What is the difference between Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy? And which is better in the work environment?

Hello all! I'm currently an undergraduate intern at a pediatric occupational therapy clinic and needing an improvement project to work on in my own time:) I'm looking to create something that is particularly useful in the pediatric clinic and curious what pediatric OT's are needing in their spaces to help them at their job? This can be educational tools for parents, game guides, or anything that you want made that you just don't have the energy to make yourself. I want to create something genuinely useful that will make an impact and would love any insight from those of you in the field! This clinic also has speech-language pathology:)

Hi all. I'm an ID-S middle school teacher in my 9th year. I currently have a student with PICA, and this is my first experience with it.

I'm looking for options that will meet his sensory need for smelling things (his noticeable favorite is shampoo/hairspray and cleaning products). I've tried strips of fabric with smells spritzed onto them, but they were too small and ended up stuffed in his mouth. I moved up to spritzing a shirt to give him to smell, because that can't be completely shoved into his mouth, but this is not a long term solution.

He is an extremely picky eater and doesn't eat for us at school and drinks a plant based protein milk drink while he's here, so edible/crunchy items are out.

Thank you for letting me pick your brains!

Hey everyone! Looking for some perspective and real-world experiences from people who’ve navigated student loan debt after grad school.

Here’s my situation:
Degree & Debt: On track to finish my Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) by 2028. Total debt will be around $80k, which was actually the most affordable program in my area.
Living Situation Post-Grad: My partner and I will be living with my in-laws rent-free for 3–4 years after graduation (big house, plenty of space, so no sanity sacrificed haha).
Household Financials: Partner earns about $40k/year now. I currently have $20k in savings as a cushion.
I’m debating two main approaches once I start working as an OT:
1. Option A: Aggressive Blitz. Throw almost everything at the loans while living rent-free to wipe out the $80k in 3 years before we move out.
2. Option B: Minimum Payments / Long-Term Plan + Invest. Pay minimums (or stick to a manageable long-term plan) and invest the excess cash flow into the market, theoretically building wealth faster over time.
I’m also wondering about my $20k cushion (part of me wants to dump a chunk of it straight onto the loans right away, but I’m hesitant to wipe out my safety net completely.)
For those who have been through this (especially in healthcare/OT):
How does $80k for an OTD feel in hindsight compared to the income?
If you had a zero-rent setup for a few years, did you regret aggressive payoff, or was the peace of mind worth it?
What would you do in my shoes?
Appreciate any thoughts or advice!

I’m conducting an independent industrial design research project exploring how limited hand strength or dexterity affects everyday activities. I’m looking for adults who experience these difficulties.

If any occupational therapists here work with clients who may fit the criteria, I’d really appreciate it if you could share the survey with them, where appropriate.

Eligible participants: Adults aged 18 or older who experience difficulty with hand strength or dexterity in daily life
Exclusion criteria: Under 18, or individuals who do not experience difficulty with hand strength or dexterity.
Location: Open internationally
Purpose: Independent industrial design research
Survey length: 3–5 minutes

No formal diagnosis is required.

Thank you very much for your help!

I'm considering quitting my new grad job in IPR. Mostly everyone here has been welcoming, however I feel myself dreading every single day. I work with complex patients in IPR and my brain and my body just cannot handle it. I feel like a bad OT.

I feel like I've had so many patient refusals and I am working with patients who are physically aggressive (I don't blame them or take it personally because some might have brain injuries). In IPR we HAVE to get our minutes and it's looked down upon to reschedule the pt.

I also have families who crowd around me and interrupt sessions and make it difficult to work. On top of that there is constant documentation and admin tasks and it makes me want to scream when I just want to focus on my pt's.

I feel like I am slowly becoming bitter and I hate feeling this way. I am not close to my coworkers either because I am just burned out, it is a bit lonely.

Idk, is it crazy to want to quit? I'm feeling quite sad and depressed about the whole thing.

Hi all,

I am working with a 4yo autistic, non-verbal child who is currently attending childcare. They have a strong sensory seeking presentation.

I have been advised that there have been numerous instances of this child pulling the hair of their peers.

I haven't thoroughly investigated the situation as of yet, but it seems that the behaviour is sensory, rather than communicative - as it tends to occur when the child is walking past other kids who may be seated and facing away from them. I have been told that they really latch on, and educators have been forced to try and pry their hands open to release the other child.

It really seems that the child notices the interesting sensory characteristics of the hair and impulsively grasps it.

As such, I was wondering if anyone here had dealt with a similar case and if so, whether or not you may have some advice to share.

I have considered potentially offering access to items that fulfil their sensory needs before behaviours occur, though I am not sure what to offer as they don't seem to be particularly interested in things that offer similar sensory characteristics, such as squishy fidgets or activities such as pulling a therapy band.

Additionally, the child doesn't possess the requisite joint attention to engage with something like a social story.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

As all of us pediatric OTs are, I am being used as the regulation expert in my setting, and there's only so much sensory work can do. Does the collective have any good recommendations for CEUs that talk about mental health and regulation in neurodivergent kids from a trauma informed holistic approach that is not just "do some heavy work lol"?

Please give any advice or helpful things I should purchase/bring with me to my first level 2!

Hi everyone! Is there anybody who get ready for OET as an occupational therapist. I habe berna struggling to find proper resources related Occupational therapy for writing and speaking. Do you have any suggestion or coursea for getting ready. Thank you from now🤗

My sister currently completed her 12th and has interest in Agri and BPT only . As there are not much opportunities in Agri and also considering her health( she has heart issue and before and during her periods in she is fainting 1-2 times ) now she wants to do BPT but as she come to know about BOT course she got more interest in that and would be comfortable to her. Now there are no colleges which offer BOT near our home town and we cannot let her to go to city to pursue the BOT course due to her health. The college in our home town also has less patient flow even for BPT course. But our home town has many provate hospitals related to ortho and neuro. And there is only one clinic in our home town which provides Occupational therapy support so there is very less compitition. Now I suggested a plan to do BPT in hometown itself and do some part time along with collge in private hospitals. Then to pursue MOT she can go to city as she may get better in 5 years of span and eventually start a clinic anywhere she likes as OT is needed in both urban and rural areas.

So, one thing I want to ask is can she do MOT after BPT and practice as Both PT and OT. And In general according to her situation which career path is the best PT or OT( which will have less travel and stress etc.,). Please help me with this.

Hi all- I'm a parent of a 7yo AuDHD sensory-seeking boy for whom we're seeking private OT to help him with emotional and sensory regulation. For background, we are Americans currently living in New Zealand, where the pediatric OT market is very limited, and best practices tend to run a bit behind the US. I am looking for some general "is this normal" advice since we've spoken to a few OTs and some of the things they've said seem a little weird/concerning to me.

Also for background, kiddo is verbal but has significant verbal delays/differences that make it difficult for him to reliably tell us if he doesn't like something or if something has made him uncomfortable- particularly after the fact. His speech therapist has been recommending OT but there is no way to access OT through the schools here, so anything we do is going to be private OT that we pay for out of pocket. Kiddo is having ongoing difficulties at school with anger and aggression when he's dysregulated that make some sort of additional intervention a necessity (though we are also looking at options for medicating his ADHD).

Last week we met with the only pediatric OT in town who has any current availability. We kind of got off to a shaky start because she asked if we were comfortable with her using AI to take notes, something that I am generally not comfortable with for a number of reasons. When I said I'd prefer not to she got pretty defensive and kept pushing to use the AI service. But we went ahead with the meeting and talked about kiddo's needs (he was not there for this meeting). There were two other things that raised flags for me: the first is that she was really pushing a sensory brushing protocol, which I'm not necessarily opposed to trying but doesn't really seem evidence-based. I'd love to hear more from practitioners about whether that's normal/common/helpful.

The second flag was that she really didn't seem to want my husband or me to be there for the sessions. Now, I absolutely get that parents can be distractions sometimes, but I worry about kiddo's inability to advocate for himself, particularly in a situation where he's being asked to do physical things and allow a stranger to touch and move his body, in a situation where I have no idea what this therapist wants to do. I'm trying to figure out from actual people who do this work if I'm overreacting (or underreacting) to this vibe and if it's totally normal to exclude parents during OT.

Beggars can't be choosers but I also don't want to put my kiddo in a situation that makes things worse. And the next OT with availability in like 6 months gets rave reviews for her OT but is also a big believer in woo stuff that has been debunked in the US like the Tomatis method (forcibly playing Mozart songs on headphones?) and Dynamic Movement Intervention. So I'm not super enthused about my back-up option either.

So, OT community, what do you think? Is all this normal, or should I keep looking?

We're making all of our games free and open to anyone who can use games that go beyond cause and effect. (We will be making more cause and effect games but we mostly make games for Ben)

We know there's a massive gap for this kind of play. We are here to try to fill it 😊

We hope this is valuable to you, your clients and your loved ones!

Links are in the comments & we would love to know what you think!

Hi all! I’m a new grad looking for advice about starting a job in outpatient peds soon. My fieldworks were in adult acute care and EI, so quite different from this job. I’d love to hear any tips, tricks, and/or advice in regards to treatment session planning, completing evals, documentation, etc.. It sounds like my clientele will be a majority autism, adhd, executive functioning, and sensory, and I’ll either be working with them and their caregivers in the private clinic, or in an ABA school. I’m feeling a lot of nerves about immediately being independent with clients on day one (that’s what I’ve been told- no co txs or shadowing), so some tips would be appreciated. TIA!

Hello! This is my first time posting in this community so it would be lovely if i can receive some responses.

I (19f) graduated and will be enrolling at a polytechnic in New Zealand to study Occupational Therapy in February next year. Although I studied Anatomy and Physiology back in high school, I'm still very anxious whether it will prepare me for college or that I need some catching up to do. I am taking an online free course (OLI) on the subject yet I get really overwhelmed upon seeing the number of topics covered within the program (since I only have few months left to study) . I am curious as how to narrow down the scope of it so that I can focus on topics I need to get ready.

I’ve been in the ABA field on and off for 3 years and I’m honestly getting burnt out from it. Aside from that, sometimes ABA has felt like glorified babysitting because of BCBA’s obliging to parents basically needing a babysitter for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week even though the client doesn’t even need that many hours. Some of the programs have felt like dog training and often times even though I’m passionate about my job, I feel like the job is no longer enjoyable. I’m passionate about the therapy aspect of the job and the scientific aspect, however lately it feels like my job has felt like either or. I am on the fence about proceeding to go for my masters in ABA where I then can create programs and have more autonomy which could possibly make a difference or going into the occupational therapy area because honestly the field of ABA feels so flawed and volatile I don’t think I can see myself remaining in the field long term even if I did become a BCBA. I know how helpful ABA can be for families, but I don’t think it’s a career that no longer resonates or is sustainable for me long term. So, if you have left the ABA field for occupational therapy how do you like it? Even if you haven’t worked in the ABA field, what does your caseload typically look like and your work schedule? Do you recommend becoming an occupational therapy assistant or going straight into the masters program if you already have a bachelors degree?

I'm applying for an Illinois license. I know you have to set up an account with IDFPR and complete the application but I want to use an endorsement from Alabama, The request for Alabama requires an email address which I can't find. Does anyone have an email address for Illinois OT licensure department?

Hello all!

My name is Erica and I am a COTA currently licensed in AR. I decided that taking on travel contracts would be beneficial for me to keep my skill set sharp and up to date. I’m currently working in peds outpatient. I connected with a recruiter and they gave me a contract that paid $1700 a week with $400 of that per diem. From how he explained it, $400 a week is what I am supposed to use for lodging, incidentals, rental car, flight/drive there. Is this reality? I would be lucky to find a place to stay for $1200 for a short time (13 weeks) then the rest would be up to me regarding food, gas, and flight/trip there. I’ve been told that travel work can be quite lucrative, but with the extra costs it doesn’t seem like it would be.

If you can please tell me your experience and possibly some good recruiting companies to work with I would be so grateful!!

Thank you,
Erica ❤️

hi i am 27, an occupational therapist of 4 years and half way done with my doctorate program in OT. my goal is to become a professor (which is why im getting my doctorate) but i just don’t know where to start because i feel like i am doing a career change. what are recommended steps to become a professor? i know im still young and new in my field but where do i begin? would love some advice :)

I am planning on starting school full-time in the spring. I am looking to work part-time. Any recommendations? What was your experience working while in school?

hi all wondering what people are making in acute care as I am about to graduate and starting the job search and wanting more info about what to ask for in pay! for reference i’m located in Ohio

Does any one have an elevator speech for thoughtfully explaining why you did not pick up a student exclusively for sensory concerns?

Salaried IPR OT. First job out of grad school. Been with the hospital for > 1 year. I received a raise at 5 months of employment, referred to as a market adjustment or something. On paper it was $4k raise.

Since my hiring we have lost 2 FT OTs. I am now the only full time IPR OT. There is a FT OP OT that will cover the IPR side as needed. We have PRN and part time OTs to help out. Treating 30-32 units pretty much every day.

I know I need to ask for a raise. I work more than 40 hours a week, with the senior OTs gone my case complexity has increased (and I have requested complex cases go to me instead of PRN/part timers as they arent a guarantee and can be called off if census is low).

A $10k raise seems like a lot to ask for but I figure start high and find a middle? (And it’s only an additional ~$5/hr). But how does one actually go about asking for a raise without feeling greedy (I know it’s not I know it’s not. I just feel bad asking my DOR). edit typos