Hello everyone,
Welcome back to the School House. We appreciate that you have returned to see what is going on here.
A few weeks ago, Abby wrote a post titled "Essential Components to any School-Based Occupational Therapy Assessment." And in her very first step to completing an OT assessment, she referenced to completing an "occupational profile" for the student to help understand the strengths, weaknesses and any other necessary background information related to that student.
Well it just so happens that AOTA has a form for just that. It's called the "AOTA Occupational Profile Template," But to be perfectly honest, it's just not designed for school-based OT assessments. taking a quick glance at it, you can see that it was put together by someone who works with adults, likely in an outpatient rehab clinic.
In case you are not familiar with the AOTA Occupational Profile Template, it is broken down into 4 sections that are very relevant to our area: Client Report, Environment, Context, and Client Goals.
The creator of this form definitely looked at, and indeed referenced to, the OT Practice Framework when building this form. So I began using this form as a reference guide when completing my OT evals in the schools in order to make sure I was looking at all areas identified in the practice framework.
Using this form helped a lot with my assessments. It naturally encouraged me to use the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model, but over time I found myself starting to alter it a bit here and there with little notes. Likewise, I would have information on the student, but it didn't fit into any of the provided boxes.
So one Saturday, I decided to adapt it for school-based OT evaluations. And well, this is what came of that Saturday morning.
Share your email below to get your copy of the "Occupational Profile for School-Based OTs"
The 4 original main sections still exist with similar traits, but the subsections are changed to take into account factors such as having multiple clients (student, parent, teacher, etc.) and environments related to school.
Some of the subsections included are:
Who is referring the child for OT services and what are their concerns related to school engagement?
How does the student feel toward school?
School related history
(IEP services and goals, age first enrolled, RTI, grades)
Physical Environment
(desk, restroom, recess equipment, necessary tools, use of adapted materials)
Personal
(age, gender, likes and dislikes)
Virtual
(What computer/app based programs does the student uses successfully)
Student’s Priorities
As you can see in this short list of included sections to be completed, this form is designed to help you specifically in a school-based setting. It take into account the multiple clients and the extensive amount of information that we are expected to accumulate to put into our reports.
For me, It has helped me to make sure I don't forget anything, especially the parent and student input.
I encourage all of you to talk to the parents during your eval process, if you don't already. IEP meetings go much more smoothly when you have spoken to the parent, discovered their specific concerns, and have addressed their specific concerns in your evaluations.
So, let us know what you think about our Occupational Profile. Do you already use something like this during your evals? We'd love your feedback.
If you know someone who would love this form, please share it with them by clicking of the Social Media icon of your choosing below.
Thank you everyone for spending some time with us today.
Until next time,
Jayson