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Sensory-Friendly Classrooms: A Guide to Evidence-Based Modifications
No full textThe capstone project aimed to create a sensory-friendly classroom through evidence-based modifications that supports students. The project was completed at Chase’s Place, a non-profit school serving students with various disabilities. The project followed a structured process that involved reviewing the literature, conducting a needs assessment, collaborating with stakeholders, implementing evidence-based sensory modifications, and evaluating their effectiveness. The needs assessment included classroom observations and teacher and parent questionnaires, which revealed key patterns to address. Modifications included calming lighting, pastel or muted-colored decorations, access to sensory tools, focus music, and scheduled sensory and movement breaks. Outcomes were measured through post-implementation teacher questionnaires, showing a 66.67% reduction in reported distractions and sensory-related behaviors. Teachers noted improved student self-regulation and a calmer classroom atmosphere. The discussion emphasized how simple modifications can meaningfully enhance the learning experience for students with and without sensory processing challenges. A teacher guide and parent infographic were developed to promote long-term sustainability and encourage continued use of sensory-friendly strategies. These results highlight the meaningful role of occupational therapy in creating supportive educational environments that promote student engagement and well-being.Chase's Plac
Community Access for Previously Incarcerated Women with Intellectual Disabilities
No full textMy capstone project aimed to increase community participation for women with intellectual disabilities that have been previously incarcerated. This program took place at a group home in Denton, Texas. Nine locations in the Denton community were chosen as beneficial to the residents. Preparatory activities such as vocabulary lists, crafts, and books were to prepare the participants for each week's visit.Crocker House Foundatio
Movement and Mindfulness: A Virtual Wellness Program for Veterans and Civilians with Physical and Traumatic Impairments
No full textThe mission of this program is to spread the value of exercise, mindfulness, and community to veterans, first responders, and civilians across the world. Specifically, this program will focus on both adaptive exercise and mindfulness strategies for individuals with physical or traumatic impairments. By using online materials including videos, virtual meetings, and other web resources, this program will connect individuals who share similar experiences and build upon a community through activities designed to enhance well-being and quality of life.Adaptive Training Foundatio
Becoming Sighted Allies: A Community Approach to Improving Accessibility to Social Participation for Adults with Blindness & Visual Impairment
No full textCommunity outreach to sighted individuals, focused on the spectrum of vision loss and social etiquette surrounding blindness and visual impairment, is both impactful and necessary to improve social accessibility, perceptions and experiences of autonomy & self-determination, and positive social support for adults with blindness and visual impairment. Community outreach programs like this one can facilitate a bridging of the gap between sighted individuals and members of the B/VI community, between occupational therapists and Certified Orientation & Mobility Specialists, between clients and their support systems, and most importantly between negative social support and positive social support. These bridges, these connections, serve everybody in our communities and, as Brunes et al. described, allow for a more full-fledged life for everyone (2019).Lighthouse for the Blind of Fort Wort
Social identity and its effect on moral emotions: Anger, disgust, and contempt
No full textThis study examined how social identity influences moral emotions—anger, disgust, and contempt—in response to perceived injustice. Using Social Identity Theory, it explored whether a perpetrator’s group membership (in-group vs. out-group) affected state emotional responses and whether trait emotions amplified these reactions. A sample of 257 participants read scenarios featuring either an in-group or out-group perpetrator, with their emotions assessed through validated measures. Results showed that trait emotions, particularly anger and contempt, strongly predicted state emotions. However, social identity had no independent effect, except for contempt, which was heightened when the perpetrator was an out-group member. These findings suggest contempt uniquely reinforces intergroup divisions, unlike anger and disgust. This study underscores the need to address contempt in reducing polarization and encourages future research into how cultural contexts and long-term emotional patterns may shape these dynamics
African Americans' perceptions of how cultural experiences influence decisions to seek nursing facilities for aging family members: A qualitative study
No full textThis study used a phenomenological perspective as an approach to qualitative methodology and as a philosophy. In addition to the phenomenological approach, the family systems theory, and social exchange theory approaches were used in this study as well. In addition, this research was done to get the African American perceptions of how cultural experiences influence decisions to seek nursing facilities for aging family members. Eleven African American participants made decisions regarding their culture, their beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors regarding the decisions to place their aging family member into a nursing facility. The elder caregiver, kin, fictive kin, and community members came together on how their perceptions of aging were formed by cultural interactions as they sought nursing facilities for their aging family members.
Four major themes arose in the research. They were (a) African American caregiver role is not monolithic (b) love for family, (c) responsibility for providing daily care, and (d) religious and spiritual beliefs. This study has implications for the African American community, Certified Family Life Educators, family science professionals, policy and policy makers, and church/faith based community to explore services that will help elder caregiver and their aging family member or members. Lastly further research can and must continue to remove the health disparities that are imbedded against the African American elder caregiver when they seek to move their aging family member out of the home into a nursing facility
Increasing Quality of Life in Older Adults through Gardening: A Comprehensive Educational Program
No full textGarden Therapy Program for older adults educating on the use of garden therapy to increase quality of lifeWeekley Family YMC
Beyond the surface: A phenomenological study on mirror viewing experiences for male veterans with body disfigurement
No full textThis dissertation addressed how veteran participants felt body disfigurement and how it intersected with identity, trauma, and healing. The research employed a hermeneutical phenomenological methodology that examined how male veterans dealt with their sense of self after injury, how disfigurement affected their identity, and how the nurses, family, and community could aid their recovery. Ten veterans with disfigured bodies from military service were invited through snowballing sampling and participated in semi-structured interviews. Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy guided the analysis of the text. The veterans perceived the environment as connected to the ‘frontline actors’ and the ‘close-knit circle.’ Their experiences included ‘silent stories,’ ‘invisible scars,’ ‘therapeutic operations,’ and ‘mirror power.’ The findings pointed to veterans turning their disfigurement into an embodiment of power and trauma, a glimpse into the resilience and adaptive responses required for healing. This study enhances our understanding of individuals with body disfigurement and guides healthcare provision that respects their differences and emphasizes efficient, respectful care
Sensory Regulation in the Classroom: Calm Corners Program Development to Improve Sensory Regulation and Participation
No full textStudents with special needs often experience challenges throughout the school day due to sensory regulation difficulties and limited opportunities to seek sensory input in the classroom setting. Currently, the interior design of classrooms do not meet the needs of students with special needs as they restrict mobility, utilize tactilely aversive materials, disproportionately distribute sound (or lack soft noises), and incorporate overstimulating colors. Combining the insufficient interior design and limited opportunities to seek sensory input in the classroom, students with special needs struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviors leading to difficulties in school participation and academic performance. My Capstone Experience would address the challenges that students with special needs endure in the classroom and offer a multi-sensory environment to allow for sensory input and improve sensory regulation in the classroom.Sue Creech Elementary Schoo
Prevention of Play Deprivation in Early Elementary Classrooms Using Proposed Play TEKS
No full textPlay has decreased in early childhood classrooms due to the increased focus on state mandated academic standards (Yogman et al., 2018). However, play is essential to all domains of development and the focus on academic standards is causing an epidemic of play deprivation in the classrooms (Miller & Almon, 2009; Leibowitz, 2020). Play deprivation causes an increase in aggression, isolation, and behavioral problems, and is counterproductive in that it actually leads to poor academic performance in children (Ridgers et al., 2011: Gunner, 2021). In this study, I created a literature review on play and play deprivation, and then created Play TEKS to protect children’s right to play in the classroom