Observation From the Past and What That Means to Me Now

When gaining my observation hours prior to applying to OT school, I remember a certain instance in which I was observing an OT working in a school system. She was very often working with students who had been diagnosed with ADHD and was working to improve their attention and behavior in class. Before each of her OT sessions with them, she would allow them the chance to maneuver through an "obstacle course", which would consist of walking across a balance beam, crawling through a tunnel, swinging on a swing, and jumping into a huge bin of foam blocks. The children would do this several times, and then the OT would tell them that it was now time to sit down and work on some things with her. While some kids would find it difficult to transition from playing on the obstacle course to sitting down and doing work, most would understand that their "play time" was over and that it was now time to work and complete some tasks. In the moment, I really did not understand how taking the time for the children to make some rounds on the obstacle course was considered an OT activity. I simply saw it as wasted time that could be spent doing much more productive and beneficial activities. However, now that I am in OT school and have learned about modalities of treatment in Foundations, I can now look back and realize that this was a preparatory method of treatment, specifically in the sensory input area. Children with ADHD are seeking large amounts of sensory input at one given time, therefore the OT allowed them to complete the obstacle course several times in order to gain that sensory input and expend energy so that they would be more able to focus on the tasks given to them in the remaining part of treatment.