April is not only Occupational Therapy Month but also Autism Awareness Month.  If you are an OT with ASD clients, you already know how life changing your practice is!  But it doesn’t hurt to remind you and inform others.  That is what our “Odds and Ends” for this month hopes to do.  We provide links to stories and resources where Occupational Therapists affected the lives of autistic children and adults.  We hope you will find use for them in your practice or to pass on to clients.  

• Where the Wind Blows Them:  Finding outdoor summer activities for high functioning autistics can be difficult. This one of a kind Florida OT-run camp serves up windsurfing with a dose of regular summer camp activities thrown in. Check out autismspeaks.org for other local and state camp options.

• It’s Music To Their Ears: Cara Koscinski, MOTR/L joined forces with Kimberly Josephs, MT-BC to turn normally frightening sounds for autistics into soothing music.  Here is your chance to support a fellow OT and get a great tool in the process.

• Have Trunk Will Travel:  An OT from the University of Chiang Mai, Thailand has given new meaning to the benefits of animal therapy.  His elephants are improving the social and cognitive development of about 40 children a year in that country.

• The Ties That Bind:  Two brothers – one autistic, one not – facing the dilemmas of aging out of the social services support system and aging in general.  That is until they found the Judith B. Flicker Residences.

• And A Little Child Shall Lead Them: The stirring story of how a water loving cat, a mother’s persistence, and a love of painting changed an autistic child’s life. Iris Grace’s art is awe inspiring and reaffirms that occupational therapy takes many forms.

Inspired?  Want to work with ASD clients?  Call Centra at 800 535 0076 or access our website for great, exciting and exclusive OT job openings across the nation.