Emerging Areas: A Small Passion of Mine

The emerging area that I am the most interested in is, technology and assistive device development and consulting. I love the innovation that goes with this emerging area of practice. I believe one day this will be the most important aspect in the field of OT. A more specific area I'd like to do research on is gaming and virtual reality training, and how we can incorporate  it more into the field of OT. Right now the major issue with incorporating this kind of training is the price of the price of the equipment. As time goes on, gaming and virtual reality training will continue to prove affective, and more healthcare settings will begin to incorporate these programs in their facilities. As far as assistive technology is concerned, I look forward to studying the equipment we have now, and finding new ways to improve them and make them more efficient. Technology and assistive device development and consulting is very much related to AOTA's vision 2025. The vision had four major areas, accessible, collaborative, effective, and leaders. As time goes on, innovation and new ideas will continue to be more accessible. Assistive technology is collaborative because it can be incorporated in any system, and therefore has proven to be effective with all kinds of clients. Lastly, leaders in the field of assistive technology will continue to emerge, and give us the best information, and tech us to be effective leaders in the field.

The article I was reading also mentioned the possibility of developing testing systems that promote access and inclusion of all students. I think this is great, because as a student who constantly struggled in elementary through high school, I had to eventually teach myself ways "outside of the box" to learn material and do well on an academic level. My new way of learning (narrative reasoning) led to me graduating with honors at a four year university, and eventually led to me getting into OT school at UTHSC. I would love to one day help kids out who struggle with learning in normal school systems, rather it be because of learning disabilities or developmental delays, and show them new "creative" ways to learn, and how to make the most of their gifts. I would also love to help educate teachers on ways to improve their skills in relation to students with learning disabilities.