911�����������

More than 100 students, faculty, and community members fired up their webcams to attend the fourth annual combined Embracing the World of Autism and Adaptive Projects Expo from home on Thursday, April 23.

Sponsored by the 911�����������’s Occupational Therapy program and the , the annual exposition highlights evidence-based interventions for children and families living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and showcases the creative adaptive work of the University’s occupational therapy students.

This year’s event was moved online due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but its digital replacement still afforded first-year Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (M.S.O.T.) students the opportunity to display their innovative creations. 

Rather than set up display stations in Innovation Hall, as was originally planned, students filmed themselves from their homes and submitted their projects virtually. Their submissions were edited into one continuous video that was played over teleconferencing service Zoom. 

Adaptive projects included sensory boards, light boxes, interactive instruction tools, dress-up instruments, fidget contraptions, and more. They will go on to be used by children at Portland Public Schools, Spurwink Services, the Morrison Center, and several additional community venues and homes in Maine and beyond.

“The annual expo is a project that embodies creativity, flexibility, and innovation to meet the needs of clients. In many respects, it mimics what occupational therapy practitioners do in their practice,” said Elizabeth Crampsey, Ed.D, M.S., OTR/L, BCPR, associate clinical professor of occupational therapy (OT). “This year, the students had to dig extra deep into their creativity due to geographic separation from one another as well as stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic.”

Bethany Gruskin, B.S., (M.S.O.T., ’21), who created a portable sensory board for her client, said it was important to hold the expo regardless of its digital constraints.

“Having this expo really fosters creativity and the client-centered approach that we are striving so hard to learn to do,” she said. “On the other side of that, we in OT spend a lot of time learning from each other. Having an expo where the community gets to come in, learn from us, and then offer their own insights into what we are doing is really important for our education.”

Gruskin’s project, “Explore with Me: A Portable Dog-Themed Sensory Board,” was created for a kindergartner, known as M, who lives near Gruskin’s hometown in New York state. 

M has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and she is working with her occupational therapists to develop the fine motor skills needed to better play with her family’s two dogs. Additionally, M struggles to use her hands together to button, zip, and tie, which has led to a couple bathroom incidents at school.

Working with M and her occupational therapists, Gruskin designed the board to include sensory challenges that M could meet successfully, such as buckling and unbuckling dog collars, brushing fur, tying knots, fastening and unfastening buttons, and practicing zipping motions. 

A sensory light box scattered with layers of dog-themed stickers forms an impromptu “I Spy” game for M — one of Gruskin’s favorite components. Additional tasks fixed to the board’s floppy “ears” challenge M to use both her hands at once to be successful.

M commutes nearly four hours to and from school with her father each day, so the board had to be portable, Gru