Introducing While You Grow: What Pediatric OT Is and Why It Matters

Welcome to the first episode of While You Grow, hosted by Dr. Courtney Addison and Addison Powell! In this episode, we introduce ourselves, explain what Occupational Therapy (OT) is, and the purpose of the podcast. As the podcast continues we will dive into all things pediatrics and OT and provide evidence-based information for parents, occupational therapists, students, and more. Tune in and subscribe to learn more about OT and pediatrics!

Thank you for listening! Please share and comment. Follow us on Instagram and X @whileyougrowot and subscribe to our YouTube channel @whileyougrowot. You can also find the show notes and research on our website (https://sites.google.com/presby.edu/whileyougrow/home). You can also visit our podcast website on Buzzsprout https://www.buzzsprout.com/2446918.

Transcript

Courtney  
Take two.

Addison  
Welcome to the While You grow podcast with Dr Courtney, Addison and me, Addison Powell, where we will dive into all things pediatrics, occupational therapy and other important topics around children and development. So if you are a parent occupational therapist student, or just want to learn more about occupational therapy and pediatrics in general, then keep listening for more information on the podcast and to follow us on social media, take a look in the show notes. Let's getstarted. All right, first podcast of the While You Grow with Courtney, Addison and me. Addison Powell, welcome!

Courtney  
Welcome. So we are so excited that you've joined us. This project kind of came out of thin air, and we're excited about it. We do want to provide the disclaimer that we know nothing about technology, and all of our technology support has come from Addison, so please bear with us as we learn the system and learn kind of a little bit more about podcasting. But I think both of us share this passion of wanting to share evidence based information with the public and with people interested in pediatric OT,

Addison  
definitely, yeah, technology has been super fun to figure out, right? But we got it. A lot of YouTube videos, lots

Courtney  
of YouTube videos. Yeah, we definitely did not go to school to do technology, no, but it's important, right?

Addison  
Yes, it is. It's important. It allows you to share information. And technology is such a big part of our world today.

Courtney  
It is, it is. So this is kind of a unique way to kind of bring in Addison's capstone project about access to services for pediatric families, clients all kinds of different things. So you want to give them a little background information about you? 

Addison  
Yes. So I'm Addison. I am in my third year now of the Occupational Therapy Program here at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, and I'm in my last semester working on my capstone project. And with that, I am trying to get more resources and sources of education out there for parents and occupational therapists and occupational therapy students, and making sure that, like you said, it's evidence based, and that the information we're giving out is factual and effective. 

Courtney  
Yes, sounds good. Try not to say absolutely. That's my favorite word. So that'll be my little hashtag for this video, absolutely. So a little background information. I work here at Presbyterian College as the Capstone coordinator, and I have been here for three years. I grew up in Lawrence, South Carolina. I met my husband. I moved over the train tracks to Clinton, South Carolina. And I live here now. I have two two year olds, Mason and MJ, which you guys will get to hear a lot about. And I also have a 12 year old Sadie, who you will also hear about, but this podcast kind of came from Mason. Mason was diagnosed with autism last April, and I really got to see how hard it was to get information, even though I'm an occupational therapist that kind of really knew about autism, worked with kids with autism. It's a different side of a parent than it is for someone that is, you know, kind of teaching and educating about it, getting that other aspect has been really enlightening and really eye opening to the lack of services we have around here, and just kind of the lack of evidence information, yeah. So, you know, Addison has kind of been with me through this journey, too, by being a student in this program. So she's heard some little anecdotal information, but this, I really hope that this podcast provides a resource for those parents like myself and other parents of kids with either disability or just learning about different things that kids should be doing just to have a good resource. And I'm a very auditory learner, I wish I had a good podcast like this to kind of help educate me on some different things, and especially when it comes into the diagnosing and services and just different things along those lines. So I'm excited about this project. It kind of goes back to my dad. What is a hospital administrator? But before that, his mom was a hospital administrator also, and all of us have served in rural communities, and that has been a passion for me, to give back to the community that gives so much to me. So I'm excited to do this podcast with you, Addison, and educate and learn, and I'm excited about the guest speakers we have. You want to talk. Little bit about those

Addison  
Yes. So first shout out is to Emily Waller. She was a student here at PC the year above me, and she started the While You Grow program, and we're wanting to get her on here to talk more about what that program entails. It's such an amazing project, like I loved learning and reading about which everything she did. But then we also plan to try to get a pediatrician, get some parents on here who have children that have a diagnosis, different professionals in the field, like a physical therapist, a speech therapist, and we have plenty of resources to occupational therapists here we do, but like Dr Boone, might we have her on here, and she's all things pediatrics, like, I love learning so much. I've learned so much from her for already. Um, and a few others that I'm trying to think of. Are there any more?

Courtney  
Um, we have some other Capstone students that are planning to join us to talk about their projects, so that'll be exciting. Just to kind of give you a little bit of geographic location of where we are, if you're listening to us, we are in Clinton, South Carolina. So we are have nowhere, literally the middle of nowhere. But we have a great resource here at the Presbyterian College, there is a graduate program of Health Sciences. And anyways, where we're located is right in between. If you're looking at South Carolina, right in between Columbia and Greenville. I got it right this time. Yes. So we, we have access to the beach, we have access to the mountains. We really live in a great place there.

Addison  
Yeah, right. Yeah. It is. Plus just the sense of community that's here is amazing.

Courtney  
It is everybody knows everyone. Oh yes, yes. This could be a good or a bad thing. Yeah, that could be a good thing. But I have found even being a parent in a small community, just having a great network of other parents around the same age of the kids that I have, it is great. It's great. I love raising my kids here. So definitely a good place. It is a good place. It is our students, though, they come from all over. We have students all over the country, so they bring a lot of diversity. I think they get a little culture shock when they come here, though,

Addison  
yeah, I did.

Courtney  
What would be the craziest thing that you experienced when you came

Addison  
it was just not having a lot of like restaurants and just like places to go, to do things, because I grew up in Anderson, and, like, it's a mid sized city, and then I went to Charleston, and there was always something to do, also within walking distance. I walked everywhere. I never drove, because I was a downtown Charleston. And then I came here, and there's like, three restaurants, and they're all fast food, right? And then one grocery store

Courtney  
yes, we have two grocery stores.

Addison  
What's the other one? Ingles? And, oh, yeah, that one's like, down the way. I that's never went to that way. Way down. Yeah, no, I've never been to that one, but

Courtney  
well one of the great things about Presbyterian College, and one of the main reasons I love working here is the motto is, while we live, we serve. Not only is this podcast hoping to serve a population, but we really get to get out into the community and serve with our clients. Learn about the community, learn about different people. There we go. You know, you you don't pass a stranger in the grocery store here.

Addison  
No, you definitely don't. And our cohort has really lived by that serving motto. Because, I mean, my favorite thing that we did was the spring for evergreen. Thing that we did, like our whole class designed that, like we came up with the idea, we made the connections. And for those who don't know, Evergreen is a an adult day center for adults with different disabilities, whether it be physical or intellectual disabilities. And essentially, as we spent so much time with them, we got to make all these things, and we ended up selling them, and all of the money that we raised went to them, and it went to going to lunch with them, and then they also got some extra money for a sensory gym that they were supposed to build. That's awesome, but that was one of my favorite things. And we got just do so much, and all the connections, and we had such a big turnout from people in the community that came to support them.

Courtney  
Oh, it was incredible, incredible. Yeah. So I guess we should explain

Addison  
what OT is, yes, because literally, no one knows what nobody knows what OT is. That is, find someone who knows what OT is, you literally want to kiss them. Yes.

Courtney  
You're like, oh yes, that's exactly yes, yeah, OT. So why don't you explain what your definition? That's another thing. Everybody has a different definition of OT. Maybe that's the problem. So cool, everybody has their own definition. Yeah, and

Addison  
I've said this to so many people, and I've also heard other people say is like, ot has become such a catch all, and it's like, if speech doesn't cover it and PT doesn't cover it, ot will, right? And so trying to explain that to people is really, really hard, but to me, what I usually say is that ot serve people from birth until death, really, like we even work with people who are in hospice care, right, um, and working with them so that they can functionally participate in their occupations. And occupations are just those daily activities, like taking a bath, getting dressed, going to work, going to school, making meals, like all of that. It's literally anything that you need to do in your life. We are going to try to help you to find a way to do it, whether you're rehabbing from a shoulder, or it's a little kid who has cerebral palsy and he needs help writing like we're going to work with that on those things to help them really participate in their daily life and make them maximize their independence, independence as much as possible, right?

Courtney  
And I think you really hit it that I agree with it, really engaging in those things that they want to do. Yeah,

Addison  
it's what's so meaningful to them. It's not just okay, well, we're just gonna do this, but then they don't really care about that, right? We wanna know the person. We're treating the person in a holistic way.

Courtney  
absolutely, which is what I love about ot like, it's never a dull moment. You're doing so many different things. There's so many different things, including this podcast. Yeah. So you know the thing that I love about OT, especially in terms of Pediatrics. So a little bit about my background. I have worked in a lot of different areas of OT, to include hand therapy, skilled nursing, acute care, inpatient care. I have always had a job in pediatrics, though. I've always treated for a company out of Simpsonville Heaton pediatrics and in the home health setting. And the big thing that OT is for kids and peds is occupation of play. And I think that's why I like it the most. Like my personality. We will talk about enneagrams a lot in this podcast, we are obsessed. Well, I'm obsessed. I love Enneagram. I will not say Addison is obsessed, but I'm obsessed with enneagrams. And so anywho, I'm a seven, or I lead with a seven is what you're supposed to say, I think, and I love the occupation of play, and what that brings to a kid's life, a child's life, the opportunity to understand them more developmentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, that is the play. Play is the occupation of kids, and I want to tie that a lot into this podcast, and how it's seen from zero to even 21 is considered pediatrics now for different populations. And you know, that's, that's what I want a lot of the parents to understand too, is understanding what motivates a kid, what is going to help a kid. And it always seems to come back to play.

Addison  
Because even when you're working with a kid you don't want it to seem like work to them, right? You want it to be fun and engaging, because then you're gonna have, you're gonna see more results from a kid when they're actually having fun and they want to engage in what you're working with them with, like you can make anything fun and playful, right? Which is what I love. And I mean, I love, I've been interested in OT since my senior year of high school because I got to shadow, and I got to shadow an OT in the schools for the first time, and I just fell in love with it. And I love kids. I love pediatrics, although for most people, when they meet me, they're like, you want to work in pediatrics, like, I'm just a very just

Courtney  
I lovingly call Addison, the Wednesday Adams of her cohort. You gotta love her, but she is gonna give you that Wednesday, Adam, she's gonna give you the real answer. That's for sure. She's gonna give you the truth. So if you do not want honesty, do not ask Addison, because she will give you the truth. That's for sure.

Addison  
I will, but that's what I'm like with adults. I love kids. I'm a totally different person. When I'm with kids, it's just like something lights up in me because I'm so passionate about it, right? And I just, I learn what I also love about kids with special needs. You learn, you end up learning so much more from them than they learn from you. Oh, 1000 and they are literally just like the light of the world to me, yes, and I love them, yes

Courtney  
and it, there's something magical with OT. It's almost like a meditative experience. When you're working with a kid like you just get into the zone of working with them and challenging them in an appropriate way, and, you know, helping them develop the skill it, it's beautiful, like it's, it's like an art form. I'm getting really emotionally attached to this experience now, but it's just when you talk about what ot can do for this population, there's so many things.

Addison  
yeah, so many things. It really is. It's a catch all, but it's a good thing, because we get to work on so many different things, right? And I really think that you make a difference, right?

Courtney  
We want to bring out in this podcast all the things peds, all the things kids with this relation with OT, yeah, and just, you know, all the things you can do and just be a resource for parents. You know, I really, truly believe everybody should be an OT like this is the dream job.

Addison  
It is. It's been my dream job for eight years now, and I'm so close to finally getting able to do it. Like my pediatric rotation for field work, I literally cried in my car for 15 minutes when I left, because I was like, this is

Courtney  
only 15 minutes. You cut it off. Like, I will only allow drive home. I will only allow myself 15 minutes to cry. Like, this is Addison for you, like she's only giving you 15 minutes to cry.

Addison  
It was a miracle. It was a miracle that I cried. Oh, that's true. That is true. But yeah, because I was, like, the way I saw it is, I just got to do my dream job for three months, and now I have to walk away and do something else. And

Courtney  
then now you're working on this podcast with me until you graduate, right? And

Addison  
this is the last thing that I thought I would be doing, right? I hate hearing myself talk. I barely know how to work my phone. Yes, and I'm not much of a talker.

Courtney  
but look at us. We're talking right away because something comes up. Yeah,

Addison  
it's something we love, that's yes, and it's the difference. I mean,

Courtney  
don't you think this? I think what, what do we want to get out of this podcast is for those, I think in my brain, like the parent that has taken their kids to OT or services or in school with OT, is just explaining what we do and explaining why we do things. And some of the things, the topics that we want to bring up, hopefully will kind of speak to everyone, yeah, and what they face. You know, we face the issues of screen time, of bullying, of mental health, of anything in terms of development, writing, reading, all those things kids do, all their occupations. Oh, yeah. So I hope this podcast, I hope the listeners out there get something out of this podcast that can help them? Yeah,

Addison  
I really hope so too. That's like, that's why I even want to cover just the basics, like you said, of development and milestones, because there's a parent out there who might be looking at their kid like, are they on time? And something else that will probably get brought up, especially if Dr Boone is on here, but CDC, right? They're milestones. They've changed them, but we haven't changed. But, no, we haven't changed, right? So now you're looking at a parent. Can be looking at those like, Oh, my kid is on time, but then you actually, like, bring them to an OT or even maybe a pediatrician is going to bring up concerns, and you're like, oh, but they're meeting the milestones, but it's they've changed. And right? Dr Boone will definitely talk more on that, because I'm sure she will, she, I love her soap boxes.

Courtney  
Yes, soap boxes with Dr Boone, she is. She's gonna love those. And there's so many, like, neat tricks and things I hope we bring to this table of like, helping promote healthy eating habits different opportunities. And, you know, I really hope to share my experience too, of my interactions with Mason and how he got diagnosed. What are those assessments mean? Because as OTs, we understand them, but for the average person, without going to look up and all those things, I really want to provide a source of knowledge. 

Addison  
Yeah, you start, you know, I got to go with you to Mason's developmental psych appointment

Courtney  
as my partner.

Addison  
Yes, that was funny, but like looking at everything like they asked you, and even things they didn't ask you but you brought up because you knew it was important but to the mundane parent out there would not even like, oh, I don't know if my kid does this or that, or are they watching the wheels of this car spin for whatever reason? Like, right? They don't know the lingo. They don't know the language. And I could see how it would be so hard to, like, process all that information, especially if somebody's just throwing you like, Oh, hey, yeah, you know you might want to go get this evaluation done and see if they have autism or this, that and the other, or even just Global Developmental Delay like you just I can see where it would be really overwhelming for parents,

Courtney  
absolutely. And well, is there anything else you want to add before we sign off today with our first episode.

Addison  
Don't think so. Subscribe, share, leave us feedback. We want to know how we can improve. Like I said, we're learning, and

Courtney  
we want to know what you want to know about, yeah. Like we have ideas, but we would love to know what are the topics coming in your life? Yeah?

Addison  
So because we will dive into anything, and we will dive if we don't know, we're gonna research it. We're gonna research everything, yes, and we'll even include the research that we find. We'll include that so you can see for yourself too, yes,

um, you can give

Courtney  
Olivia a shout out. Yes,

Addison  
Olivia and Adams in our class made our T shirts. They look so good. I love them.

Courtney  
Secret talents of OTs, yeah,

Addison  
t shirt making, yeah, and poster making

Courtney  
and poster making, that was hard.

Speaker 1  
Sure it was a lot of fine motor skills. There's no way I could have done this. 

Addison  
I was holding the paint brush, just going like this. Just the worst. After I was done, I laid on the floor on my back for like 20 minutes, but you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, probably not tick tock. Oh, yeah,

Courtney  
probably not tick tock yet. No, yeah, but Instagram and Facebook, yeah, yes, and we'll be

Addison  
putting out some feed, so maybe some like, fun facts and stuff, maybe that. And tell us what you want to see on social media, right? Like, from us, right, besides the podcast and besides us. Yeah, you might get sick of our faces. You might Addison and Addison, but

Courtney  
Addison and Addison, so funny. That's too funny. Well, thank you again, and we cannot wait to have our next episode. It will be a surprise, so please join us for the next episode. Everybody. Yeah, we're not really sure what we're doing next, and that's what I mean by surprise. Yep, so, but it's going to be great. We have a long, a long list of guests coming. We're just trying to figure out who's going to come on next. Yep, yay. Alright,

Addison  
alright. Well, thanks for listening. Thanks. Thanks for listening to the while you grow podcast, if you learned something on this episode, please like, share and comment. Join us next time, as we dive into all things pediatrics, occupational therapy and other important topics around children and development, you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai