Natalie Jatulis

Final Graduation Project Reflection

This graduation project has taught me a lot. It began with my picking a topic that I

am passionate about. I decided to choose how Occupational Therapy (OT) is the best

treatment for Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD). I chose this because it is something

that I grew up around that always intrigued me. I wanted to learn more about how

exactly OT works and how it is able to decrease symptoms of SPD. I learned most of

what I needed to through my research for my junior paper. It was incredibly interesting

to learn about, but I wanted to be able to also learn about it first hand. This is where my

service learning experience came into effect. I chose to shadow a pediatric occupational

therapist.

Through my service learning I was able to see how a child's behavior changed

quickly through the session and also long term from OT as a whole. This was so

fascinating to me that I wanted to be able to contribute to these incredible changes. I did

so with my product. For my product I created a card game. Each card has an activity

that will either help calm or stimulate an overstimulated or under responsive child. The

cards all have a positive affect on both. During my last shadowing session I brought the

card game in to play with a child who has struggled with SPD for quite some time. The

response to the game was incredible. This particular kid has trouble staying on task and

staying focused, so it can be difficult to stay structured through an OT session. This

game kept him interested for over 40 minutes. He was excited to keep picking a new
card and doing that activity. By the end he was much more calm and comfortable then

when he came in. I was amazed and extremely proud of this.

The easiest part of the whole project was either the shadowing that I did or

putting together the project. This is due to how interesting and fun both of these were for

me. I was continuously excited to go to each appointment and work on my product. It

was so fun to be able to be creative with my product and really have fun with it. There

was never and problems that arose and it was always very exciting.

Overall I am very happy with my project, how it all went, and how much I learned.

I genuinely had fun with it and I learned much more than I expected to. If I had to do it

all over again the only thing I would do differently would be to shadow more kids at

other offices. I loved getting to have this experience. This made me very excited to work

towards becoming a pediatric OT and it reassured me that I am on the right path.