OT Student Blends a Lifelong Love of Swimming with a Passion for Helping Kids
For as long as Megan Latta can remember, water has always felt like home. She joined her first swim team at just eight years old and went on to compete for the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she also earned her undergraduate degree in psychology. During high school, Latta discovered the career that she was interested in pursuing.
“My mom and I were talking about what I might want to do,” Latta explains. “She mentioned occupational therapy, so I researched it, shadowed a little, and realized it was perfect for me.”
Latta knew she liked health care, but she also knew she didn’t like blood, needles, or shots. Occupational therapy offered the perfect blend: meaningful patient interaction, creativity, and a clinical setting.
What she didn’t know at the time was that OT could happen in the water.
Latta’s experience working with kids is woven throughout her life story. In high school, she taught private swim lessons, coached Special Olympics, and worked at an autism day program.
Though she spent time working in a nursing home, exploring working with other age groups, pediatric patients felt like the better fit.
While in college, she shadowed at an outpatient pediatric clinic for children with disabilities. With each experience, her enjoyment led her further down the path of working with kids with special needs.
So, when she learned about aquatic occupational therapy, something clicked.
“I found out you can do OT in the water and thought: that’s the perfect combination of everything I love,” she says.
Preparing to graduate in May, Latta is completing her capstone at All Inclusive Aquatics, an outpatient clinic that offers occupational therapy, physical therapy and adaptive swim lessons in Omaha, Nebraska.
Latta found the opportunity through a cousin in Omaha, reached out, and was thrilled when Megan Didulo, the owner and an occupational therapist, agreed to take her on.
Together, they spend their days in and around the pool running aquatic OT sessions, teaching adaptive swim lessons, and building skills through play, sensory experiences, and water-based movement. Outside the pool, Latta is developing a caregiver education website with take-home activities focusing on the sensory system.
Occupational Therapy in the Pool
Many of the children Latta works with are sensory seekers who thrive with proprioceptive and vestibular input. The pool provides the perfect environment.
One child wears flippers in the water to add extra input at the ankles. Another stands on Latta’s thighs at the pool’s edge and pushes against her hands before beginning structured activities—a regulating ritual before focusing on fine motor tasks like puzzles and blocks.
With a client who has Down syndrome, Latta incorporates reaching, upper extremity strengthening, and executive functioning challenges. Sitting on a floating mat that is pulled back and forth adding vestibular input, the child must reach to the basketball hoop to grab a card and then find its match at the side of the pool. Activities like this build core strength, balance, coordination, and sensory regulation—all while keeping therapy fun and engaging.
Latta says she loves interacting with children and the challenge of creativity in occupational therapy.
“I’ve learned how creative you have to be as an OT,” Latta says. “But the creativity my mentor brings to the pool is really impressive.”
Latta says the experience has transformed her confidence in her clinical skills.
"Water is just another tool for us, and for so many kids, it's the perfect place for them to grow."
“I used to be unsure of what I knew. But now everything is clicking. I finally understand why we learned all of this. The OT program really has prepared me for this, and I really do have the skills.”
At All Inclusive Aquatics, Latta works with a wide range of children—each with different diagnoses, strengths, sensory needs, and personalities. Some even have undiagnosed medical conditions.
“Every kid is so different,” she says. “And getting to see so many different needs has taught me so much.”
After graduation, Latta hopes to continue working with kids—location still to be determined. One thing is certain, though: aquatic therapy will always hold a special place in her heart.
“Water is just another tool for us,” she says. “And for so many kids, it’s the perfect place for them to grow.”