Designing educational programming that utilizes evidence-based methods to support occupational therapy students in translating knowledge into practice effectively benefits the occupational therapy profession. This project aims to outline a process that incrementally develops a proposed program that will explore the benefits of advanced experiential learning and application of skills in occupational therapy education. This project seeks to highlight the benefits that will be gained by utilizing evidence-based methods of instruction in coordination with an applied model of practice and frames of reference in order to create valuable, effective clinical practice preparation for occupational therapy students. The program proposal presented in this project will support the translation of foundational knowledge that the occupational therapy students receive during their formal education with clinical experience and application in leading a pediatric motor lab and social skills group for children with autism.
