{"id":7234,"date":"2018-09-01T01:58:31","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T05:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/?p=7234"},"modified":"2019-11-22T20:52:21","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T00:52:21","slug":"learning-styles-and-the-ot-patient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/learning-styles-and-the-ot-patient\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Styles and the OT Patient"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you are having difficulty making progress with a patient, remember that each person learns in a unique way.  There are dozens of models of learning, but one of the simplest examples is VAK: Visual \u2013 Auditory \u2013 Kinesthetic. Does your current approach to OT favor one type of learner?  Most patients will benefit from a combination of approaches. So as you plan the activities for your next visit, consider learning style, get creative, and try a new approach.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy!<br \/>\nCheryl Hall, OT<br \/>\nAuthor and Illustrator, Occupational Therapy Toolkit<\/p>\n<p><strong>Visual:<\/strong>  Your patient learns by seeing, so think of the visual aids you can use.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use illustrated handouts with clear, detailed, step-by-step instructions.<\/li>\n<li>Model the motions yourself, before asking the patient to try.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure the patient can see the instructions as you go through the activity with them.<\/li>\n<li>With patient input, add clarifying instructions, arrows or numbers to your visual aid.<\/li>\n<li>Provide the patient with links to a YouTube video of the activity.<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate possible distractions.<\/li>\n<li>Use color to highlight important information<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Auditory:<\/strong> Your patient remembers by hearing or verbalizing instructions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have patients describe the steps in their own words as you go through the therapy session.<\/li>\n<li>Explain why you are doing each activity.<\/li>\n<li>Play music in the background.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage your patient to listen to music while exercising.<\/li>\n<li>Record your therapy session, so the patient can listen to the instructions.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage questions from your patient at each step.<\/li>\n<li>Ask the patient to read the instructions aloud to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Kinesthetic or Physical:<\/strong>  Movement is the key to this style of learning.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Describe steps, as you have the patient up and moving.<\/li>\n<li>Make corrections or suggestions while the patient is moving.<\/li>\n<li>Mix up the therapy session to keep the patient interested.<\/li>\n<li>Have the patient take their own notes.<\/li>\n<li>Ask the patient visualize the steps prior to starting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let me know, if by considering different learning styles, you had a breakthrough moment with one of your OT patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you are having difficulty making progress with a patient, remember that each person learns in a unique way. There are dozens of models of learning, but one of the simplest examples is VAK: Visual \u2013 Auditory \u2013 Kinesthetic. Does your current approach to OT favor one type of learner?&#8230;<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/learning-styles-and-the-ot-patient\/\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#DC0201\">Read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Learning-Styles.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7236,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7234\/revisions\/7236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottoolkit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}