Hospital News
High-tech therapy
By Cheryl Mullins, Occupational Therapy Director
As occupational therapy practitioners and speech and language pathologists, we spend our days analyzing activities and generating creative ways to make everyday tasks easier for our clients with cognitive, behavioral, and motor deficits, in order to promote greater independence. Many individuals with disabilities need support for transitioning, sequencing, memory, planning, motivating, deciding, choosing, processing, organizing, and communicating.
Developers of cellular phone- and personal digital assistant (PDA)-based applications (apps) are also working hard using their knowledge of computer programming to create an overabundance of smart technology programs aimed at making life easier for the general public. Combine the two worlds and you get promising new therapy options for the occupational and speech therapy practice.
Individuals with disabilities may not have been the population developers were originally targeting for applications. However, smart technology has been quickly adopted among many individuals with disabilities, their families, and service providers as an innovative solution to many everyday challenges.
The Occupational Therapy Department and Speech Department at Rockcastle Regional have embraced this technology as an addition to their many therapy tools.
The iPad has now become a Therapy Tool for us too!
• 5 year old Micah is learning to communicate with others, also with help of an iPad.
• 4 year old Owen is learning to write with the help of iPad.
The iPad is new to these children and the technology is exciting for them. It, however, is more than that. It’s a new high-tech therapy tool that is paying off quickly.
The iPad, iPod Touch, and other forms of tablets have opened a new chapter for children with disabilities.
There are many varieties of apps that assist children with and without disabilities. You can work on improving communication skills, social skills, writing skills, math skills, attention skills, visual motor skills and much more. They can meet the needs of so many different children.
Another exciting thing about tablets is that they are cheaper, smaller, and more portable than many other electronic devices.
Tablets are also very socially acceptable. Children can take them into the community and not cause as much attention as some larger speaking devices.
Also, using this technology we have found children have more capabilities than previous traditional methods of therapy and communication had revealed.
For a list of useful apps for children click here.
