Well said, Tyler.

The following piece was written by Tyler Carawan, an OTA student who was also doing his Fieldwork with Susan Orloff while I was there.  It was written in conjunction with a chart that listed each child served at the clinic along with the goals of their treatment.
........................................................................................................

Improving on each of these deficits for each of these children

will have numerous social and emotional implications. Though

each child experiences his world differently, in general being

able to improve on an existing skill or develop a new skill

will have an enormous social and emotional impact throughout

the child's life.

During these early school years, OT will allow for increased

performance and success in the classroom by providing the

skills that the child needs to keep up with his academic demands.

This in turn will build confidence and many other positive feelings

in the child, as well as increasing his tolerance to criticism

and corrective remarks so that educators can steer the

child in the proper academic direction.

Success in the classroom is only a part of the puzzle. Another

piece is that many of these skills can be carried over into

sports, social activities, time spent on the playground, and

eventually these skills will be adapted by the child and carried

over into higher education, into business, and into adult

relationships that they will all have.

It is so very important to work with these children and their

learning troubles now, so that we can either remediate the

issue, or help them to learn a compensatory strategy to

increase their success. The way that they feel about learning

today, the way that they feel in front of their peers today,

and their success in the classroom today will most assuredly

define who they are as they grow, as they learn, whether they

decide to persue secondary education, how they handle the

variety or relationships in their life, and whether or not they

will be successful productive members of the work force and

successful productive members of our society.

Feeling confident about learning, feeling good about who one

is as a person, and growing upon those feelings is so very

important, and in feeling good, they will have the confidence

that they need to succeed.

                                                                   -Tyler Carawan