Ann Kehrer

A Snapshot into the Life of an Occupational Therapist

A Day in the Life of an Occupational Therapist

As an Occupational Therapist (OT) working in Early Intervention and school districts, I often evaluate students ages 3-21. Occupational therapists use a combination of standardized testing, informal assessment, observation, and teacher/parent interview, to gather evaluation data and determine if a student has a qualifying delay and a need for school-based occupational therapy services. When not evaluating students, I work with students directly or collaborate with the educational team to support student success.

One area that OTs address in schools is fine-motor skills, which refers to precision, dexterity, and coordination of the hands. These skills allow us to use our hands to manipulate materials like pencils, containers, clothing fasteners, and little objects. There is so much more to it, though!

OTs supervise COTAs (Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants). We work closely together to develop student goals and plans of action. We strive to use evidence-based practices. We aim to have our students learn from us and graduate from occupational therapy services.

Want to know one of my favorite activities of all time..one that students thoroughly enjoy…and is so easy to do? See below:

  • Wash out an old parmesan cheese container.
  • Have children place small items such as cotton balls, cotton swabs, straws, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, or small erasers into the openings of the container.
  • Children can also use kitchen tongs or scoops to place the items inside.
  • You can even decorate the top or pretend to make it look like a mouth to “eat” the items.
  • Easily change the activity to keep your child’s interest by changing the materials in the container, changing the color of the materials, changing the tools used to pick up the objects, etc.
  • Work on in-hand manipulation skills by having the student hold a few of the objects, pom-poms for example, in the palm of their hand, and using their fingers only (on the same hand) to bring the things from the palm to the tips of the thumb and index finger before placing in the holes.

Get to Know Our Ambassador

Transcript

Welcome to BLaST the Airwaves with BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. Here at BLaST Intermediate Unit 17, we strive to transform lives and communities through educational services. On this podcast, we will provide you with educational solutions for all, no matter the learning environment. So teachers, administrators, caregivers, what are you waiting for? What would happen if we started questioning “What if”? What if we had a positive perspective on education? What if we flipped the switch on education? What if we were the solution?

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Ann Kehrer, one of BLaST Ambassadors here at BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. Within our organization, Ann serves as an occupational therapist for ESS, our sister partner organization. Ann, thanks for joining us today to discuss your role within our organization and your experiences throughout the Ambassador program. Are you ready to blast the airwaves?

“I sure am.”

“So why don’t we start by telling us a little bit more about yourself and your role as an occupational therapist here at BLaST IU 17.”

“Well, I’m an occupational therapist and I’ve worked through BLaST, or ESS as a contracted employee for BLaST for 16 years now, hard to believe. I have over 22 years of experience as an occupational therapist in different areas of practice and back when I first started working, I never thought I would work for more than five years in one area or place of employment. That was kind of my five year plan I decided, just because I enjoy learning new things and expanding my horizon, so to speak.

But then I landed this job with BLaST. I changed my mind obviously on that five year rotation plan because I feel that I’m still continuing to grow and learn each and every day as a person and within my profession. I absolutely love what I do, and I’m so thankful to have the job that I have. I work with an excellent group of therapists and other professionals that have, I’ve been able to learn so much from them.

So as a pediatric school-based occupational therapist, I work with children from ages three to 21. I work in early intervention, which is the program that provides services to children ages three to five, before they go to kindergarten. And then I also do school-based services, which start at age five or whenever they enter kindergarten and goes until they graduate from school.

Occupational therapists are support systems in the school. So if a child has a disability and needs assistance to support their ability to make educational progress, we work with the student, teachers or other school staff to help the students succeed in school.”

“Wow! You do a lot of things within our organization, and that’s one of the things I’m loving in this ambassador program is learning about everyone else’s different and unique roles here. So we are lucky to have you, and I’m glad it’s been 16 years and you didn’t stick with your five year plan. So we’ve also spent a lot of time within our ambassador program discussing the intermediate unit as a system and how our system impacts and collaborates with other systems, either at the local level or the state level or the regional level. We are very unique in many ways as an intermediate unit. Can you share with our listeners why you chose the intermediate unit “life” or what you enjoy about working at an intermediate unit.”

“Sure. So like I mentioned earlier, occupational therapists, we can work in so many areas of practice. There’s hospitals, nursing homes, hand therapy, home health, the list goes on and on. I came to choose the IU, I was working for a hospital system and in a nursing home. I was just looking for a change of pace and I had had my first child at home with me and so the IU was looking to hire occupational therapists, I applied and I got the position. I had the kindest supervisor who fully understood that I did not speak the language of school-based practice and was willing to teach me and mentor me along the way. She was a speech therapist by trade, so I did have to do a lot of research on my own, which was really good for me, I think. So now I can relate to parents who don’t quite understand the word of education and what the IU is or what it does, and I try to help these families navigate the opportunities that the IU can provide. There are a lot of things that I enjoy about working in the IU. The first and foremost is that I get to play and have fun with children every day. I always say that if we aren’t having fun as therapists, then there’s a really good possibility that the student you’re working with is also not having fun. So I get to play and have fun every day with my students and my coworkers. I’ve also loved that I work for an employer that promotes continuing education and personal as well as professional growth.”

“Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s also, you know, the pace of an IU is a very unique pace. It is very quick and it’s “no day is the same”, truly. So I would agree with you on that, thank you. So now that we’ve talked about your “why” for an intermediate unit, what’s your “why” as an occupational therapist? Why did you choose this specialty area and what advice might you give to any listeners who might be looking to get into that field or area of expertise?”

“So, yeah, the beauty of occupational therapy is the variety that it provides. I often also say that every day at my job, the time just flies by. I’m busy and I’m active, and the workday doesn’t drag on, which I love. Occupational therapy is a brilliant career path for those reasons. You can find your area that you’re passionate about and then find such a variety of opportunities even within just that one area. So my advice for someone that may be interested in the field of occupational therapy would be to go and job shadow N.O.T. for a day maybe, and find two or three different therapists to shadow that work in different areas of practice and see how diversified our field is.
Of course, the internet can also help to provide a glimpse into what we do and so doing some online research into the career would be beneficial as well but overall I recommend that if a person is thinking about occupational therapy, to just keep an open mind. You may go to school and think you wanna work in pediatrics or in a nursing home or wherever, but then have difficulty finding a job in that area and so you have to be open to pivoting and learning a different area of expertise, which will help you grow as a person and a professional as long as you keep an open mind and an open heart.”

“Yeah. Wow! I love that. In this ambassador program, and you mentioned shadowing there for a little bit, we have really valued the idea of a shadow experience within the program for ambassadors so that you can understand even the intermediate unit as a whole. So,we do have you shadowing someone outside of your division or program which I assume, is pretty exciting. I would love to be able to have all of the experiences you all had.Who or what program did you shadow?”

“I did the technology department of IU.”

“That’s right. That is a very big division here at our IU. So what did you notice or learn about your day with the technology division?”

“I had so much fun that day. Something that I noticed with the tech department and I compared to similarities with a job in occupational therapy is there are so many different facets of the technology department. I didn’t realize that they were just the kindest group of ladies and gentlemen, and it was eye-opening to me to think about how often the world of technology changes and evolves and all the learning they have to do to stay on top of those advancements. They really have to be self-driven to continue to learn the latest and greatest technology advances and so for that reason and many other reasons, I really appreciate their work and knowledge so much.

“Yeah. I know there were a lot of ahas that we had after we debriefed about your job shadow experience and, and realizing like, “Oh my gosh, if the internet goes down, like that’s our tech people that are two in the morning out there you know, fixing the lines”, I’m not gonna talk like I know the technology terminology, but doing all the work in the back end and sometimes that goes unnoticed so I’m glad you had a great experience.”

“Yes, it was great.”

“The other thing, you know, each year we run this ambassador program. You are, your cohort is our first cohort so we’re gonna start another class next year. Can you share your biggest takeaway from this program for any aspiring ambassadors for BLaST IU 17?”

“Sure. I had many takeaways from being a part of the Ambassador program. A large one I would say is the camaraderie that I had with my fellow ambassadors.I feel we’re a group of professionals who look at the glass as half full, not half empty. We know that we can rely on one another to spread a message of positivity and I think when we think about change, society overall has a negative view on change in our organization. I feel like this group of ambassadors has worked together to establish a culture of positive change and spread a message that changes can be good. But, I also see it throughout our programs at the IU. We all really have tough jobs.
“Mm-hmm.”
“We all work really hard but ultimately we came to the IU to make an impact on our community. And so it’s really important to highlight those times when positivity is happening and those times are happening every day so it’s important that we’re highlighting those.”

“Wonderful! So I couldn’t agree more with you and you know, it goes right with our vision of transforming lives and it’s not just, you know, in the classroom, but also in our communities. It’s one thing that draws me to the IU as well. Every season we have my favorite part and it’s our “BLaST Five”. So I’m gonna “blast” you, no pun intended, with like five rapid questions that you’ll quickly answer with one word so we,our listeners get to know you a little bit more, and they’re related a little bit to the self-care and getting to know you outside of the workplace. So ready for us to blast you with five questions?

“Absolutely”

“All right. Your favorite genre of music?
“I listen to country in my car.”
“Do you listen to another genre when you’re not in your car?”
“Yeah, sometimes I like folk music or classical. If I’m doing work for work when I’m doing my paperwork, that’s what I listen to.”
“Okay. There we go. What about your favorite read? Do you have an author or a genre of book?”
“I love murder mysteries- my favorite series, probably of all time, was the Hunger Games, believe it or not.”
“Okay. All right. What about your favorite Netflix or TV show?”
“So I recently watched on Hulu, Little Fires Everywhere, and Only Murders in the Building, and I, I loved them.”
“All right. I’ll have to check those out. Favorite food or restaurant?”
“Mexican, because I don’t get it very often. My husband doesn’t care for it. Some good fried ice cream, delicious!”
“Wonderful. And what about your favorite motto or quote that you live by?”
“The first one that pops into my head,I tell my kids all the time. “If you are bored, then you are boring.”
“Ooh. It goes with what you said earlier. If you’re not having fun, they’re not having fun. Or if they’re not having fun, you’re not having fun.”
“Exactly.”
“So, wonderful! Well, Ann, we cannot thank you enough for your time today. We know our listeners enjoyed it too. I’m sure they might want to connect with you further and so if our listeners would want to connect with you or want to learn more about occupational therapists, you can, listeners, you can check out www.iu17.org and visit our ambassador page so you can connect with Ann and she is more than willing, I’m sure, to connect with you. So Ann, this has been a blast. Again, thank you for taking some time today to blast the airwaves with us and our listeners, and it is a pleasure as always, to connect with you and especially have you on our podcast. So take care and let’s talk again soon!”
“Thanks!”

We would like to thank you for blasting the airwaves with us today. If you like the show, please subscribe or leave a review. If you want to know more, check out www.iu17.org for further resources and show notes. As always, we want to thank you for what you do every single day. Remember, keep shining! We’ll be back next episode to provide you another educational solution for all as we continue to transform lives and communities through educational services.

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