Issue Highlights: Helping Children Page 1, 3

Making a Difference Page 1, 3

Service and Therapy Dogs Page 4

Anatomy of Love Page 5

Occupational therapist Catherine Hoyt, OTD ’10, OTR/L, heads to north St. Louis to see a family whose child has sickle cell disease. In her car are books and toy blocks. In her mind are blossoming ideas of ways to involve the child and her family in activities designed to enhance learning. “To help a child truly engage, you have to know what their home environment is like,” Hoyt says. “I meet with more than 20 families each month in their own homes.” Hoyt, a parent educator in addition to being an occupational therapist, runs a unique version of the internationally recognized Parents as Teachers (PAT) Program

out of the Child Health and Education Laboratory in the Program in Occupational Therapy. The goal for all the programs is to coach parents or caregivers on how to interact and play with children to optimize their chances for learning. In the case of Hoyt’s program, she focuses on families that have a child with sickle cell disease that was

diagnosed at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “I seek out families with infants and toddlers so that we can identify challenges as soon as possible and provide the support and resources

A mathematical model developed by faculty in the Program in Occupational Therapy confirms that factors beyond physical or medical concerns can impact a chronically ill child’s ability to learn. The model, created in the Program’s Child Health and Education Laboratory, showed that significant environmental factors, such as a child’s IQ, family income or poverty level, and the level of education of the head of the household all have a huge impact.

“We found that these risk factors had an equal if not greater impact than the physical or medical concerns,” says pediatric hematologist/oncologist Allison King, MD, MPH, who heads the laboratory.

“It’s not a common belief, but more and more people are beginning to think this way.”

King has thought this way for more than a decade, researching how social factors or a home environment can contribute to an ability to learn. She and her team focus on children with chronic illness, specifically those diagnosed with sickle cell anemia or children with brain tumors and some cancers. The umbrella that links these children, she says, is that they all have chal-lenges of thinking and learning as a result of their disease. Children with sickle cell disease (SCD), in particular, have multiple challenges. Studies indicate that up to 40 percent of high school-aged students with SCD don’t complete high school within four years. They often live at or near poverty levels. “We want to know what happens with the disease that impacts the classroom,” King says. “We then want to bridge the gap between the hospital and the school to improve children’s opportunities to learn.” King and her colleagues in occupational therapy and

Program in Occupational Therapy Campus Box 8505, 4444 Forest Park Ave. St. Louis, MO 63108-2212 (314) 286-1600 / (800) 279-3229 (314) 286-1651 (TDD) wuotinfo@wusm.wustl.edu • ot.wustl.eduOccupational Therapy

Helping Children Overcome Challenges

Making a Difference in the CommunityCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

O.T. Link

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Using the Parents as Teachers Model in Occupational Therapy

Child Health and Education Laboratory

Program in Occupational Therapy • Washington University School of Medicine • Fall 2013

Catherine Hoyt

Allison King in the laboratory with Kristen Tam, OTD/S 14.

From the Director

T he fall semester is well underway! On August 22, 2013, we welcomed 86 incredible students to the Program in Occupational Therapy. Our newest students come from

24 states and range in age from 21 to 35. The most represent-ed undergraduate majors are psychology, biology and kinesiology. These students have met our rigorous admission requirements and are intelligent, driven and involved. One of these students is Sarah Adam, MSOT/S ’15, and you can read more about her and her involvement in training support dogs on page 4. This summer was a busy and exciting time for the Program. Joseph Brey, OTD/S ’13, and Cambey Mikush, OTD/S ’13, were named 2013/14 Emerging Leaders Partici-pants by the American Occupational Therapy Association, and you can read more on page 6. Tim Wolf, OTD ’07, MSCI, OTR/L, received a grant from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience for his New Resource Proposal, a pre/post study to look at white matter tract changes following metacognitive strategy training to provide pilot data for an application to National Cancer Institute. Sue Tucker, MSOT ’02, OTR/L, ATP, is an assistant coach for the U.S. Paralympics Wheelchair Rugby team and Team USA won gold at the Denmark Wheelchair Rugby Challenge and the Tri Nations tournament in Australia. Kerri Morgan, MSOT ’98, OTR/L, ATP, won three medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships – a silver in the women’s 800m, a bronze in the women’s 100m, and a silver in the women’s 200m. The feature article in this issue of the O.T. Link spotlights Allison King, MD, MPH, her students and staff in the Child Health and Education Laboratory. On page 5, we feature alums Lisa Dumke Seymour, OTD/S ’13 and Greg Seymour, OTD/S ’13, and Jessica Sweeney Sparrow, OTD ’06 and Jason Sparrow, OTD ’06, two couples who met as students in our Program and are now married. I am so proud of our alumni and students and know

M. Carolyn Baum

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how committed you are to the Program. We are successful because of your support and I am grateful to be a part of this success. Our newly designed website at www.ot.wustl.edu went live in the spring and I hope you have visited the site. An important new feature is the Toolbox, which was designed for our alumni. Found in the top navigation bar of the website, the Toolbox provides cloud storage in which our alumni can store files such as practice models, intervention resources and assessments. You can read more about the Toolbox on page 7. Please keep in touch and let us know your successes and accomplishments to share with all our alumni.

M. Carolyn Baum, PhD, OTR, FAOTA

Professor of Occupational Therapy, Neurology and Social WorkElias Michael Executive Director,

Program in Occupational Therapy

Pat Nellis Joins Program as Manager of Clinical and Community Services

Pat Nellis, MBA, OTR/L, joined the Program in Occupational Therapy as manager of clinical and community services. She is responsible for the development, administration and strategic growth of all practice and community service initiatives of the Program in Occupational Therapy.

In addition to supervising and coaching the professional and administrative staff, she works with faculty to build practice initiatives that support the knowledge translation from their research laboratories.

Pat brings extensive experience as manager of rehabilita-tion services in a large academic medical center, a community hospital and two for-profit rehabilitation companies where she collaborated with rural hospitals, physicians, home health agencies, school-based services and nursing homes.

Pat Nellis

Bill Janes Named Quarterly Editor for AOTA Technology SIS

Bill Janes, OTD ’11, MSCI, OTR/L, instructor in occupational therapy and neurosurgery, has been named Quarterly Editor for the AOTA Technology SIS. He is seeking potential authors and topics for quarterly newsletters and continuing education articles through 2016. If you see or hear about any innovative uses of

technology in occupational therapy practice or education, please email him at wjanes@wustl.edu.

Bill Janes

pediatrics conduct research, work with children and family in clinical practices, and reach out to families directly in their own homes. The research projects include developing and evaluating an early intervention program for newborns with SCD and studying the relationship between maternal health and child development in families with SCD.

On the advocacy front, the team organizes a multitude of public health activities to increase community awareness of SCD, which is vital as children age. One in 500 African Americans are born with sickle cell disease. Up to one in 12 have sickle cell trait. “The problem is that if you have sickle cell trait and not the actual disease, it falls to the back of the mind and then that knowledge falls through the cracks when they get older and can have kids themselves,” Dr. King says. “We want to increase trait testing in teens and adults for that reason.” Ashley Housten, OTD/S ’14, a student in the laboratory, is focused on teaching healthy sexual behaviors and includ-ing educational information about the genetic traits of sickle cell disease to both high school nurses and students. King also is working with Washington University education specialists to partner with St. Louis area schools and public housing authorities to enhance the educational infrastruc-ture for SCD families. The laboratory also contributes occupational therapy for young adults with sickle cell disease. SCD patients need to be on daily medications, and King says there is a critical need to identify ways to ensure compliance with medica-tions. Her team is funded to pilot two phone applications that either send medication reminders or collect data on patient outcomes. In another groundbreaking project, occupational therapists also have created their own parenting and developmental support program, modeled after Parents as Teachers (see story page 1).

“This is a disease in which we can partner science with policy and advocacy and shift people’s mindsets,” says King. “My hope is that if we continue to show proof of principle and illustrate that these interventions work, we can change policy and standard practice.”

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necessary to minimize those deficits, whether through therapy or referrals.” Hoyt uses the PAT model as an intervention, hoping that she can document long-term improved outcomes for children with sickle cell disease. Research shows that children with SCD have a higher risk of difficulty in learning once they reach school age. Economic and education factors that are present in the home environment also increase the risk of delayed learning. “Children who grow up in families with low income or low education backgrounds typically have less opportunities to learn,” Hoyt explains. “And that gap gets bigger and bigger every year.” She spends one day a week in the hospital’s SCD clinic approaching families and offering occupational therapy services through her PAT program. The rest of the time she’s travelling to homes of families that agree to participate. “We first conduct a developmental evaluation, looking at cognitive, language and motor development to see if there is a severe delay,” Hoyt says. “We also look at parental stress and the home environment.” Parental acceptance of the program is high, especially with families who have infants recently diagnosed with SCD. “They don’t know what to do or how to help their child, and my role is to help them learn how to teach their own children. Parents are a child’s first teacher, so if we can get them off on the right foot, the results are very good.” Hoyt has offered her SCD-specific PAT program for the past three years and hosts picnics twice a year for all of the families enrolled. “I came into occupational therapy wanting to help underserved families,” she says. “I continue to do this because when I get families who appreciate what I’ve done and they say that I have changed their lives, that’s everything. It keeps me going.”

MAKING A DIFFERENCE CONTINUED FROM COVER

Hoyt travels to homes of families participating in her PAT program.

Regina Abel, PhD, reviews data with Housten in the Child Health and Education Laboratory.

Allison King

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Future clients might include someone like Kerri Morgan, MSOT ’98, OTR/L, ATP, an instructor in occupational therapy and neurology and two-time paralympian bronze medalist. Her service dog, Twix, was trained by C.H.A.M.P. Assistance Dogs, Inc., a not-for-profit that places dogs free of charge to qualifying individuals in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Twix, a black Labrador retriever, provides aid and companionship, which makes Kerri’s daily life easier. Twix’s tasks include picking up items, such as keys and shoes off the floor, retrieving items and opening doors. As a companion, Twix provides security and peace of mind. “In general, having a service dog makes me feel more secure. Just her presence alone makes me feel safer,” says Morgan. “And at the end of day, I have less pain because of the assistance she provides. That’s been a huge benefit to me.”

C.H.A.M.P. also trains therapy dogs like Dolly, who works with Regina Abel, PhD, a staff scientist in the Child Health and Education Laboratory in the Program of Occupational Therapy. Abel has been involved in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for more than 13 years,

with her first therapy dog, Kela, and now with Dolly, a small terrier mix. Abel and Dolly make scheduled visits to places including The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis (TRISL), where therapy dog teams work directly with physical, occupational and speech therapists during therapy sessions. The dogs become therapy tools and, with each subsequent visit, become more adept at meeting patient needs. “The only limit is in the imagination of the therapist, handler, patient and sometimes even the dog. The dogs are amazing motivators and can encourage extra effort while providing a welcome diversion to what can become physically and emotionally exhausting rehabilitation,” says Abel. “I have worked with patients who were previously unresponsive until a therapy dog was utilized. Brushing or sometimes just petting a dog can improve strength and mobility in an arm that has been damaged by stroke or injury. Dogs also com-mand attention and are frequently used in cognitive and speech therapy.” During her first month in the Program, Adam met with both Morgan and Abel to discuss her interest in AAT and her hope to do research in utilizing AAT in a therapeutic envi-ronment for children with autism. She is also in the process of looking for another dog to train. “There is a lot to consider when deciding whether or not to train a service dog. It is a big time commitment and a lot of responsibility,” Adams says. “Luckily, the faculty in the Program in Occupational Therapy have been amazingly supportive.”

More Than Man’s Best FriendThe Training and Use of Service and Therapy Dogs

Asuccessful service or therapy dog is the result of countless

hours of training, patience and dedication. As an undergraduate student at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., Sarah Adam, MSOT/S ’15, became involved with Viking Pups, a service group on campus that trains service dogs for people in the community with disabilities. “I had heard the great things that dogs could do to help alleviate some of the daily challenges in the lives of people with special needs and knew I wanted to be a part of that,” says Adam, who worked hard at demonstrating her commit-ment to the group. “At the start of my senior year, I was chosen to be a foster and team leader to Bobo, a yellow Labrador retriever.” As his foster, Sarah lived off campus with “Bo.” As his team leader, Sarah was responsible for scheduling his training and participation in Viking Pup community events. Bo began his training with the basics of “sit,” “down” and “stay.” It immediately became apparent that Bo was not only a smart, calm and loving dog, but he was able to pick up on the emotions of those around him. Sarah and the other trainers could tell he would be a perfect fit for their new client, a 15-year-old girl with Williams Syndrome. “It is difficult to put a number on how many hours per week we spend training the dogs, because they never leave our side. We had different formal training sessions with all of

our dogs three times a week for about an hour, with 15-minute mini-training sessions every day,” recalls Adam. “However, every time I left the house with Bo to go to class, to the grocery store, to a restaurant or to work, he was training for his future client.”

Kerri and Twix on the racing track.

Sarah Adam and Bo

Regina Abel and Dolly

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W ho would have thought that the anatomy lab in

the Program in Occupa-tional Therapy would be a place for romance? For two couples, at least, taking the anatomy course and participating in study groups became the impetus for love and marriage. “It started very casual,” says Lisa Dumke Seymour, OTD/S ’13, who married Greg Seymour, OTD/S ’13, in May 2012. “I think it was the first day of class and Greg and I went to eat with another classmate and then we were in a small anatomy study group together. There were six of us.” Study groups, of course, are encouraged in the Program to keep up with the coursework. Small class sizes make it easy to form friendships and many students in the occupational therapy program not only study together but also have fun around town. From the start, Lisa and Greg were almost inseparable. “All of the clichés came true that when you know, you just know,” says Lisa. “We clicked in terms of laughing a lot together and caring for each other.” The first semester, the two tried to keep their blossoming relationship quiet. “One of the professors saw us holding hands under the table, so word soon got around that we were dating,” Lisa laughs. “Actually, one of our professors knew that we were engaged before our parents!” Greg Seymour took Lisa back to the site of their first date to celebrate her birthday in 2011. “I surprised her with a new Coach wallet and a purse,” he says. “The tradition in my family is that you give a penny whenever you get a new purse or wallet, so I pulled out a ring box. When she opened it there was just a penny in place of the ring and I told her about our family tradition. I then pulled out the actual ring and hopped down on one knee and proposed. We had only been dating for five months, so a lot of people thought we were crazy. But we just knew.” They spent most of their second year in the Program planning their wedding in between classes and homework. Says Greg, “We had six of our classmates at the wedding, which was great.”

Greg and Lisa are now in Chicago to complete appren-ticeships. Lisa, who has a master’s degree in human develop-ment and family studies from Auburn University in addition to her OTD, is focused on early intervention, working for a private agency that offers early intervention services in the homes of children with autism, Down syndrome, or who are premature. Greg is involved in a research study in Chicago that is evaluating the efficacy of video games as rehabilitation for people with brain injuries. Jessica Sweeney, OTD ’06, completed the 3-2 combined occupational therapy degree program at Washington University. She met her husband, Jason Sparrow, OTD ’06, in class. They were friends for more than a year before dating. “We explored St. Louis with friends doing things like float trips, BBQs, visits to local wineries and attending Cardinals games,” says Sweeney. “But most memorably, was the time we ended up together examining a cadaver in anatomy lab!”

Day hikes were also part of their regular routine and on a trip to a bed and breakfast in Mississippi, Jason proposed to Jessica after what she says was “a beautiful hike around the lake.” They were married in 2009. Both say that choosing St. Louis as the site of their wedding was

an easy decision. “St. Louis was the perfect central location between Jason’s hometown of Quincy, Ill., my hometown of Antioch, Ill., and Memphis, Tenn., where we had planted new roots after graduation,” explains Jessica. They were married in Washington University’s Graham Chapel with not only family present, but also friends and professors from the occupational therapy program. “That was very important to us,” Jessica says. Jason, whom his wife calls a ‘natural leader,’ now works for Rehab Care as the senior program director assisting with operations in Tennessee and Alabama. Jessica is an AOTA board-certified pediatric practitioner and serves as a lead occupational therapist for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Says Jessica, “The wonderful benefit of the Program in Occupational Therapy has been our ongoing connections with former classmates and professors who are now colleagues and who remain as important influences and sources of knowledge and inspiration for us.” Adds Lisa, “Who’d have thought we would find love and a degree at the same time? It makes our time in the Program both rewarding and very special.”

Alumni NewsAnatomy of Love

Greg and Lisa Seymour

Jessica and Jason Sparrow

Please Send Us Your Email Address!Save a tree and send us your email address to get future versions of the O.T. Link digitally.

Email wuotinfo@wusm.wustl.edu.

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Global Health Scholars program, which sends doctors to several coun-tries across the globe. Parul Bakhshi, PhD, research assistant professor in occupational therapy and surgery, along with several occupational therapy students, staffed the Program’s booth and distributed materials that highlighted the various research projects (recent and current) in countries such as India, China, Morocco and Tunisia. The event provided the opportunity to showcase the many initiatives that the Program in Occupational Therapy has taken with regards to international perspectives and global health.

Student NewsTwo Program Students Selected for AOTA’s Fourth- Annual Emerging Leader Development ProgramJoseph Brey, OTD/S ’13, and Cambey Mikush, OTD/S ’13, were selected for AOTA’s fourth annual Emerging Leaders Development Program. The program gives students and practitioners the tools and training to become strong leaders within occupational therapy and to help the profession achieve the goals of the Centen-nial Vision. Joe and Cambey attended the face-to-face institute, held August 15 and 16 at AOTA headquarters in Bethesda, Md. The institute brought together 17 young occupational therapy professionals and students from around the country to learn how to better develop their leadership capa-bilities. Along with leadership training, the program will provide ongoing mentorship while identifying needs for service within AOTA.

Global Health Week Brings Awareness to International and Global InitiativesThe third annual Global Health Week took place September 23-27, 2013. The goal of the week is to highlight the projects and achievements in global health, specifically at the Wash-ington University Medical and Danforth campuses, but also to highlight the efforts of many community partners that work in global health issues. On Monday and Tuesday, residents, faculty, staff and community partners presented to area schools and engaged in community service. On Wednesday through Friday, the Program in Occupational Therapy took part in the Global Village, which was set up in the Ellen S. Clark Hope Plaza. The booth rental at the Global Village help raise funds for the

Spotlight: Juan Pablo Saa, OTD/S 15Post-Professional OTD (PPOTD) Student, Program in Occupational TherapyI decided to pursue the PPOTD to further develop my professional skills as an occupational therapist through fieldwork and research. I chose Washington University in St. Louis because of its status as one of the best schools in the nation for occupational therapy. I also like the faculty members here; everyone was very hospitable and welcoming when I came to visit. The Program’s research areas are of interest to me, especially neurorehabilitation.

I want to get to a point in my career where I can balance research, clinical work and teaching. I want to practice in the U.S. for a few years and, when the time allows it, bring some knowledge back to my country (Chile) in order for us to keep developing the profession.

Cambey Mikush

Joe Brey

Cambey Mikush (left) and Parul Bakhshi (right) at the booth.

Please Donate to the Program in Occupational Therapy

Scholarship FundPlease help support future occupational therapists

with a donation to the Program in Occupational Therapy Scholarship Fund. A gift to the Program fills an immediate need by lessening the debt burden on our students, allowing them to focus on their education

and training. Donations also may be made in honor or in memory of an individual. Checks should be payable

to Washington University and mailed to:

The Program in Occupational TherapyWashington University School of Medicine

4444 Forest Park Ave., Campus Box 8505St. Louis, MO 63108

Rachael Baum, OTD/S 14, gave local presentations in the community for fall prevention awareness the week of September 22-28, 2013.

WUSOTA’s Advocacy Committee helped promote AOTA’s National Backpack Awareness Day across campus on September 18, 2013,.

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Social CircleTweets We Love:

@WUSTLOT No Problem! The WUSTL Program has provided us with so many volunteers that we can’t say

THANKS enough !!! - @DASAsports

www.twitter.com/WUSTLOT

What’s in Your Toolbox?

Student Happenings

The annual Program in Occupational Therapy Picnic on August 29, 2013, was a great success!

Students participated in the Alzheimer’s Walk on August 31, 2013.

Students visited with Kathy Kniepmann (far left) at Orientation 2013.

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New Feature on Program Website Provides Cloud Storage for Graduates Our newly redesigned Program website was launched in March. One of the features incorporated into the new design is the Toolbox, which provides cloud storage in which our graduates can store files such as practice models, interventions, resources and assessments at no cost. To utilize the Toolbox, you need only register an account with us by clicking on the Toolbox button found in the top navigation bar. Current students or recent graduates can access the Toolbox with their WUSTLKey login information. For each individual document upload, the maximum file size is 10MB. Allowed file types are Excel, PDF, Powerpoint, Text, Rich Text, and Word. We are not allowing photo or video files at this time. If you have an additional file type you would like considered, or if you have general questions about the Toolbox, please email wuotinfo@wusm.wustl.edu.

To utilize the Toolbox, you will need to register an account by clicking on the Toolbox button found in the top navigation bar (circled above).

Program in Occupational TherapyWashington University School of MedicineCampus Box 85054444 Forest Park Ave. St. Louis, MO 63108-2212

Occupational T herapy

The Program in Occupational Therapy is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), located at 4720 Montgomery Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814-3449. ACOTE’s telephone number,

c/o AOTA, is (301) 652-AOTA and its web address is www.acoteonline.org.

Upcoming EventsApril 3-6, 2014AOTA 94th Annual Conference & ExpoBaltimore, MD www.aota.org/Conference-Events/ Annual2014.aspx

There will be a Program in Occupational Therapy Alumni Reception. More information to follow. April 25, 2014OT Scholarship Day Eric P. Newman Educational Center (EPNEC) 320 S. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110Registration information to come at: ot.wustl.edu

May 16, 2014Commencement

Please visit us at ot.wustl.edu and on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for more Program news!

Program in Occupational Therapy Commencement 2013.

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