Question 1

Samantha, your 5-year-old kindergarten student with autism, has begun to receive in-home applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy from a private provider. Her mother has requested to decrease her school attendance to half days, so she can receive the ABA therapy. The school district has agreed to her request. How does your OT department instruct you to respond to this situation?

Accepted Answer

A) You are told to do nothing. 
B) You are told to contact the in-home therapist and make recommendations for skills that can be addressed through in-home therapy. 
C) You are told to contact the provider and express your concerns regarding your student's school attendance. 
D) You are told to dismiss Samantha from OT because the in-home therapy will address the skills you were working toward.

Question 2

You would like to know if Caden, your 4-year-old student with autism, is capable of using a picture schedule during therapy sessions. Who should you consult regarding this skill?

Accepted Answer

A) Caden's mother 
B) Caden's speech and language therapist 
C) Caden's preschool teacher 
D) Caden's paraprofessional adult helper

Question 3

A client has a 4-year-old son named Joey. She gushes to you about Joey's physical prowess. But she complains that he is not allowed to sign up for the local children's soccer league because he is too young. You know Joey and feel he is a perfectly typical 5-year-old boy. She asks you if she should file for an exception. What do you tell her?

Accepted Answer

A) "File for the exception. Joey will show them how good he is!" 
B) "Maybe Joey should learn how to play chess." 
C) "Joey is really good at physical activities. I think he is a little young to play on the soccer team, though. You might want to wait a couple of years." 
D) "Why don't you become a soccer coach? Then you could have Joey on your team and make sure he is getting the playing time he deserves."

Question 4

Your nursing home has experienced a 23 percent increase in falls over the past two months. What could your rehabilitation department do to help lower the percentage of falls?

Accepted Answer

A) Implement walking programs for all nursing home residents, so that they are not walking unsupervised. 
B) Plan and give a mandatory in-service to all staff on how to prevent falls. 
C) Plan and give an optional in-service to all staff on how to prevent falls. 
D) Educate nursing home residents on how they can safely walk in the nursing home.

Question 5

Helen, your 86-year-old nursing home patient with a diagnosis of Stage IV Alzheimer's disease, is getting ready to go home. Her son asks you what he should do to help her at home. What do you tell him?

Accepted Answer

A) Label drawers and closets, place a list of telephone numbers next to the phone, purchase microwaveable meals and/or order Meals on Wheels, and help her with banking, appointments, driving, and social functions. Check in with her daily. 
B) Help her with bathing and dressing, cook meals for her, and take over management of her medical and financial affairs. Do not let her live alone. 
C) Write appointments on a wall calendar, place a list of telephone numbers next to the phone, encourage her to use a calculator when balancing her checkbook, and buy her a global positioning system (GPS) to use when driving. Check in with her every few days. 
D) Do not let her return home. She should stay in the nursing home.

Question 6

Missy is a 6-year-old kindergarten student with a diagnosis of athetoid cerebral palsy. You have been working on independent self-feeding during lunch time in the therapy room. Missy's teacher would like her to start eating in the lunch room with her classmates. What aspect of the environment will you need to consider as you transition Missy to eating in the lunch room?

Accepted Answer

A) The noise and activity level in the lunch room. 
B) The type of food Missy will eat. 
C) The location of Missy's seat in the lunch room. 
D) All of the above.

Question 7

An 11-year-old boy displays difficulty sitting still in his classroom and repeatedly asks the teacher to repeat the instructions for assignments. He says his favorite class is physical education. In his records, you would expect to see a diagnosis of: ______.

Accepted Answer

A) autism 
B) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADH
D)  
C) oppositional defiant disorder 
D) bipolar disorder

Question 8

Which of the following are not typical symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?

Accepted Answer

A) Numbness in the thumb, index, and middle fingers. 
B) Numbness in the ring and little fingers. 
C) Pain in the hand, wrist, and forearm. 
D) Difficulty manipulating small objects.

Question 9

Patrick, your sixth-grade student, has met his sensory processing goals. He is also progressing toward his handwriting and typing goals, but could use a little more work on these skills. What do you recommend to your OT department?

Accepted Answer

A) Keep working with Patrick twice per week to accomplish his writing and typing goals. 
B) Decrease Patrick's frequency to once per week to address writing and typing. 
C) Decrease Patrick's frequency to consultation once per month, and allow Patrick to work on writing and typing in his classroom. 
D) Dismiss Patrick from OT, as writing and typing will improve on their own.

Question 10

You would like your shoulder replacement patient, Alfred, to start completing his bathing and dressing tasks independently while he is still in the nursing home. Who do you need to train, so that Alfred can complete these tasks without assistance?

Accepted Answer

A) Physical therapy team 
B) Nursing staff (including the certified nursing assistants and the nurse who supervises them) 
C) Activities department 
D) Other occupational therapy assistants

Question 11

It is time to report progress for Emma, your 75-year-old stroke patient. Which of the following measurements will you defer to your OT department?

Accepted Answer

A) Shoulder range of motion using a goniometer 
B) Manual muscle test 
C) Grip and pinch strength using a dynamometer and pinch meter 
D) Fine motor coordination using a 9-hole peg test

Question 12

To apply a Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) approach during upper extremity pulley exercises, you would ask your patient to: ________.

Accepted Answer

A) Pull the pulley laterally across his chest 
B) Pull the pulley across his chest and down in a diagonal pattern 
C) Pull the pulley straight up 
D) Pull the pulley down and backwards

Question 13

Your co-worker expresses to you that her 2- year-old son is not talking like the other 2 year olds at his daycare center. She asks you if you think she should take him to speech therapy. You know that your co-worker has four children and her 2 year old is the youngest. You also remember your co-worker complaining about her children having numerous ear infections. What recommendation would you give her?

Accepted Answer

A) You should tell her to watch all of her children interacting with others to see if the older children speak for the 2 year old or anticipate his needs. 
B) You should tell her to have her son evaluated by a speech therapist because he is behind. 
C) You should tell her to have her son's hearing checked before requesting a speech therapy referral. 
D) You should tell her not to worry about it since differences in the development of speech are not significant before the age of 3.

Question 14

How could you collect data on the treatment goals for your patients for your OT department?

Accepted Answer

A) Take detailed notes during treatment sessions. 
B) Use a simple +/- checklist for each short-term goal. 
C) Remember how your patients did in therapy because you have a photographic memory. 
D) Tell the OT department to observe every therapy session.

Question 15

Ashley, a first-grade student at your school, has just been diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome. Your OT department has asked you to research this condition because you have not had a student with this diagnosis. What is the best way to obtain information regarding your student's diagnosis?

Accepted Answer

A) Look up the disease on the Internet. 
B) Contact your student's parents, and ask if her physician provided them with any information about the disease. If they did receive information, request a copy of it. 
C) Contact your student's physician and request information about the disease. 
D) Ask your student's teacher for information about the disease.

Question 16

Your friend has a prestigious job in upper management at a high-profile company. Lately, she complains to you that she has been very forgetful. She is worried that she may have Alzheimer's disease. What questions do you ask before giving her advice?

Accepted Answer

A) "Are you sleeping okay at night?" 
B) "Are you having problems with your vision?" 
C) "Do your fingers feel numb?" 
D) "Have you had your hearing tested?"

Question 17

On an initial evaluation, the OT department recorded range of motion for Emma's internal and external shoulder rotation as WFL. What does this mean?

Accepted Answer

A) Within Functional Limits 
B) Within Full Limits 
C) Within Failure Limits 
D) Working For Lemons

Question 18

Your OT department must attend a staff meeting for your nursing home patient that has a difficult family situation. She has many children, some of whom want to see her return to home; and some of whom want her to stay in the nursing home. The staff meeting is in one week. What action do you and your OT department decide to take in preparation for the staff meeting?

Accepted Answer

A) You decide to schedule a home assessment with the patient to determine if she can manage basic tasks at home. 
B) You decide to interview your patient's children to determine how much help they are willing to provide their mother. 
C) You decide to keep practicing self-care tasks with the patient, so that she will be as independent as possible. 
D) You decide to recommend that your patient stay in the nursing home.

Question 19

Your monthly OT summary for Medicare is due on Velma, your 89-year-old patient with a diagnosis of generalized weakness. You must measure her shoulder flexion. How will you position the goniometer to complete this measurement?

Accepted Answer

A) Axis of the goniometer positioned over the lateral aspect of the head of the humerus approximately 1 inch below the acromion process, stationary arm of the goniometer parallel to the midaxillary line of the trunk, movable arm parallel to the longitudinal axis of the humerus pointing toward the lateral epicondyle. 
B) Axis of the goniometer positioned over the anterior aspect of the head of the humerus approximately 1 inch below the acromion process, stationary arm of the goniometer parallel to the midaxillary line of the trunk, movable arm parallel to the longitudinal axis of the humerus pointing toward the medial epicondyle. 
C) Axis of the goniometer positioned over the posterior aspect of the head of the humerus approximately 1 inch below the acromion process, stationary arm of the goniometer parallel to the midaxillary line of the trunk, movable arm parallel to the longitudinal axis of the humerus pointing toward the lateral epicondyle. 
D) Axis of the goniometer positioned over the lateral aspect of the head of the humerus approximately 1 inch below the acromion process, stationary arm of the goniometer parallel to the longitudinal axis of the humerus pointing toward the lateral epicondyle, movable arm parallel to the midaxillary line of the trunk.

Question 20

Your student, Michael, is a 16-year-old boy with Down syndrome. You have been seeing him for occupational therapy (OT) since he was 3 years old. His mother would like him to be independent with dressing in the morning. But she says she still has to help him zip his coat and get his shoes on. Sometimes she even has to help him snap his jeans after using the bathroom. What do you tell her?

Accepted Answer

A) "Michael and I will work harder on fine motor skills. I will ask OT to revise his goals." 
B) "Michael still has a hard time with fine motor skills, even though we've been working on them for a long time. We might want to consider adapting those tasks for him, so he can be independent." 
C) "Michael is lazy. He is a teenage boy, and he does not want to work on OT anymore. All he wants to do is talk about are trucks and girls." 
D) "You shouldn't help Michael so much. Let him struggle with these tasks, so he will learn that he has to do them himself."

Exam 1: Acquiring Information