Supporting Students with Unique Needs…where to start?

One of the things I love about Occupational Therapy is that I get to be creative when working with my students. It’s what ultimately led me to specialize in assistive technology! Sometimes a challenging need can’t be met using traditional devices or supports so I must put on my inventor hat to fabricate or modify something that will allow task independence for a child who previously sat passively. When I teach sessions on merging functional life skills (OT) with assistive technologies (AT), I remind attendees that this is not crafing or tinkering. Practitioners who serve kids with complex disabilities must be able to think critically in order to identify specific needs, consider potential supports, use feature matching to custom design, and plan for the long-term while designing for ‘today’. The best way to demonstrate the power of AT Maker intervention is to showcase it in action and explain the processes that went into these designs. WARNING: my mind often whirls as light-speed, running down rabbit holes when I’m working on a project, but hang with me! I swear that my rambling will make sense as you see ideas come to life.

So let’s meet Murphy… a typical teenager born with severe Arthrogryposis. He and I started working together after he entered a local developmental preschool program and he’s been challenging my creativity for more than a decade! As Murphy grows and changes, his needs do too, so we are always thinking forward when we design and adapt for him. In this series of blog postings, I want to showcase some of the devices and systems we’ve put into place over the years. We will meet him where he is today and, in the weeks ahead, look back at where we started when he was younger so you can see his changing needs - and our interventions.

Since Murphy had some active movement in his right lower leg and both shoulders (horizontal ab/adduction only) as a youngster, we modified engagement differently then. But, Unfortunately, the progressive nature of Arthrogryposis slowly robbed him of any upper body motion, leaving him with head control and mild movements in his right knee today. Although he has great receptive skills, Murphy is non-verbal and requires augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems to express himself. He is very bright and enjoys school. He was just finishing the 8th grade when COVID hit, so he has been homebound for the last two years. and is very excited about entering high school for the first time this fall. My AT team and I have been seeing him at home during this period and he just received a new speech generating device that will provide access to so much more than just communication. I look forward to telling you more about him in the coming weeks!