Internship & Interprofessional Experiences

While on internship at IWK, I created and piloted a fundamental movement skills program for children with autism spectrum disorder. For this pilot, I hosted four sessions over the span of four weeks targeting running, jumping, throwing, and catching skills. Additionally, each session had a section dedicated to loose parts free play. During the creation of this program, I conducted a literature review to identify best practices and results from similar interventions. Throughout the implementation of my pilot program, I got to practice professionalism, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation & documentation, and administration. 

During my time at the IWK I had the opportunity to create and run an interprofessional education session which was based on philosophies used in kids rehab while also connecting how recreation therapy fits into those philosophies. I facilitated this session to the interprofessional team including components of leisure education and solution focused coaching. Additionally to follow the APIE process I got participants to complete an evaluation of the power hour to gather feedback to gain a better understanding of things that went well and things which could be changed in the future. 

During my internship I gained a deeper knowledge of how to conduct assessments with clients. This required gathering information prior to assessments to gain an understanding of the client, engaging in active listening, practicing solution-focused  coaching, and establishing rapport with the client. Additionally, documentation was a skill I gained through learning to write clear and concise progress notes documenting assessment results and the goals moving forward for clients. Initial assessments gave me an opportunity to practice professionalism, assessment, planning,  and evaluation and documentation. 

The IWK Kids Rehabilitation Recreation Therapy department has an expansive equipment loan program where adapted equipment is available to be loaned to families or schools for a period of time. This equipment often enables children to participate in gym class, during recess, or at home with their family. They have adapted bikes, trikes, sledges, sport wheelchairs, life-jackets, snow sleds, and a variety of adaptive accessories. This tied heavily into implementation as we had to assess the fit of the equipment, and make adjustments to best suit the clients needs.