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Assessment and Intervention Skills

Assessment Skills
  • Active and passive range of motion
  • Goniometry
  • Group and specific manual muscle testing
  • Muscle tone assessment
  • Dynamometer and pinch gauge assessments
  • Swallowing and facial expression screening
  • Blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration assessments
  • Posture and gait analysis
  • Fitness testing
  • Skin integrity and edema assessment
  • Biomechanical task analysis
  • Activity analysis
  • Occupational interviews with particular experience with the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM)
  • Functional performance and participation assessment, with particular experience with the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Activity Card Sort (ACS), and informal performance observations
  • Sensory assessment: Light touch, pressure, thermal sensation, superficial pain, proprioception, kinesthesia, stereognosis
  • Vision assessment: Near acuity, ocular alignment, visual fixation, visual fields, saccadic eye movements, direction of gaze, visual tracking, ocular pursuits, organized scanning, depth perception
  • Cognitive assessment and screening with particular experience with the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT), Short Blessed Test, Mesulum, Trails A and B, Clock Drawing, and behavioral observations of strategy use
  • Novice experience with cognitive batteries such as the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (DKEFS), Toglia Category Assessment (TCA), Executive Function Performance Test (EFPT), and Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS) 
  • Reflex assessment:  Flexor withdrawal, crossed extension, asymmetrical tonic neck reflex (ATNR), symmetrical tonic neck reflex (STNR), tonic labyrinthine (supine/prone), righting (neck/body), automatic movement reactions (protective extension, prone, supine, sitting), equilibrium reactions (prone, 4-point kneeling, standing)
  • Assessment of prehension and grip patterns
  • Coordination tests:  Finger to Nose, Finger-Nose-Finger, Pronation and Supination (RAM), Finger Opposition, Finger to Finger
  • Dexterity tests:  Nine Hole Peg Test, Purdue Peg Board, Minnesota Rate of Manipulation Test, Crawford Small Parts Dexterity Test, Action Research Arm Test (ARA)
  • Assessing depression with behavioral observations as well as formal assessments such as the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Beck Depresson Inventory
  • Assessing need for assistive technology
  • Community accessibility evaluation
  • Assessment of the classroom environment
  • Assessment of in-hand manipulation and handwriting skills
  • Evaluating sensory modulation and praxis
  • Job analysis
  • Vocational exploration
  • Ergonomic risk factors assessment
  • Novice experience with functional capacity evaluation
  • Trained in evaluation of stroke severity with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)

Intervention Skills

  • Extensive knowledge of the OT process, Frames of Reference, and Models of Intervention
  • Documentation (goal writing, SOAP notes, etc.).
  • Home and Community Environmental Modifications
  • Selection and Fitting of Assistive Technology
  • Transfer training, bed mobility, and positioning
  • Collaborative treatment with COTAs
  • ADL/IADL training
    • adaptive equipment
    • task modification/work simplification strategies
    • energy conservation
    • joint protection
  • Physiological / Biomechanical Treatments (for wounds, edema, stiff joints, adherent scar/tendon, tenderness, weakness, and impaired sensation).
    • Splinting: resting hand splint, intrinsic-plus hand splint, swan neck deformity splint, dynamic splint
    • ROM, stretching, resistive exercise for endurance and strength
    • Modalities (superficial heat and cold, deep heat, electrical stimulation)
    • Hand therapy treatments (tendon gliding exercises, retrograde massage, desensitization, edema reduction, sensory re-education).
  • Motor Learning Treatments
    • Neurodevelopmental Approaches
      • Rood, NDT, PNF, Brunnstrom
    • Contemporary, Task-Oriented Approaches
      • Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy, Carr and Shepherd
    • Enabling strategies to promote learning (modeling, reinforcement, shaping, prompting, chaining). 
  • Cognitive Dysfunction Treatments
    • Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP)
    • Attention Process Training (APT)
    • Compensatory External Devices and Environmental Supports
    • Cognitive-Behavioral approach
    • Task-Specific Routines
    • Errorless Learning
    • Enabling techniques including cueing, repetition, reinforcement, modeling, chaining, mnemonics
  • Psychosocial / mental health treatments
    • Communicating with clients who are manic, hallucinating, aggressive, suicidal, or sexually inappropriate
    • Therapeutic use of self
    • Directing an occupational therapy group
    • Case Management
    • Clubhouse Model
    • Supported and Transitional Employment
  • Pediatric Treatments:
    • Sensory Integration
      • Wilbarger Brushing Protocol, Therapeutic Listening, Sensory Diet, Brain Gym, Bal-A-Vis-X, How Does your Engine Run, Therapeutic Yoga
    • Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy
    • Relationship Development Intervention (RDI)
    • Feeding, positioning, and skills of daily living
    • School-based interventions
    • Hand skill development and handwriting
    • Early intervention
    • Social skills for children with autism and developmental disabilities
    • Transition planning
    • Addressing abuse/neglect
  • Work and Industry Interventions
    • Structured Work Activity Groups (SWAGs)
    • Basic understanding of work conditioning and work hardening
    • Ergonomic recommendations for the workplace
    • Environmental and Task Modification
    • Designing individualized work circuits
    • Chronic pain management
  • Productive Aging:
    • Aging in Place
    • Cognitive Loss Interventions
      • working with caregivers and families, environmental supports, providing routines
    • Low vision interventions
      • Eccentric viewing, environmental modifications, assistive technology, functional mobility
    • Interventions for persons with life-threatening illnesses
    • Introduction to driving evaluation and interventions
    • Addressing elder abuse

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