Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

Effects Of Interactive Video Games (Nintendo Wii™) On Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment, Krista Antonio, Sarah Kelly, Kayla Livingston, Bailey Stewart

Occupational Therapy Student Research

The population being served includes the clients at Triple R adult day program in Sacramento, CA. These clients are older adults and all present with a form of memory loss. Currently, health management, specifically physical activity, and social participation are affected in the program as there are limitations to exercise routines that are appropriate for the clients as well as lack of engagement from all clients. We believe that all of the residents are affected by this issue at the facility and would benefit from the use of technology to enhance these areas of needs in the specific occupations. Within …

Tactus Therapy: Mobile At For Aphasia, Francis Gonzales, Robert Swayze, David Vong

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Pacific Speech, Hearing and Language Center

• Adults with communicative impairments and disorders (language, hearing, speech).
• Aphasia apps focus on communication by improving vocabulary, memory, reasoning, attention, differentiation, and organization of concepts, presented as pictures, text, or audio (Galletta & Barrett, 2014).
• Aphasia can affect populations such as those who have autism, TMI, stroke, and encephalitis (Galletta & Barrett, 2014).

Closing Gap In Digital Divide Of The Vulnerable Women In The Community Via Assistive Technology: The Chromebook, Deanne Nguyen, Brian Rogers, Hazel Yang

Occupational Therapy Student Research

• Aims to address the gap in digital division by providing low-income individuals with essential computer skills.
• These individuals are currently facing health challenges due to economic constraints, limited access to healthcare services, and overall lack of familiarity in digital literacy.
• At Wellspring Women’s Center, nearly 200 individuals are affected by this issue.
• The Chromebook could be delivered in a flexible model such as in-person workshops, online tutorials, and 1:1 mentoring.
• This approach ensures accessibility and empowerment of the participants to develop essential digital literacy skills to promote independence in their own health management.
• The Chromebook can open gates to enhancing …

Meristem (Monday): Checklists, Maribel Gutierrez, Josephine Hernandez, Benjamin Magallon, Margerie Vinoya

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Occupational therapy (OT) students from the University of the Pacific assessed needs in various classrooms at Meristem, a college program for individuals in the neurodivergent population to expand life skills of independence. OT students identified the use of checklists, a low-cost assistive device in creating structure of expected tasks in the classroom. The goal of the checklist is to reduce dependency on instructors for reminders and prompts, and promote resilience, autonomy, and enhanced participation in the classroom. The checklist can be personalized for each instructor to fit the needs of their classroom expectations.

Supporting Mental Health Of Wellspring Women’S Center, Lio Inumerable, Sophia Kohgadai, Christie Ledezma, Taylor Sanders

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Wellspring Women’s Center located in Sacramento, CA

• Serves vulnerable women and their children.
• Safe space for community gathering and various basic needs including:
  • Nutritious meals
  • Safety net items
  • Children’s area for learning
  • Women’s Wellness Program
    • Counseling
    • Case management
    • Advocacy
    • Art therapy

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Assistive Technology: Video Modeling, Abigail Waisner, Molly Mcdavid, Haley Morris, Luis Perez

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Population and Site:

• Meristem is an educational program serving young adults who have autism or other neurodiversity (Who we are, 2023).The program promotes vocational and independent living skills through classes, community experiences, and dorm life that address physical, social, and cognitive skills. Students living in dorms are given additional opportunities to develop independent living skills such as cooking, cleaning, organization, community mobility, and social participation.

• Our goal as a group was toidentify ways to support students in the acquisition of independent living skills. The ideal assistive technology for this population would be a technology that is easily accessible,portable, …

App-Licable Techology, Wynter Hale, Cierilyn Legaspi, Juan Garcia, Alex Zamora

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has seen an increase in prevalence in the United States presenting in 1 in 59 children. ASD presents with an array of symptoms that impact various aspects of life including but not limited to, social interaction, attention, and behavioral modulation (Voss et al., 2019). Meristem is a transitional program for individuals ages 18-28 that prepares young adults on the transition of adulthood while coping with the various symptoms of ASD. At our fieldwork site, our collective mission has been to focus on sensory and mood self-regulation to improve the individual's independence during situations. Technology can play …

Point Of View Video Modeling For Improved Self Care Among Asd Population, Liana Mae Atizado, Cassey Dela Pena, Anali Flores, Jeffrey Garcia, Timothy Zeng

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Meristem is a program designed for young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that emphasizes teaching the necessary skills for students to live life independently with confidence. Through structured and semi-structured interviews with staff members and students, a need that was identified within this organization is to have a thorough and consistent personal hygiene regimen for their students. While Meristem is currently implementing standard personal hygiene care in their curriculum, the variability of students understanding and implementing personal hygiene education has become an obstacle within this organization. To address this need for individuals with ASD, Video Modeling (VM) can offer …

Beyond Verbal: A Low-Cost Communication Tool To Address Language Barriers In A Community-Based Setting, Nikki Atis, Raman Dhillon, Victoria Maichel, Gabe Soto, Brenda Vergara

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) are tools, technologies, and approaches used to provide ways other than speech to aid communication-related challenges (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, n.d.). A communication board is a low-tech AAC tool seen in various formats such as printed on a poster board or digital applications on electronic devices. It consists of rows and columns of squares with simple pictures and minimally-worded labels in the preferred language.

Kitchen Stories, Terral Christopher, Nazifa Fazil, Lauren Jew, Ken Zhu

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Individuals with ASD may experience difficulties with independent living skills, such as financial management, home management and meal preparation. An occupation such as cooking typically includes methods such as task-analysis, systemic prompting, cueing, modeling, visual support and feedback, which can be challenging for the ASD population.

Kitchen Stories is a video-based, cross-media cooking platform whose mission is to “to empower people to cook a fresh meal every day.” Although cooking is an essential part of everyday life, the creators of the platform understand that many people struggle with it for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, they are confident that anyone …

Jackery Power Station: Stockton Shelter For The Homeless, Angela Vides, Abigail Equinoa, Carolyn Ly, Estephanie Huerta

Occupational Therapy Student Research

The community group, San Joaquin County Mobile Clinic, aims to improve the health outcomes of vulnerable populations by providing low-cost preventative healthcare and treatment options. This includes wound care, vaccinations, and assistance with accessing medical appointments and health insurance. However, research has shown that those without housing do not have adequate access to stable power sources to charge mobile devices to aid healthcare needs and access resources. The Jackery Power Station, which falls under the category of consumer access, priorities, and benefits over the lifespan, will attempt to address this barrier.

An estimated 2,631 individuals in San Joaquin county are …

Adaptive Seating, Julie Jones, Mckayla Wallace, Marisa Given, Nisha Rustia, George Cardenas

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Children’s sensory needs are impacting their ability to attend to their speech language pathology treatment sessions in a meaningful and effective way. There is a gap in the education for SLPs on sensory integration which limits their ability to recognize the challenges and know how to support them in a productive way.

Weighted Devices For Somatosensory Regulation, Bri Swain, Kaelyn Obryan, Lauren Magat, Nik Gargiulo, Hailey Houck

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Description: A weighted vest is a vest that typically has 10% of a person’s body weight evenly distributed around the vest (Olson et al., 2004). A weighted vest can provide sensory input that is believed to alleviate dysregulation, inattentiveness, and stereotypic behaviors (Carter et al., 2009).

Goal: Our community group is specifically targeting children with sensory processing impairments who are attending speech therapy sessions at the RiteCare clinic. Sensory behaviors exhibited by the clients are most commonly shown through dysregulation, outbursts, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity. The goal is to limit these maladaptive behaviors and increase attention span during intervention sessions. Weighted …

Insight Timer, Jocelyn Ong Najera, Joshua Mark Dano, Staphany Jimenez, Arthur Lui, Nancy Smith

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Mission Statement: To provide cost-effective avenues for tangible stress reduction and relief for low-income communities such as Wellspring.

Overview: Insight Timer is a mobile application that offers guided meditation to calm the mind, reduce anxiety, manage stress, sleep deeply, and improve happiness. While also offering calm music, courses, live events, and workshops in various languages. (Insight Network, Inc., n.d.)

Problem Statement: Individuals who face poverty experience mental challenges due to stressors caused by poverty due to insecurity and uncertainty about food, housing, and income. Low-income communities tend to have limited resources, poor housing, experience high crime rates, violence rate, and …

Shelter Seeker: A Vision To Connect Individuals Experiencing Housing Insecurities To Community Resources, Lex Acuna, Megan Asher, Jessica Carranza, Lexi Herman, Karinne Osumi, Karina Phan, Naima Reddick, Katie White

Occupational Therapy Student Research

Shelter Seeker is envisioned as a resource-based app and website that connects individuals experiencing housing insecurities to basic necessity services in Sacramento, CA. The ultimate goal is to improve accessibility to resources; listing them close to the user's location. This resource is envisioned to be available in multiple languages.

Assistive Technology: Foldable Shower Seat, Bernard Yaghobian, Katherine Enriquez, Dora Vang, Mitchell Johnston, Jennifer Luong, Yuen Ching Tam, Nupinder Kaur

Occupational Therapy Student Research

The goal of the foldable shower seat is to reduce the efforts required for showering, targeting individuals with circumstances that reduce their energy levels so they can reserve energy to carry out other meaningful activities.

Population:

• Older adults
• Individuals recovering from injuries
• Individuals with permanent disabilities

Wearable Technology For Fall Detection In The Rancho Yolo Community, Ashlyn Emberley, Brenda Fonseca, Carolina Mendiola, Hannah Gantuangco, Harleen Pabla, Janelle Candaza, Michelle Drawdy

Occupational Therapy Student Research

● Problem Statement: Community members have shared concern about leaving their home due to their fear of falling. This fear of falling decreases social, occupational, and community engagement.

● Category: Accommodations and Consumer Access, Priorities, and Benefits over the Lifespan

● Overview: Wearable assistive technology devices that assist in the incidence of falls to increase independence and promote engagement in a fulfilling life.

● Solution: Fall detection wearables provide medical help at the push of a button, including low and high technology devices for detection of falls.

Ieat, Vannida Nguyen, Elly Lara, Felicia Markfield, Jesus Aguilar, Joshua Ulloa, Justine Manalo, Richelle Talamantes, Tailar Johnson

Occupational Therapy Student Research

What: iEAT is a meal ordering service and database for school meal distribution, accessible via a smart device.

Why: Interactive way to increase awareness of portion control and appropriate nutrition in an effort to build autonomy in elementary and middle school age children.

Problem Solved: Research indicates that young children are highly susceptible to overeating when given larger portion sizes, eating about 16% more. iEAT addresses proper portion control sizes pertinent to the child’s age. Further, it increases a child’s autonomy and health knowledge when making dietary decisions impacting health outcomes.

How: iEAT’ features an empty plate compartmentalized into five …