Occupational Therapy

January 2, 2019
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Occupational Therapy

Overview

Occupational Therapy enables students to improve their development and prevents disability from impacting their functioning in daily life. It also focuses on the promotion, restoration and mainstreaming of productivity in people with wide range of abilities and disabilities.

Occupational Therapy may include adaptations of task or environment to achieve maximum independence to enhance the quality of life. Occupational therapy has a definite role in helping / treating children with sensory processing deficits.

Occupational Therapists aim at enabling the child to be as physically, psychologically and socially independent as possible. Occupational therapists work with children who have inadequate motor coordination and planning (praxis), sensory processing dysfunction, social-emotional imbalance, impaired cognitive functions, poor academic performance and limited play skills.

Occupational Therapists use a knowledge base of neurology, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, child development and child psychology, psycho social development, activity analysis, and therapeutic techniques. They are trained to treat clients holistically, addressing their cognitive, emotional, and physical needs through functional, activity-based treatment. When working in paediatrics, occupational therapists select activities that are of interest and have meaning for children, and that also meet therapeutic goals.

What is Occupational Therapy?

Many people think the word “Occupation” is a work related term: however, an occupation can be anything someone does to occupy his or her time in everyday life. Groups of activities constitute an occupatio9n. For Example, work, leisure / play and self-care are general occupation. Within each of these are components of one or more activities. Self-care includes many activities of daily living such as brushing your teeth, bathing, eating, and dressing. Leisure / play. Can involve reading, writing, teaching, or typing. Activities are the building blocks or components of human occupation.

“Occupational therapy is an allied health profession concerned with improving a person’s occupational performance. In a pediatric setting, the occupational therapist deals with children whose occupations are usually play, preschoolers, or students.

Possible Reasons for Referral to OT are Difficulties with one or more

Visual Motor Skills:

Difficulty coordinating hand movements / skills using the eyes. Copying shapes, connecting dots, drawing through mazes, difficulty cutting on a line, or writing and drawing.

Visual Perceptual Skills:

Difficulty labelling letters / numbers / shapes, discriminating difference between forms, difficulty putting puzzles together, difficulty remembering forms, difficulty locating objects in a distracting background, matching similar objects / forms, and trouble copying when writing or drawing.

Postural Control:

Sits in a slouched manner at a table or desk, props head up with hand while sitting, fidgets constantly in chair, falls out of chair or falls down while navigating the environment, relies on railing to climb stairs, frequently bumps into people or objects, props self up against people or objects, has poor endurance and poor balance.

General Gross Motor Skills:

Difficulty maintaining balance when standing on one foot, difficulty negotiating playground equipment, unable to hop, jump, skip, gallop, or walk on a line, appears awkward when running, avoids physical education or sports activities.

In-hand Manipulation / Fine Motor Skills:

Drops or has poor control of small objects ( pegs, beads, coins ), difficulty using both hands at the same time or always uses one hand, has hand dominance confusion, difficulty grasping pencil, marker, crayon, hand muscle appear weak and movements seem awkward.

Psychosocial Skills:

Problem with transitions (stop and starts tasks with an adverse reaction), becomes frustrated or upset easily, has difficulty making friends, has low self-esteem.

Attention / Arousal:

Doesn’t respond to his/her name, looks “space out”, becomes easily distracted, fidgets often, misses verbal directions or needs directions repeated, impulsive, seems lethargic or over-active and cannot adjust arousal level for a task.

Play Skills:

Difficulty with sharing, becomes upset when losing a game, difficulty following rules, tends to play alone rather than with peers, doesn’t understand how to join peers in play or how to initiate play.

Sensory processing and / or Modulation:

The child could be under/over-responsive to ordinary sensations from the body or environment (sounds feel too loud or the person cannot tune into what is said, unexpected touch might feel uncomfortable or the person touches everything/everyone constantly) or sensory information is not processing accurately causing poor coordination and/or body in space awareness.