Ideas at Play: An Occupational Therapy (OT) Podcast

Send us a Text or Voicemail
When you think of therapy in the swimming pool, swim lessons probably come to mind. However, occupational therapy practitioners use water for so many life skills! This week, Michele dives into research from Spain that reveals how aquatic therapy can be beneficial for autistic children in OT settings. The results? Better school performance, improved social competence, and happier kids overall. Plus, Michele shares her own terrifying pool story of a little girl who loved staying under the water for a long time and the treatment strategy to ensure her safety.
We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the article too.
Güeita-Rodríguez, J., Ogonowska-Slodownik, A., Morgulec-Adamowicz, N., Martín-Prades, M. L., Cuenca-Zaldívar, J. N., & Palacios-Ceña, D. (2021). Effects of aquatic therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder on social competence and quality of life: A mixed methods study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(6), 3126. Effects of Aquatic Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder on Social Competence and Quality of Life: A Mixed Methods Study
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️  Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧  Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉  Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play

Send us a Text or Voicemail
Episode 70 calls for something special!  We tackle your real-world pediatric OT questions, from the buzzwords worth knowing to the advice that actually sticks. Thank you for being the heart of this podcast. Here's to 70 more! 
If you liked this episode, check out our first round of listener questions in episode #50.
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️  Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧  Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉  Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play

Send us a Text or Voicemail
Motor skill difficulties show up in nearly 9 out of 10 autistic kids, which means this question comes up in almost every caseload: what motor-based intervention actually works? This week we dig into a 2025 study that compares three different approaches head to head, and the findings remind us why skilled therapy is irreplaceable. And Michele talks about her session that ended with a Ziploc bag of very questionable slime. 
We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original article too.
 Arabi, S. M., & Kakhki, A. S. (2025). Comparing the effects of fine, gross, and fine-gross motor exercises on the motor competence of 6–12 year-old autistic children: A quasi-experimental study with a follow-up test. Acta Psychologica, 254, 104842. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825001556
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️  Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧  Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉  Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play

Send us a Text or Voicemail
Ever wondered how to actually do constraint-induced movement therapy? This week, we discuss a 2025 randomized trial out of Texas Women's University that ran a pirate-themed CIMT summer camp for kids with unilateral cerebral palsy — 60 hours, 10 days, and a treasure chest at the end. Arrrrr! We cover who qualifies, what a full day at camp looks like, and whether adding virtual reality (drones! robotic exoskeletons! Wii!) actually moves the needle. Plus, the TWU protocol is free, online, and basically ready to use tomorrow.
We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original article too.
Roberts, H., Clegg, N. J., Wang, W., Chapa, S., Arellano, B., Trahan, M., Reyes, F., Delgado, M. R., Ram, S., & Shierk, A. (2025). Constraint Therapy with and Without Virtual Reality for Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized Trial. Children, 12(3), 283. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12030283  
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️  Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧  Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉  Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play

Send us a Text or Voicemail
We're covering two topics that kept coming up in your emails and are linked in the literature — polyvagal theory and listening programs. Michele walks us through the principles of polyvagal theory, the recent scientific debate around it, and what a systematic review of sound-based interventions found. The polyvagal conversation is complicated and debated in neuroscience, but when it comes to the listening programs themselves, the research points somewhere surprisingly simple. 
Get the OT Evidence Checklist here to evaluate the evidence for and "red flags" against an intervention method/practice.

We share our own thoughts in the Research Review and encourage you to read the original article too.
 Vincent, V., Skaczkowski, G., Hughes-Barton, D., & Gunn, K. M. (2025). Effectiveness of sound-based interventions for improving functional outcomes in children: A systematic review of the evidence. Occupational Therapy International, 2025, Article 1693722. https://doi.org/10.1155/oti/1693722 
Stay informed, stay curious, and stay playful!
✏️  Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
📧  Email us a question or comment at IdeasAtPlayPodcast@gmail.com
👉  Find us on Instagram @ideas.at.play