Thursday, March 20, 2008

OT Awareness: Presentations, posters and workshops

Physiotherapy Conference at Pyramisa Hotel, 7th March, 2008:


Professor Ahmed Hassan kindly arranged for several CDOT members to be a presence at the Physiotherapy conference on 7th March at the Pyramisa Hotel. Congratulations to the PT Syndicate for organizing such a great event. Majdi and Laura put together a great poster (Arabic and English descriptions of OT supported with pictures of children receiving therapy) and Majdi managed it for all of Friday with support from Laura, Pip and Miho. Sue presented a brief lecture, "An Introduction to Occupational Therapy", which generated many questions and hopefully raised awareness about Occupational Therapy generally and in Egypt. (Thanks Sue for this update!)


Poster Presentation





ADVANCE and LRC 8th Annual Educational Conference March 14th, 2008:


During the conference, a "What is Occupational Therapy?" poster was made available in Arabic and English in the school lobby.


A lecture, "What is Occupational Therapy?" was presented in Arabic by Majdi Bzoor, which generated questions and more interest in the benefits of occupational therapy.


An occupational therapy based workshop, "Recipes for Fun" was presented by Laura Efinger. Participants greatly enjoyed playing various activities, some of which were generously donated by Out of the Box (http://www.otb-games.com/) and Thinkfun (http://www.thinkfun.com/). These are two US based toy companies, which are interested in parents and teachers using toys to develop academic and sensory motor skills within children. Thank you to both companies!


Adults enjoy the games as much as children!



"A challenging game of COVER UP, by Out of the Box"




"A nerve wracking game of concentration, speed, fine motor and visual perceptual skills: WALLAMOPPI, by Out of the Box."





"A game of problem solving skill: RUSH HOUR, by Thinkfun"





"COVER YOUR TRACKS, TIP OVER, HOT SPOT and RUSH HOUR, by Thinkfun, enjoyed by all!"












Due to high shipping and custom charges, there are limited choices in regards to educational toys in Egypt. If anyone has any ideas on how to create more awareness of the need for educational games and increase availability to Egyptians, please share your thoughts!



Thanks to all who participated in these presentations!



Laura


















3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Laura, you are playing an important role in making us famous :) I really believe that we should work on increasing awareness for the importance of educational toys. I suggest that we write a recommendation letter explaining the importance of such games and why they are not available in the Egyptian Market and send it to the Ministry of Education office.
Cheers,
Yasser

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Anonymous said...

Dear Laura,

Excellent stuff; I'm an MOT student in Chicago and have to do a paper on what challenges OT is facing internationally and I would love to communicate with you. What is the scope of OT there and what resources do you have to work with and how are you managing everything? Was OT in existence there before you went? My direct email is Mansoorxs@sbcglobal.net

Thanks
Mansoor