over potential repair bills didn't last long. The children were curious so we all ran to the window and they were amazed at what we all saw. "OH MY GOODNESS IT IS RAINING PINE CONES!!" The contextual world of children is currently rich with movie metaphors for odd rain events and so it all made very perfect sense to them. The kids were very excited to return to our pre...

Here is an interesting anecdote of how the private health insurance market is killing itself: Our health insurance costs (premiums + deductibles) for the plan we offer to employees have risen over 20% each year for the past five years. Some years our costs have risen as much as 45% when we were forced into the high-deductible product line. There has been no accompanying increase in reimbursement rates for occupational therapy or physical therapy, by the way. Aside from that, I was interested when I was informed three months ago that our current plan was being discontinued because the letter that we were sent said very specifically: " In the short term, the impact of these changes will not be seen in premiums. Encouraging preventive care and providing new products and programs to empower members to take a greater role in their health care and will help address rising costs. Rest assured that XXX Health Insurance Company knows that the current pace at which health care costs are ...

Please stop by and visit our new site: www.abctherapeutics.com

At the beginning of each school year I marvel at how big of a challenge it is to get everything organized. Education is not new, drawing school district lines is not new, establishing bus schedules is not new, and determining outcome measures for education is not new - but each year it is as if no one has ever done it before, and people are left floundering around trying to figure out what needs to be done and how it needs to be done! In my own little OT corner of the universe we came upon the issue of 'what are the best scissors for preschoolers to learn how to cut with?' Well there are no shortage of opinions but there is very little evidence I could find. That was a little surprising given the length of time we have been teaching preschoolers how to use scissors. Having practiced OT for over 20 years I have some opinions, but they are just opinions and I have no proof to offer that the way I do things is any better than any other way. I am aware of a fine book about scis...