Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, Saint Clair Area School District

>> My name is Karen Wallace, and I'm an occupational therapy assistant, or otherwise known as a CODA. I provide occupational therapy services to students in Kindergarten through 12th grade in a school setting, and where I work on student's goals based on their IEP, which is an individualized education plan geared for that specific student. So occupational therapy is geared for, in the school based setting where I work, it's for functionality, to make the student as functional in the school based setting, and to be successful in the educational environment. So for instance, I see a variety of students with a variety of needs. It could be from anywhere from physical disability to developmental delays to social emotional, and you work on their specific goals. It could be anywhere from handwriting function to adaptations to make that student successful in the school environment, to be working with his peers. So it could be adaptations for a pencil grip to promote a functional grasp pattern, to something as, you know, a slant board to promote posture. Or they may have to work on their goals to be functional to be able to be successful to, for self help skills, to be able to dress, to be able to, you know, feed themselves, open containers, milk cartons, shoes tying skills. So something that's so simple that we take for granted can be a struggle for students, and that's what we actually work with them to be more successful for functional basis. So, basically when I start working with a student, I'll, you know, go to their classroom, talk to the teacher. Teacher cooperation is a big thing, so you're always, with the job, you're always working with the teachers, the support staff, be it a paraprofessional, the special education department, parents. Like I'm big with parental input, especially when we have IEP meetings, because that's another part of the job, where you'll have to not only, you know, service the students and provide therapy, but you have to write, you know, your IEP, you have to attend the IEP meeting with the other team members. And that's, and collaboration comes into a big part there. You might have other services for this student, physical therapies, speech therapy, you know, hearing, you know, therapy, so cooperation is a big part.