Off Topic Tuesday: A vacation ramble.

Welcome to "Animals and Aquatics in OT," hosted by Gina – occupational therapist, mom, business owner, and coach. Join Gina on a captivating journey where she blends occupational therapy with intriguing topics. In this special Off-Topic Tuesday episode, Gina explores connections between the Waldorf educational philosophy and sensory integration, delves into the world of gamification in therapy and education, and shares the healing power of nature. Tune in for fresh insights, personal stories, and a unique blend of therapy, nature, and growth. Subscribe, review, and join us for inspiring conversations on animals, aquatics, and occupational therapy.

Transcript

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Hi, welcome to animals and aquatics. I'm Gina, your host, occupational therapist, mom of three wife, business owner, coach, and more. Today, I'm going to be doing an off topic. Tuesday episode, because I just want to go and talk about some things that are on my mind as I prepare for vacation. I'm not really in the mood to sit down and pull together a formal episode and would rather just share some random things that I've been thinking about that keep popping into my mind that aren't really detailed enough, maybe for a full podcast episode, but might be fun to talk about anyway. And since part of me is really thinking about vacation already. And by the time you're listening to this, I will be on vacation. I think it'd be fun to do an off topic day. I want to start by exploring something that has caught my attention lately and I think it would be really fun to talk about a little bit. And I'm very curious if anyone else. Has made this comparison or is familiar with the Waldorf education system and, or the Waldorf philosophy. And how Rudolf Steiner's 12 sensory systems. Or 12 senses relate to what we would consider the nine sensory systems. As recognized by occupational therapy. So I've been thinking about whenever I listened to any of the Waldorf philosophy information. That I'm using. As I prepare to homeschool my children. Things that jump out at me. About the Waldorf 12 senses, make me think there are some real key. Comparisons between that and the way that we as OTs look at sensory integration and the senses. I'll give you like a little bit of background, because again, not sure how many people are familiar with Waldorf. And the Waldorf philosophy at all. And then where my mind goes when I think about it. So in the Waldorf educational philosophy, Rudolf Steiner introduced the idea of 12 senses, not just the traditional five that we think about. And then as OTs, we would go further and say, okay, there are nine systems that we would think about, but the 12 senses that Rudolph Steiner talked about were classified into three groups. So the census of the will. The census of feeling and the census of thinking. So the first four sentences in the census of will. Are ones that we are more familiar with. So touch life. Movement and balance, but in addition to those. Waldorf philosophy also recognize us for more. Taste. Smell. Warmth. And site. And usually with these senses. We think about some of the early. Childhood experiences and. That sense of touch or vitality life, senses of movement and balance, which we think of with our vestibular and proprioceptive systems. Now our senses of feeling. Also include the sense of hearing, which we think about, as one to the traditional five. But Steiner expands this to group it with the sense of speech. So speech, not just understanding language, but perceiving the underlying emotions and intentions behind the words that are being said. And. Certainly when we think about it from an OT perspective, we realize that there's a lot of children that really struggle with understanding the perceiving part. Of underlying emotions or feelings or how something might be conveyed. So I always think that's very interesting when we look at. Philosophy that's considering those already. And then since of thinking, when we look at sense of ego thought idea and concept, so self-awareness. While the census of thought or idea and concept relate to our ability to engage in. Higher level thinking or abstract concepts. And I think if we look at. Errors original work. And we, I'm just thinking of that chart that I had in my sip training. And when we look at how our basic sensory integration and sensory processing relates to those higher cognitive level abilities, It's very, again, interesting to parallel that with some of those Waldorf philosophies. If I'm going to connect them a little bit more for you. So the Waldorf senses with the sensory systems that we look at in occupational therapy, again, we can look at the traditional senses that everybody knows, touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. But then when we look at it through the Waldorf lens, there's a much broader understanding. And again, maybe that's one of the reasons why Waldorf is really appealing to me as an educational philosophy. Is because it's really very holistic and it takes in a spiritual perspective to education. And, that's something as OTs that we include that isn't included in a lot of like traditional rehab. And so then the more I learn, the more I'm fascinated by the fact that the understanding of the senses and how they come into play, especially in early childhood. Is really similar to a lot of what we look at about like how the environment can really nourish the child and the child senses. And really again, in that very early childhood and infancy period, looking at it as the child is. Sense Oregon, a sensory being, which we think about to very much is that, very early on in, in childhood, That the child is very much a sensory being right there, taking everything in. And that's part of curating the Waldorf environment is because there is a belief that the child is receptive to everything. And so therefore the environment is very curated. And so again, I just find some very interesting parallels and it's like, when I think about the Waldorf education, I can't turn my OT brain off and. We visited one of our local Waldorf schools to check it out. And it was so interesting to see how they incorporated so many different sensory pieces. And not in. The way that we're seeing it in the traditional like school system, but rather as something that was enriching for all of the children that all of the children needed it. That it was nourishing for the mind and the body and the spirit. And. Again, I think that's probably something that's drawing me very much to that philosophy. Some of the other kind of relationships. So Steiner talked about movement and balance, and those very much align with what we would look at as, proprioceptive and vestibular senses. And they really play a big role in that body awareness and motor planning piece. And looking at the opportunities again, provided for children. Was looked at as really important for enriching. The whole body. And that's one of the reasons why, from what my understanding is in Waldorf philosophy, a delay in formal academics is so that the body is really nourished by all of the senses, the movement and. The experiences there and that the thinking. And the feeling senses aren't coming into play. So early and that those early sensory experiences are really allowed to happen. In, when we think about interoception. That really correlates well with Steiner sense of life and warmth. And when we think about life and our kind of like life force. That would be, when we're not feeling well. We're just, we're feeling tired or we're feeling hungry or we're feeling like we need to go to the bathroom, that really disrupts our sense of life or life force. And also the sense of warmth, that internal self-regulation peach piece. Again, I think there's some really fun for me. Parallels again, this is why this is off topic Tuesday. Because these are things that are fun for me and the way my brain works a little bit. And the more I'm doing that work and learning and studying. And seeing those parallels with OT, the more I'm just like, wow. I wonder if anyone else's is looked at these as well. And I think that's one of the things about being an OTs. Is it doesn't, at least for me, it doesn't turn off. whatever I'm looking at is coming from. That OT perspective. And so of course, as I'm looking at. The Waldorf 12 senses. I'm looking at our OT sensory systems. And I think that. As OTs, we look at how sensory integration really impacts development and the whole person and Waldorf was looking at how the 12 senses impacted or affected overall wellbeing and vitality and development. So when we look at. The way these senses affect our daily lives or how we're putting together the environment. Again, curating the environment or even creating a therapeutic intervention. We're looking at, of course, addressing the whole person. And that very much aligns with the Waldorf philosophy. So again, very curious if anyone else. As familiar with the Waldorf philosophy or has had any of these thoughts about the 12 senses and made that comparison. That's my first off topic for, off topic Tuesday, and then. The other, my next off topic. Topic four off topic Tuesday is really a little bit of talk about gamification and this is just a fun one for me, because I'm not a gamer. I don't. Do video games. I'm. I have played, I dunno, maybe three. Video games. At like ever, I really like Oregon trail on the like CD rom. That was like a big thing for me. And I did some like theme hospital at one point. But not a gamer. And whenever I talk with people about gamification, If, especially if they don't game. like video game, they glaze over. And I think that's really interesting because gamification is really the application of game techniques in real life situations. And. I did not intend to find this bit of wisdom in my life. This was never something I thought I would find. And I was actually looking for a different framework from one of my business coaches. And it was about a 360 customer experience. And so I was like Googling and trying to remember what the framework was called and I couldn't figure it out. And as I was gaming or as I was. Trying to figure it out and Googling like what it was. I came across the framework. And. It initially identified eight core drives. And, but now there are nine. And this is something that I started learning about in, at about, I think 2019. And as soon as I learned about it, I started seeing it. Everywhere. Like all the sudden I was like, oh, That's why they're doing that. Oh, that's really interesting. Oh, now I get it. And. Then it was okay, I need to know more about this. And so I read through like the gigantically thick book. On the They'll assist framework and all of the core drives and how they relate to human motivation and human behavior. So each drive really represents. Psychological principle, that influences how we act, how we make decisions. And there's so many interesting kind of related books. Two. Learn about this because a lot of times, we think that we make decisions. In a rational way, but a lot of times we don't. And again, the more I looked into this, the more interesting it became. I had been using the core drives as domains of motivation as I started to apply them to working with clients. And then. As I went through further training with it, then I started to cause you do like a case study and I thought, like I might as well do a case study. That's functional. How OT have me write. That's functional for me. So why don't I look at my own business? And why don't I start to apply this to my business. And so that's where I started looking at the domains of human motivation, because that speaks to me much more. As an occupational therapy provider. As working with other service providers. And the domains. Oh, just go through them quickly. I'm not going to go into depth, but. They pretty much are, they speak to themselves, although there's a lot that goes behind each one. So domain one is passion and purpose. Domain two is achievement and accomplishment. Domain three is creativity and empowerment. Domain four is ownership and autonomy. Domain five is community and connection. Domain six is resources and timing. Domain seven is curiosity and novelty. Domain eight is fear and loss and domain nine is sensory and pleasure. And. It's really interesting because when you learn about the framework you learn. How. There are seasons. Of like a customer lifecycle or working with people in therapy or. How maybe a volunteer comes to work with you, right? There's lots of different ways we can apply this. And the more well-rounded our program is. In these nine domains of motivation, the more times we touch upon these different domains, especially in different phases. So the way I described the faces is MES M E S S. And. M is our marketing and outreach. He is our evaluations and intake S is our services and programs. And then the other assets success and beyond. And so different domains are really active or are best to be activated in different parts of the mess. And as I've learned about it, it was really interesting to start to apply it. Because. It could help the way that families interacted with us. It could help. Clients be more successful in their journeys, it could help volunteers and interns and students be more motivated to. Complete assignments that were important for them to complete, but then also to complete activities and projects that were really meaningful to my business. And so looking at. Putting those domains in was really interesting. And showed me some ways that I was missing out on some really simple opportunities. So I began using it, my practice, and then sharing it with others. As I was doing some coaching and mentoring and how they could use parts of it. In their work in the equine assisted services industry. And finding, whether it was applying to programs, whether it was applying to. Teams and volunteers or how that was going to impact finances and fundraising. That really started to make a difference. And it was one of the reasons why I decided to go ahead and do a conference presentation on it. At the American hypnotherapy association conference in 2021. Because I thought, if I'm using this and I'm sharing it with some other people, I'd love to take it to a conference level and share it and see what that feedback was like. And, it was definitely something that people were not aware of. It gave them a different way of looking at, again, everything from their marketing and outreach to how they were structuring their finances and fundraising and everything in between. And so many of the things are really. Easy to put in place. The techniques are really easy to put in place. Once you know what the structure is. So I've been thinking this year, coming back as an OTA professor and I would really love to add some of the elements of gamification into my semester. And one of the things we use, a program called canvas as our learning management system. And I always have to remember, it's not Canva it's canvas, and sometimes I forget which one I'm going in between as the semester rolls on, but coming back right. I'm starting to gear up for back to school season. And thinking about, okay. We're coming back. And one of the things I detest about canvas is that the way that the grading is done, it starts at a hundred percent. And so no matter what you do throughout the semester, you are going to lose GPA essentially. And it drives the students nuts because basically when they start the semester, everything has been scored at a hundred percent and no matter what they do. They're going to lose points as they go throughout the semester. And it's frustrating for me. It's frustrating for them. I would love for them to earn everything to be scored a zero. And then for them to earn points as they complete their assignments throughout the semester, but it doesn't work that way. I've been thinking about. How can I incorporate some of these domains into my work as a professor and help the students along. Different ideas that I'm starting to play around with. And I to really see what the systems. We'll allow like how this will, the systems will allow this to work, but, challenges. So creating challenges that allow students to either team up homework together or create. Continuous growth throughout the semester. As they overcome different components. And I've seen these done in some case study formats that build throughout the whole semester. Quest logs. So quest logs are a great way of allowing students to set up. At the beginning of the semester, what their final achievement throughout the semester would be, and then setting up. The quests right along the way to get to that final outcome. So that would be another option that I could have to implement for this upcoming semester. And looking at, domain six for resources and timing. We could make some time for students to explore unique learning opportunities, to give them some different experience. We could do some. Time limited activities. So putting a little bit more pressure on the timing aspect, doing special events, guest lectures, things like that, that have a sense of urgency, especially for. Attendance. different ways, again, looking at the whole picture. So domain, passion and purpose, making sure we're bringing it back to why are they here? Who do they want to help? What's their end goal, achievements and accomplishments. that's what the whole academic system. Is based off of, so that one's pretty easy. In that we're doing it already, but again, I don't like the way that canvas does it. So I'd love to come up with a better. A better solution. And. Then, creativity and empowerment. Allowing them, choices in ways to complete particular assignments. And I do this a lot already in our mental health semester because we do run a lot of psychosocial groups, but thinking about the assignments for the pediatric labs, there's definitely some areas there for creativity and empowerment. It can be really fun to play with and thinking about. How can I bring that into this semester? So it's something that's definitely been rumbling through my mind, because this is just the first time that I have offered. To formally teach. This framework to other professionals that are working in the equine assisted services industry. And how they can apply it to their business and to their organizations. And so I think offering it now as it, as a coaching framework. Now I really been thinking about bringing it back to my students and to the semester. So again, we're we're getting to that August C time where it's back to school, at least in my brain. It's a little bit back to school. And thinking about okay, I'm doing this in coaching and now how could I apply it again? Gamification is the application of game techniques in real life settings. So in my real life setting, as an OTA professor, How could I be incorporating more of that? So that way students are motivated in many different ways. And we're not relying on one or two core drive. So I think naturally the academic setting probably relies on two core drives very heavily, and that would be achievements and accomplishments, gaining things, but then also on fear and loss and that is fear of failing. And loss of points or scores. And so that's not the greatest balance. And the more I could add in some of these other domains, I think a, it would be fun from the professor side of creating that structure. But then also I think it would actually help the students in mitigating some of that. Domain eight of fear and loss, which, for some of the students where anxiety is an issue that doesn't really help learning. And I think we see that a lot in academics in that. The students are not learning the material because when they go out as practitioners, they're like, okay, this is something that I really want to embody. They're learning the material so they can pass the test and they can write the paper and they can move on to the next semester. Which is fine. it does eventually all sink in. Because in order to pass your NBC OT exam, it has to all sink in. But I think there's more to it than that. And I think that earlier on in their academic career, they can embody start to embody the principles the further that will take them, especially for our curriculum, because it's such a skill building curriculum. It's one of the things that I love about it is that, there'll be introduced to something on a very basic level. And then the next time that they're going to do it there, they're going to do that same basic level, but there's another layer to it. And so it very. Much reminds me of the Bloom's taxonomy piece. Of really layering their understanding. And although they might do it with me and pediatrics, and then they might do it again in, in their physio this semester. The expectation is very different from the first layer to the last layer. So i think that's interesting it's been something that's been bouncing around in my head and seemed very perfect for off topic tuesday As i'm thinking about going back to school here after my little Break And The other thing that's definitely been big on my mind lately is the value of nature and making sure that I'm getting outside and if you know me at all if you've met me that nature is a big part of my life We're definitely what we would we consider ourselves so describes our describe ourselves as outdoorsy people we love Being outside all seasons I'm Not the greatest cold weather person but i have much better cold weather gear now that makes it much more enjoyable And Honestly sometimes i think we get out more formally in the winter because He have to make a little bit more planning in the winter But in the summer we're just like outside all the time and just we're just doing stuff all the time so we're outdoors a lot but the camping the hiking my kids are the two Bigger the six-year-old and the three-year-old there. Bike riding and swimming and they're really good hikers they can go Three four miles which is really nice and the baby we just pack him and Thinking a little bit about how being out in nature enriches me my personal wellbeing Gives me respite and allows me to connect with my family I think it's important to Take that time And i'm able to bring it back then to my families. When i come back to work And ask them how do they De-stress how do they engage and Whether we're at the pool which doesn't seem so much as a nature based setting but certainly the element of water is extremely Grounding and natural and earthy And being with the animals being at the stable with the horses Is very much in the element of nature is very again grounding and a lot of the kids are drawn to that And thinking about how do i connect the downtime that i have when i know that i need to take a little bit of a break from work then i need to get away from the screens i need to get away From the Phone and any messages that might be coming in that I. i need to be able to Connect with the things in people that are important to me or i just need to get the noise out of my head Whatever Is playing on and on in my head and now after you've listened to this podcast you'll have a little bit of an idea of what that might be like but When i get outside And i get into nature and i'm allowed to just get into that groove and be with the kids and watch what they're doing and sit down on the rocks on the creek bed and make some scribbles and drawings or dig a little bit in the dirt and watch the baby I find it's it is that nervous system reset it is that attention restoration theory it is that ability to let go While connecting at the same time and we make it a priority to spend time outside Be unplugged be together as a family And not be doing work stuff business stuff we try to let that go at least for that little bit At time That were outside and so we just did a three-day camping trip. so it was three days two nights And i definitely think i just want to be like minimum four days three nights because that are really allows us to have that two days Of downtime without any travel On the other the other two days or i ended up having travel involved in them and that Can always be a little bit stressful when you're packing up and we got the three little ones and so getting them in the cars and the car seats going And so just that time of being out being in nature And Having no particular place to be no pertain, nothing particular to do i find is very important to me and It lets me come back with that renewed kind of passion and purpose it gives me a lot more ability to focus on what that next step Is that i'm going to focus on And when i talk to parents And we say oh well, we just went on our camping trip and a lot of times i get like oh we would love to do that but and so we can talk about some accommodations and adaptations we can talk about ways that they can take small steps towards doing that or find really family friendly ways to do some outdoor activities and when we do have the opportunity to get out to the park or to the nature preserve with our clients we find that they. they. do really well in that movement aspect so it can then it comes full circle back to my waldorf senses of movement and imbalance and life force And i find that just really interesting to then start explaining to parents like what i'm seeing through my OT eyes as we're outside and that I find that there's healing power in. nature and this is what i'm seeing therapeutically with their child when we're out and getting out into nature We've covered a lot of ground today and i hope you've enjoyed this kind of off topic adventure with me I promise i won't do it too often but that's just kinda where my brain is right now so let's recap a couple of key points that i went through we'll get ready for our next regular episode on animals and aquatics and ot coming up But as an occupational therapist i'm really curious about rudolf steiner's waldorf philosophy and really expanding even what i thought was a pretty broad Way of looking at the senses and Now looking at this philosophy and looking at the way that It views the senses and how that impacts childhood development I think that's really interesting And i hope somebody else has thought. thought about that too then i've Taking a deep dive back into the nine domains of human motivation. in my coaching learning more techniques Thanks to bring into my therapy practice And also into the classroom with my OTA students this fall and I like to think of it with the little key phrase because it's all about motivation not manipulation and I think that's a great way to look at it when we're thinking Again from that ot perspective is the more i can motivate Those who i work with and I have it be intrinsically meaningful to them the more success That they're going to see. Finally is really been important As As we're getting to the end of summer here to take some time in nature I Hit the pause button on all this crazy busy energy That's. that's been happening in my life i always find And that time in nature is a great reset for me it helps me connect with my family and myself and i really love the ability To come back to work with renewed passion and purpose for Helping others on their journey So i hope This may be has sparked your curiosity given you some fresh perspectives on the inner workings of my op topic thoughts So thanks for joining me today on animals and aquatics in ot Until next time Thanks for listening to this episode of animals and aquatics in OT. Podcast If you enjoyed it please subscribe Leave a review and share it with your friends and colleagues Don't forget to check out our next episode Where we dive into more exciting topics related to animals and aquatics Stay curious stay inspired and keep making a difference. See you next time