Update on how the AOTA conference went

[Sheila]

Jan Tona, PhD, OTR/L and Trudy Posner, MS, OTR/L (both members of this forum and frequent contributors) presented a poster session for the American Occupational Therapy Association's annual conference in Philadelphia, PA on April 14. There were approximately 5,000 people in attendance at the conference.

 

The poster session went extremely well. We had over 100 Occupational Therapists view it, and many were standing around for an extended period of time, asking lots of questions. People were very interested, and asked excellent questions. Several people came up to us afterwards, and asked for more information and clarification. The best part was that many of the people who came are both on the front line (potentially able to identify kids who that would/have been diagnosed with other disorders,) and many are also parents. Several stated that they think that either their own child may have it and/or one of the kids they treat may have it. Our handouts are online for the Occupational Therapists to refer back to, and we also gave out handouts that we brought with us.

 

Additionally, Trudy was attending a session on a totally different subject the next day, and one of the presenters spoke about a client who she described with symptoms that sounded potentially like they could be PANDAS (severe separation anxiety, and a type of OCD that is known to be caused by strep!) Trudy gave her a brochure at the end of the session, and took the opportunity to explain PANDAS to her. Trudy also gave her the name of one of the doctors that we all know from the forum, because the presenter was from the same city as the doctor!

 

For those of you who would like to see what we are presenting, the information is available for the public to see on the NY State Occupational Therapy Association website, as it was originally presented by Jan at the NYSOTA conference last year, and NYSOTA asked to have it on their website. There are stories about PANDAS and Occupational Therapy contributed by parents at the end. The url is:

(http://www.nysota.org/node/334)

[thenmama]

xx

Edited March 26, 2013 by thenmama

[LNN]

Fantastic job, Jan and Trudy!! It's beautifully designed and thorough. What I love is that it's a professional document that carries "authority" - you can hand this to school personnel and have credibility and examples of why you should be working with an OT. Great ideas for accommodations you can use in a 504! You guys obviously put a lot of work into this - great job!

[adkmom]

Thanks so much for presenting this! My sister is an OT in NYC school system. I added to Facebook to share with her and her friends. Also, my ds4 just saw an OT who was soooo curious and asking lots of questions, so I'll share it with her organization as well. I wonder is there an easy way to email this out?

 

darlene

[mdmom]

Sheila,

 

Great info on the link. Jsut a warning - I clicked on the downloadable version of the info (on the link) and as I was viewing it my computer detected a virus and shut me out of the page.

[JJMom39]

Thank you Jan, Trudy, and Shelia! This is a very valuable document. I am looking forward to sharing it with our OT. My ds had the diagnoses of dyspraxia, dysgraphia, hypotonia, and developmental coordination disorder before his PANDAS diagnosis, and his OT was one of the first to see how much things changed for him during and exacerbation and now how much things are improving as he heals. She was the one how made a connection with dopamine as the common factor among all his issues, and although she didn't recognize the problem as PANDAS, she was right in there trying to find the common denominator. This document will help a lot of professionals and families.

[mkur]

Thank you for posting.

Thank you AOTA conference.

Thank you OT moms.

[butterflymom]

=

Edited October 9, 2015 by tampicc

[nicklemama]

My son was diagnosed w/ dyspraxia syndrome and developmental coordination disorder before any other rx. He received OT. We found it puzzling how he could suddenly have these issues when he was always way ahead on his gross and fine motor skills from the time he was an infant until his first what we now know was PANDAS episode.

 

As he got better, after PANDAS dx and abx treatment, his OT was amazed. She asked around about PANDAS but no other OT had ever heard of it. He's out of OT now and I should probably send her a follow up and link to this.

[Ann280]

This was great info! I sent it out to many people I know. I also sent it to our OT that works in our school for my daughter....great to get the word out. This Pandas needs to be understood and we need to get the word out...so that others can understand what our families have to go through.