{"id":5591,"date":"2017-02-03T13:17:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T18:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5591"},"modified":"2017-02-21T08:56:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T13:56:55","slug":"fun-games-offers-study-of-childhood-skills-at-e-town-active-learning-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2017\/02\/03\/fun-games-offers-study-of-childhood-skills-at-e-town-active-learning-lab\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun, games offers study of childhood skills at E-town Active Learning Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The opportunity to take newly learned information and immediately apply it in a research setting was priceless for Meghan Chemidlin.<\/p>\n

Last semester, the Elizabethtown College sophomore experienced, firsthand, milestones she\u2019d just studied in her childhood developmental class as she took part in an Active Learning Lab with fellow occupational therapy (OT) students.<\/p>\n

Crouched on the floor and at small tables with children\u2014infancy to early elementary school\u2014they made crafts, played and shared a snack. But the fun and games were far more than that. The students were studying the children\u2019s fine and gross motor skills.<\/p>\n

A simple game with colorful balloons became a peek into the children\u2019s abilities levels. Stuffing cotton balls into containers exposed maturity. Ducking under a slowly unfurling parachute was an examination of movement.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s bridging between student and professional \u2026 professional development of personal self.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As they interacted and observed, the OT students took considered the children\u2019s verbal abilities\u2014if they could understand instructions and give responses. Expectations were adjusted, accordingly, within the structure of the craft or game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the major is having a back-up plan,\u201d said Chemidlin. \u201cYou need to think on your feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we bring in kids for structured play,\u201d said Nancy Carlson, associate professor of OT. These \u201cactive learning strategies\u201d are a lot of what the sophomore OT-223 \u2013 Development and Occupations course is about. \u201cHow is a 2-year-old compared to a 4-year-old?\u201d This interaction helps students learn which toy to match to which child and how to engage them, she said.<\/p>\n

Katie Griest, marketing assistant in the Office of Marketing and Communications at Elizabethtown College, volunteered to bring her girls, Clara, 18 months, and Annie, 3 \u00bd, to the lab. She participated to help the College, she said, and give her girls more experience interacting with people they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

They worked their ways through an obstacle course, took part in a dance session, made a craft and snacked. All the while, the students interacted, adjusting activities to correspond with the girls\u2019 skills.<\/p>\n

Griest said her younger daughter was initially a bit of a challenge for the students, but they found creative activity age adjustments. \u201cIt was real-life experience, showing (the students) if this is an age group they want to work with,\u201d Griest pointed out.<\/p>\n

Carlson said the OT students also study behavior at the Children\u2019s Playroom of Lancaster County located at St. Paul\u2019s United Methodist Church in Elizabethtown. Participation helps fulfill a 15-hour \u201ccommunity based learning\u201d requirement.<\/p>\n

The youngest child to participate in the E-town program was 9 months old, Carlson said. For some of the students it was the first time they held a baby. \u201cThis helps the students develop profession behavior, knowing how to be an OT and function as they interact with the family. It\u2019s bridging between student and professional \u2026 professional development of personal self.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opportunity to take newly learned information and immediately apply it in a research setting was priceless for Meghan Chemidlin. Last semester, the Elizabethtown College sophomore experienced, firsthand, milestones she\u2019d just studied in her childhood developmental class as she took part in an Active Learning Lab with fellow occupational therapy (OT) students. Crouched on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,7],"tags":[490,1128,294],"class_list":["post-5591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-campus-community","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-occupational-therapy","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5596,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions\/5596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}