Prompt Two for Week 3

Upon being asked to create a web-zine on a specific subject area, I immediately jumped to the field that I hope to be involved in some day; that is, the field of occupational therapy. When asked to identify three topics within that area, I thought of the work I during the summer as a paraprofessional at a school for children with disabilities. Most students who I work with struggle from autism and I have been noticing that a lot of the different therapies they receive involve some kind of work with their proprioceptive and vestibular systems. After further research, I realized that my mother, a special education teacher, works with higher functioning children but who also struggle with disorders because of weak proprioceptive and vestibular systems. She has occupational therapists that come into school to do consulting with some of her students and was amazed by how activities that focused on these systems changed a child’s behavior in the class room. Fascinated by this system that is “unknown” by so many, I decided to research how occupational therapists work to strengthen these systems in hope of enlightening myself and those who read my research findings. I hope to understand more about the proprioceptive system so when I go back to work, I am able to recognize sensory disorders by the behaviors of a child and provide them with proper sensory breaks and activities. I also hope to learn about the different types of activities that occupational therapists use to strengthen the proprioceptive and vestibular systems and why these systems are so crucial to our day-to-day functioning.

            I think [and strongly hope] that the audience is interested in the information because the proprioceptive and vestibular systems are so essential to daily functioning for everybody. Almost everything we do involves some kind of proprioception and I don’t want the audience to take it for granted. I also believe that the audience may be interested because they may know somebody with a sensory disorder caused by a lack of activity of the proprioceptors. Clumsiness, bumping into walls, jitters, not paying attention in class, and fidgeting are all results of an abnormality with the proprioceptive and vestibular systems. I think the audience will find it interesting as to what kind of activities people with these disorders can participate in to strengthen proprioception, like jumping on a trampoline, bouncing on a stability ball, and pushing heavy objects around a room. They’re all such simple activities that anybody could do but my goal is to explain why occupational therapists use these exercises and how they can benefit patients.

            The information that I present will be extremely helpful to teachers and parents because they may have children who struggle with weak or abnormal proprioceptive and vestibular systems but are not aware of it because it is not a very well known issue to the general public. I hope they will find the information valuable because they can learn techniques and activities they can use to strengthen one’s proprioception. The information I present should also help explain why children behave the way they do in class or at home and ways to deal with this behavior and increase awareness among fellow teachers, parents, and therapists.