OT in Progress

The podcast I chose to listen to was the “Au-Some Swimmers” one from the Glass Half Full podcast series. The reason I chose this one is because of a class I took during my undergraduate studies called “Adapted Physical Education.” It was a class where we always had kids from our branch of The Arc (The Arc of the Ozarks) come to our campus and we would work on helping them participate in different kinds of physical activities. Two of these days during class, we got to take the kids into the pool on our campus and help them around and ensure they were having fun and being safe. Many of these kids were on the autism spectrum and knowing some of these tips may have helped integrate them into the pool better or given them a better experience overall. The story that Nick Murray told during the podcast about a boy who was afraid to get his head wet reminded me a little bit of a boy I worked with in my class. The boy in Murray’s story was able to come around to getting his head wet once...

“Blissful ordinariness” is a term that refers to living one’s everyday life as typical without any barriers that you would not normally have. Most people take this for granted because they have never had any obstacle that would make their normal routine any more difficult than what they are used to. I have a lot of empathy for those who struggle with typical everyday activities because when I was in high school, I broke my ankle so bad that I had to have surgery. I had to get a metal plate and screws put in and I was unable to bear weight on it for at least six weeks. I required crutches or a wheelchair if I wanted to get around, especially at school, and my bedroom was on the second floor of my house so I needed to figure out ways to go up and down the stairs safely. Additionally, I couldn’t get my soft cast wet, so showering was an entire other challenge. This was far from ordinary with what I was used to in my everyday life and it made me realize how difficult things can be when s...