Presentation Skills in the Occupational Therapy Field

1. Presentation Skills
in the
Occupational Therapy
Field
Lauren Hicks OTS
Shaina Katz OTS
Tony Tran OTS

2. AOTA.org

3. About Us
● Lauren Hicks, OTS
●Cal State Dominguez Hills
●B.A. in Psychology
●Shaina Katz, OTS
●Eastern Washington University
●B.A. in Psychology
● Minor in Anthropology
●Tony Tran, OTS
●Cal State Long Beach
●B.S. Health Science: Community Health

4. Agenda
●Why is this important?
●Prepare & plan presentation
●Introduce yourself
●Game!
●Beginning, middle & end of presentation
●Visuals
●Relationship, audience, body language, & voice
●Summary
●Game!
●Presenting in occupational therapy field
●Short survey

5. Why is this Important?

6. Prepare & Plan
●What is the aim?
●What is my title?
●Who am I speaking to?
●What are the main points I want to make?
●What do I want the audience to do after listening to my
presentation?

7. Other Questions Concerning the
Physical Aspects….
●Who is the audience?
●Where will it take place?
●What time of day is it? Will the audience be more or less
receptive when listening?
●Are you going to need handouts or any other documents?
How many?
●Am I dressed appropriately? Shoes polished? Are my
hands and fingernails clean?

8. Structure of an Oral
Presentation
● There are three parts to a typical presentation:
●The beginning (introduction)
●The middle (body)
●The end (conclusion)

9. The Beginning
(Introduction)
● Get the audience's
attention and signal
the beginning
● ”Shall we begin?”
“Let’s get down to
business?”
● Joke, story,
alarming
statistic…
● Get them talking
by asking a
question

10. Greet Audience
●It is important to greet the audience by saying
something like:
●“Hello, ladies and gentlemen”
●“Good morning fellow classmates”
●“Good afternoon esteemed guests”
●“Thank you for your kind introduction”

11. Introduce Oneself
name, position, company
●Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce
myself
●Good morning everyone, I'd like to start by introducing
myself. My name is...

12. Game Time
Beach Ball Game

13. Give Title and
Introduce
Subject
● I plan to speak about...
● Today I'm going to talk
about...
● The subject of my
presentation is...
Why are you
going to
speak about
it?
● I have chosen to speak
about this because...
● I was asked to speak
about ______because...

14. ● It is useful to give the
listeners some idea of how
long you will speak so as to
maintain their attention
better
● This talk will last about
1 hour
● Ask a question to
determine the
attitude/knowledge of
audience.
● “Have you ever heard
of….?”
● “You may have
wondered….?”
● You may want to give
acknowledgements here
too.

15. Give Your Objectives
purpose, aim, goal
● You should have two purposes:
● A general purpose (to give an overview, to present, to
summarize, to outline; to discuss the current situation
or to explain how to do something or how something
is done)
● A specific one (what you want the audience to take
away with them after listening to you, what you want
them to do, what they should remember)

16. Announce Your Outline
●I have broken my speech down/up into X parts
●I have divided my presentation (up) into Y parts
●In the first part I give a few basic definitions
●In the next section I will explain
●In part three, I am going to show...
●In the last part I would like/want to give a practical
example...

17. Questions & Comments From
the Audience
I'd ask you to save your questions for the end
You may interrupt me at any moment to ask questions or
make comments
Make a transition from introduction to
the body
Now let us turn to point one
Let us now move on to the second part, which is, as I said
earlier….

18. The Middle
(Body)
● Content: What information should you give in your
speech?
● Quantity: How much information should you give?
● Sequencing your ideas: Cause & effect, problem &
solution
● Keeping the audience's attention: The beginning and the
end or the first and last parts of a talk are what listeners
will remember best
● Listing information: Lists are often a necessary evil. Vary
your language whenever possible and avoid reading
directly.
● Linking ideas, sections/making transitions: Indicate the
end of one section and the beginning of the next

19. Be Clear and Concrete
●To give an example: An
example of this can be
found... To illustrate this…
●To rephrase: In other
words… Let me rephrase
that….
●To summarize: To sum
up... To recap what we've
seen so far...
●To emphasize: What is very
significant is... What is
important to remember...

20. The End
(Conclusion)
● Content:
●Brief reminder of what you tried to show in your speech
and how you tried to do so
●A short conclusion
●Thanks to the audience for listening
●An invitation to ask questions, make comments or open a
discussion.

21. The End
(Conclusion)
●Naturally you need to signpost the end of your talk. This
may take the form of a recapitulation of the main points
●Or there may be recommendations or proposals that you
wish to make
●Above all when you conclude do not do it abruptly or as if
surprised to get to the end of your talk
●You may at this point wish to distribute a vocabulary list
or more detailed information that you wish to make
available
●And finally, questions

22. Visuals
What are visual and why should you use them?

23. Visuals
What should you put on a visual?
Size, layout, font (typeface) and size, colors
How many?

24. Visuals
●How should you present a visual?
●Give the audience time to draw their attention to it,
understand it and make the link with what you are saying
●You can also try to rephrase your point to give it emphasis,
giving the audience time to absorb the information in the
visual

25. Establishing a Relationship with
the Audience
● Arouse listeners' interest
from the beginning and
make it personal.
● Or illustrate with a real
life story or anecdote
● Be brief and clear in
giving the subject and
purpose. The speaker’s
attitude is important -
knowledge, personality,
openness. Be lively and
enthusiastic.

26. Body Language
What is body language? Why is it useful?

27. Positive Body Language
● Eye contact to keep
audiences' attention
● Facial expressions should be
natural and friendly. Don't
forget to smile
● Posture – stand straight but
relaxed (do not slouch or
lean)
● Movement - to indicate a
change of focus, keep the
audience's attention
● Gesture

28. Negative Body Language
●Loss of eye contact: looking at notes, looking at screen, at
the board, at the floor
●Don't stare, or look blankly into people's eyes
●Swaying back and forth like a pendulum
●Back turned to the audience
●Nervous ticks
●Hands in pockets

29. Voice & Pronunciation
Both are very important for effective communication
Can you pronounce:
Rural Anemone Drawer
Worcestershire
Clothes Literature Deterioration
Exclamation
Crisps Thistle Catastrophic
Assailant

30. Voice
●The voice, or more precisely the qualities of the voice,
should be used to it’s/their fullest
● Qualities include: loudness, speed (fast or slow), variety,
pitch (high or low), silent moments or pauses
●The voice is important: to indicate importance, meaning
to create atmosphere and to avoid sounding monotonous
and putting the audience to sleep!

31. Summary
● Careful preparation and
organization are
required
● Who you are speaking to,
when, where, and why?
● A speech with a step-by-
step approach is one
that is easy to follow
● Be careful with the
visuals
● Pronunciate!
● Body language and
voice are extremely
important

32. Game Time
Advertising Game

33. Helpful Tips
●Check to make sure everything is working
●Check any handouts and powerpoint for spelling errors
●Test to see if people can hear and see you from the back
of the room
●Face the audience and stand off to the side of the screen
Remember anyone can give a good presentation. Don’t
worry if you are not naturally extroverted. Preparation
and practice can be the keys to success!

34. Remember anyone can give a good
presentation. Don’t worry if you are not
naturally extroverted. Preparation and
practice can be the keys to success!

35. Presenting and Occupational
Therapy
● Presentation Guidelines
● The Message: What’s the major point?
● The Context: Population? Lit review? Data
collection?
● Expand the Message: Describe in depth
● Impact and Application: How will this
influence the profession (of occupational
therapy)?
The AOTA Presenter’s Handbook. (2014). The American Occupational Therapy Association.

36. Presenting and Occupational
Therapy cont.
●Involve the Audience!
● Provide participants with an opportunity to directly
apply some of the principles they have been learning
throughout the presentation to get immediate
feedback from faculty and peers.
●i.e.: Group discussion, case studies, demonstrations,
simulation, role play, or a structured experiential
learning activity.

37. Presenting and Occupational
Therapy cont.
● Questions & Answers

38. Presenting and Occupational
Therapy: Finding the Evidence
● Occupational Therapy
Practice Guideline Series
● American Journal of
Occupational Therapy
● Critically Appraised Topics
(CAT) and Critically
Appraised Papers (CAP)
● Evidence Bytes - A feature
in the 1 Minute Update
● Evidence Perks - A
quarterly column in OT
Practice
● CE on CD
● Evidence Exchange -
central repository for
Critically Appraised Papers
● Evidence Briefs -
summaries of articles
selected from scientific
literature
● The EBP Resource
Directory - online service
that links users to Internet
sites related to the evidence
- based practice of
occupational therapy.
● Journal Club Toolkit

39. But, wait! There’s more!
http://www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/ConferenceDocs/2014/Presenter
%20page%20docs/2014%20Presenter%20Handbook%20FINAL.pdf

40. References
Bossers, A., Kernaghan, J., Hodgkins, L., Merla, L., O’Connor,
C., & Van Kessel, M. (1999). Defining and developing
professionalism. Canadian Journal of Occupational
Therapy, 66(3) (116-121)
Ingraham, S. (n.d.) Tips for a powerful student presentation. The
American Occupational Therapy Association.
Storz, C. et al. 2002. Oral Presentation Skills: A Practical Guide.
Institut National de Télécommunications. Evry, France: INT.
The AOTA Presenter’s Handbook. (2014). The American
Occupational Therapy Association.