Clinical Observations: Assessment and Interpretation

  • Presenter: Teresa A. May-Benson, ScD, OTR/L, FAOTA
  • Level: Intermediate.
  • Access: All parts of the course, including assignments, must be completed within a 7 week viewing window.
  • Contact Hours: 2.0 contact hours
  • AOTA Areas: Performance Skills and Outcomes
  • Audience: Occupational therapists, OT assistants, physical therapists, PT assistants, speech and language therapists.
  • Completion Requirements: To earn contact hours for this course participants must view this course in its entirety, and successfully complete the accompanying course quiz
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Course overview

Clinical observations examine soft neurological signs, patterns of motor performance, and quality and duration of motor and sensory performance. The major areas assessed include primitive postural reflexes, co-contraction of antagonistic muscles, muscle tone, extra-ocular muscle control, vestibular system function, integration of function of the two sides of the body, praxis skills and choreoahetoid movements.

Here Teresa demonstrates how to administer a series of structured clinical observations using a sensory integration frame of reference for assessments.

This course utilizes a PowerPoint presentation, with video. Slides are available for download.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this webinar participants will be able to:
Identify structured clinical observations appropriate for assessing sensory integration challenges.

Describe the relation of a variety of clinical observations to specific types of sensory integration differences.

State how to administer and score a variety of clinical observations.

Teresa A. May-Benson,
ScD, OTR/L, FAOTA

Teresa is an expert occupational therapist renowned for her clinical research, mentoring and education related to related to sensory integration theory and intervention, praxis, and social competency. She is currently the owner/CEO of TMB Education, LLC and serves as President and practicing occupational therapist at OTR, Inc, a private occupational therapy practice specializing in sensory integration and social competency for children and adults across the lifespan, located near Philadelphia, PA. Dr. May-Benson has a diverse background as a clinical practitioner, having worked in private and public-school settings as well as private practice. She has authored numerous book chapters and articles on praxis and sensory integration and completed her doctoral dissertation on ideational praxis. Teresa is an education and research faculty member at the SPIRAL Foundation. In her role of educator, she currently serves as adjunct faculty at Widener University and is past faculty at Tufts University and the University of Indianapolis. She has received the Virginia Scardinia Award of Excellence from AOTA for her work in ideational praxis and is the 2023 recipient of the AOTF A. Jean Ayres Award.

Continuing Education:
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