Ideas at Play: An Occupational Therapy (OT) Podcast
Welcome to Ideas at Play, the go-to podcast for busy pediatric occupational therapy professionals! Whether you're in school-based settings, early intervention, or outpatient practice, we bring you evidence-based strategies, practical tips, and engaging discussions to support your OT practice with children, teens, and young adults.
Each episode features:
- A deep dive into recent pediatric OT research and how to apply it.
- "Nailed It or Failed It," where we share what’s working—and what isn’t—in our pediatric OT practice.
- Real-world examples and listener questions about all things pediatric occupational therapy.
- Shout outs to People, Places, and Products that fill our occupational therapy hearts
Join the hosts, Michele Alaniz, OTD, OTR/L, BCP and Lacy Wright, OTD, OTR/L, BCP, as we explore innovative OT ideas, share professional insights, and help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends in pediatric occupational therapy. Subscribe now and unlock actionable strategies to help the children you serve thrive!
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
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📧 Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉 Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play
Keywords: occupational therapy, OT, pediatric occupational therapy, evidence based practice, peds OT
Ideas at Play: An Occupational Therapy (OT) Podcast
Ep. 79 Executive Function (Working Memory) Strategies for Autism and ID
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A 6 year-old can't hold onto multi-step directions long enough to follow them — not because he isn't listening, but because his working memory drops the information before he can act on it. This week, Michele brings a real case to the table and digs into a 2024 study comparing two cognitive strategies — enactment and visualization — to see which one actually helps kids with autism and intellectual disability with working memory. Spoiler: one of them is the clear winner, and it's not the one you'd expect if you've ever thought about autistic kids as natural visual thinkers.
We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original article too.
Xie, T., Ma, H., Wang, L., & Du, Y. (2024). Can enactment and motor imagery improve working memory for instructions in children with autism spectrum disorder and children with intellectual disability? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 54(1), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05780-z
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️ Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧 Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉 Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play
