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Development of the On-Site Implementation

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Development of the On-Site Implementation

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When developing this program, my group worked together to create fun and entertaining activities for the preschoolers that would target fine motor, social, transition, and sensory skills. With these skills in mind, we were able to create an abundance of activities that would further evaluate the above mentioned skills for each student in the classrooms. We decided as group that since we would be implementing four sessions, that we would each be in charge of all of the materials needed for one specific session. I had volunteered to gather all the materials for Session #1, and made sure to have at least two of each item as we had been split into two different classrooms.

For each of the sessions, we had created four activities that the students could participate in. These activities were typically in line with the theme of the week, "4th of July". These activities included shaving cream drawings with red and blue food coloring, Uncle Sam Says, and Uncle Sam popsicle stick craft. We typically found many of the activities on Pinterest as this was a great website to find age-apprpriate activities within our theme.

In terms of actually implementing all of the activities, we were unable to do so, at least in the classroom I was in, as the school schedule was different than we had originally thought. Catalina and I were able to adapt and get to as many activities as we could but had to leave off at least one activity per day. We typically left off the activity that focused on less skills overall.

Overall, the program has been well received by all the teachers and administrators as they can see how much the children are enjoying themselves. The teachers in the classroom that Catalina and I are in are even interested in implementing some of the activities into their curriculum for the next year. This makes us, as program managers, feel great about program as we know we are targeting the necessary skills as well as providing a fun and playful atmosphere for all the students.

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The students throughout each session were very attentive towards us and would listen to instructions from us when needed. The students were also able to clearly communicate with us if they were uninterested in an activity or if they needed an adaptation of some kind to complete the activity. For example, one student during the shaving cream activity told me that he was not a fan of touching shaving cream but he was interested in playing with the shaving cream. To better allow for his participation, I gave him a spoon for him to use that would allow his to still play with the shaving cream but not overwhelm him.

On both days, there was one student who came into the classroom and did not wish to participate in any of our activities. However, during the shaving cream activity, I was able to get her to sit with her classmates and watch them play with the shaving cream and assured the student that she did not have to participate. Slowly, the student gained interest but still seemed a bit hesitant, so I recommended playing with the shaving cream but without the food coloring. The student agreed to this, but then later on requested food coloring to be added into her shaving cream. On the second day, with the same student, I was able to get her closer to the table, but then Catalina was the one who got them truly involved in the activity.

Every student participated in the ice cream making activity as this was something they were all interested in. This activity was probably their favorite out of all of the activities so far, and it worked out that one of their morning activities was related to ice cream as well. So, I feel as though this helped everyone's interest in the activity as they could make real ice cream as opposed to just playing with fake ice cream. Each student was excited that they could decorate their ice cream bowl with the toppings of their choosing.

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Upon arriving the first day for the on-site conduction, we learned that the teachers in each of our classrooms were unaware to the extent that we would be working with the students. This, then, impacted our schedule for the day as we were then trying to accommodate to the teachers and trying to fit in our activities when possible.

Although, all of the students loved the ice cream activity, they did get tired of it very quickly as they realized it took time to make the ice cream. This led to Catalina and I taking over at some points to try to move the process along quicker before any more kids lost interest.

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Overall, I have enjoyed my experience at the CHAPS program and have enjoyed working with this specific age group (5 year olds). Through this experience, I feel as though I have been able to show more of my creative side which does not always get shown through past groups I have run. This experience has really been pleasurable as both the students and teachers expressed how much they have liked and appreciated each activity we have presented.

I do recognize that I need to make that switch in my head from a supervisory role to a therapist role, and plan to improve upon that over the next two sessions. I have remembered all of the feedback that has been given to me and will carry those comments with me into the last week of program implementation. I will also need to improve upon the language/vocabulary that is being used with the students as I did have a slip this last week. It is important to consider the clientele and what their vocabulary level is when speaking with them.

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With regards to the teachers not fully knowing our role in this program, I would ask the administrators if it was possible to get in touch with the teachers in each classroom ahead of time. This could eliminate any confusion on both ends, and we may have been able to receive a copy of their daily schedule that would have allowed us to better plan and time out each of our activities.

If I were to plan the ice cream activity again for this age group, I would possibly either have two ice cream balls going at once so that more can be included at the same time instead of many waiting for a turn. I would also, possibly, start the ice cream in a ball before giving it to the kids so that it may take less time, and therefore, the kids will stay engaged for the whole process.

An important task to get the students more involved with is clean up as this is part of each activity. Catalina and I can do a better job at having the students take over cleaning off the tables rather than having us do that. We also need to work more on letting the students complete the entire activity, including squeezing the glue, even if they struggle with that task. Hand over hand will need to be implemented more in the sessions to ensure that the students are improving in all skill areas.

One thing that we need to improve upon as a group is communication, and more specifically, what we are doing with the students exactly to ensure that the students are all receiving the same instruction. We were not all on the same page in terms of examples and samples for the students so one group of students may have completed the activity in a different way than others. This can be easily resolved by communicating more ahead of time to see if any samples are needed for any activities and what we can all do to help ensure that those are completed.

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Changes That Could Be Made Following Conclusion of Program

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Changes That Could Be Made Following Conclusion of Program

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Following the conclusion of the program, and with feedback from the stakeholders, I believe that one of the most important changes that should be made to the program is either decreasing number of activities or increasing the time spent at the location. One of the main things we, as program managers, struggled with was completing all four activities that were originally planned for each day as the students took more time than expected. I think that we should have done further research into the approximate time lengths for each activity for this age group as it may have better prepared us for the time constraints.

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Overall, this week ran much smoother than it had in our first week of program implementation. I believe that this has to do with the fact that we all became more comfortable with the population that we were working with and we had received such positive feedback from the first week.

With the feedback received from last week, I learned to let the students do more of the activity before stepping in and this allowed me to see their full skill level. The student who struggled with joining in on activities at the beginning of the day still struggled to initiate involvement in any of the activities, but the time it took to get her involved was tremendeously shortened. I could see her interest in the touch and feel activity, but she was reluctant to join the bigger group, so I brought over one box over to her so that she could see what everyone else was doing. This increased her interest and allowed her to join the rest of the group.

One thing that I really enjoyed seeing more of this week as opposed to last week was that the students wished to take on more of leadership roles in some of our activities. This was shown through students leading the exercise circle and helping their classmates think of a new exercise when it was their turn. It was also shown during Red Rock, Green Rock when two students who did not wish to run anymore asked if they could hold the rocks so that they may still be involved in the activity.

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Although Week #2 ran much smoother than Week #1, some issues did still arise. On Tuesday, one of the morning activities that I had set up for the students was the touch and feel sensory box. The students were all very interested in the activity, but were having trouble listening to directions. On multiple occassions they would need to be told to not take the items out of the box as what was in the box was meant to be a surprise for all the students. This led to some students becoming less interested in the activity as they were not allowed to do whatever they wanted to. In order to prevent the students from continuing to pull the items out of the box, I needed to put my hand over certain holes and re-explain the directions to the student 1:1.

On Thursday, as program managers, we had created two activities that could be completed in the morning by the students. The first activity that we had the students complete took more time than anticipated, and therefore, we were rushing to get in the second activity. This led to not every student completing the second activity as they were still completing the first activity or there was not enough time before going outside for the students to partake.

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I feel as though my group continued to work very well together, and have been able to help one another out when necessary throughout this whole process. The teachers and the administrators at CHAPS have been so helpful and accommodating to our program and its schedule which has allowed for our program to run as smooth as possible. The students were very receptive to all of the activities which further reinforced how important play is to students of that age.

I think that I was able to further improve upon my pediatric occupational therapy skills throughout this second week as this was something I struggled with in week one. Knowing how to work with various groups of people is very important to me as I do not just want to work in one single setting or with one population when I am out of school.

I very much enjoyed the process of creating a group from scratch and actually implementing it with the desired age group as we were able to see first-hand how well it worked.