Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

Toying With Adapted Toys, Joshua King

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

My project is a design for an adapted toy that occupational therapists (OT) can use when working with kids. OTs are people who help others to be able to do daily tasks that they need to do to live their lives. This can look like helping a person who has been injured or has a disability to accomplish tasks like getting dressed or feeding themselves. It can also involve helping school children to improve their writing or to use assistive technology. My project started out as an idea from my mom who is an OT and was using a coffee …

The Joy Of Cooking With Ots: A Visual Guide, Sarah Baker

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Access to the full guide found here: https://mixam.com/share/60bf9e1ed250502f2e67534e

Occupational therapy (OT) is an allied healthcare profession that is uniquely situated at the intersection of art and science. OT seeks to improve quality of life by addressing occupations, or daily activities that are meaningful and purposeful (Nelson, 2014). In order to accomplish these goals, occupational therapists (OTs) must use design thinking through the lens of evidence-based practice. This artistic creativity paired with well-researched scientific findings mimics the visual nature of this guide, which prioritizes this need for alternative representation of the sciences.

This visual guide focuses on the interconnectivity of culture, …

Bridging The Gap Between Academia And Practice: Possibilities For Research Collaboration And Funding, Anne H. Zachry

Faculty Presentations

Preparing a successful small grant proposal involves research, planning, preparation, and determination, but obtaining funding for a creative project is not unrealistic. Practitioners are in the trenches on a daily basis, and many likely have novel ideas and relevant questions, especially when it comes to interventions. These intervention questions are important, with the American Occupational Therapy Association reporting that more studies are needed to investigate and support occupation-based intervention. By developing partnerships, educators, practitioners, and students can engage in small scale projects to further the knowledge base in the field of occupational therapy.

Spinal Cord Trauma: An Overview Of Normal Structure And Function, Primary And Secondary Mechanisms Of Injury, And Emerging Treatment Modalities, Daniel Morin

Senior Honors Theses

The structures of the spinal cord and vertebral column are designed to provide flexibility, while still providing ample protection for the spinal cord deep within. While it does offer remarkable protection against most routine trauma, the spinal cord is still vulnerable to high-force etiologies of trauma and may become damaged as a result. These events are referred to as primary injury. Following the initial injury, the body’s own physiological responses cause a cascade of deleterious effects, known as secondary injury. Secondary injury is a major therapeutic target in mitigating the effects of spinal cord injury (SCI), and much research is …

Evaluation Of Older People's Knowledge, Awareness, Motivation And Perceptions About Falls And Falls Prevention In Residential Aged Care Homes: A Tale Of Two Cities, Jacqueline Francis-Coad, Tessa Watts, Christopher Etherton-Beer, Gerwyn Panes, Howard Griffiths, Michelle Anderson, Tracy Williams, Beth Griffiths, Debbie Nobre, Anne-Marie Hill

Physiotherapy Papers and Journal Articles

Falls prevention strategies can only be effective in reducing falls amongst older people if they are adopted and enacted in their daily lives. There is limited evidence identifying what older people in residential aged care (RAC) homes understand about falls and falls prevention, or what may limit or enable their adoption of strategies. This study was conducted in two countries and explored older people’s knowledge and awareness of falls and their preferences, opportunities and motivation to undertake falls prevention strategies. A cross-sectional survey was administered to participants (N = 70) aged 65 years and over, living in six RAC homes …

Grip Force Control Using Prosthetic And Anatomical Limbs, Michael S. Trujillo, Daniel M. Russell, David I. Anderson, Marilyn Mitchell

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Introduction

Skillful object manipulation in various activities of daily living requires accurate and economical modulation of grip force, yet experimental studies investigating grip force using a prosthesis are lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare grip force output between two types of upper-limb prosthetic prehensors. We hypothesized a relationship between grip force output and the muscular tension needed to control the prehensor.

Materials and Methods

Ten able-bodied participants attempted to produce a static target grip force using a voluntary opening and voluntary closing prosthetic simulator and their anatomical hand. The target forces were 0.49 N, 4 N, and …

Occupational Science: A Data-Based American Perspective, Doris Pierce, Karen Atler, Julie Baltisberger, Elaine Fehringer, Elizabeth Hunter, Somaya Malkawi, Twilla Parr

Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Faculty and Staff Research

The purpose of this research was to provide a data-based picture of the discipline of occupational science by identifying patterns of research in the first 5 years of presentations at the Society for the Study of Occupation: USA (SSO:USA). A grounded theory approach was used to examine 184 peer-reviewed presentation abstracts, from 2002 to 2006. Among the 108 data-based presentations, adults were the most studied group, with 46% of the data-based abstracts focused on participants with a disability or clear disadvantage. Presenters’ research foci related to 4 themes: the personal experience of occupation, the context surrounding or impacting occupation, changes …

Advanced Education & Research Training Initiative [Aerti] 2009, Mark Daniel Geil, John W. Michael

Faculty Articles

The American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists has long recognized the valuable synergy between research and education, and the mutual importance of each in advancing the field. Consequently, a focal point of an Academy grant initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Education has been a systematic analysis of research capacity and advanced education. A grant project in 2004 convened a series of meetings and produced the Advanced Education and Research Training Initiative (AERTI) report.

Continuing the initiative, a multidisciplinary and multinational group of experts convened in Chicago July 17-19, 2009 to review the 2004 AERTI Report, evaluate its recommendations …