Occupational Therapy

Importance:

The occupational therapist collaborates with the student, parents, and educators to identify the skills of the student, the demands of the environment, and appropriate solutions for interventions. Another example is the family of a newborn baby with poor feeding skills. The occupational therapist may provide training and support for the family to enhance the baby's ability to drink from a bottle.

Occupational therapy practitioners provide services that enable people to organize, manage, and perform their daily life occupations and activities.

Occupational therapy services support a child's participation in activities of daily living, education, work, play, leisure, and social interactions.

Occupational Therapy is an important part of overcoming

• Autism
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Learning difficulty
• Developmental delay
• Cerebral palsy
• Down syndrome

Occupational therapists value both occupation and activity and recognize their importance and influence on health and wellbeing.

Occupational therapists focus on the following occupations: activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, education, leisure, play, social participation, and work. The occupational therapy service delivery process includes evaluation, intervention, and outcomes.

During the evaluation, the occupational therapist must gain an understanding of the client's priorities and his or her problems engaging in occupations and activities.

Evaluation and intervention address factors that influence occupational performance, including

• Performance skills (e.g., motor, process, and communication/ interaction skills);
• Performance patterns (e.g., as habits, routines, and roles);
• Context (e.g., physical and social environments);
• Activity demands (e.g., required actions and body functions); and
• Client factors (e.g., neuromuscular, sensory, visual, perceptual, digestive, cardiovascular, and integumentary systems)

Many children can benefit from getting occupational therapy. They do not need to be behind on anything to benefit from this type of therapy. However, if your child is behind on any type of development, they will get even greater benefits from customized occupational therapy.

Children do not see occupational therapy as work. Instead, they see occupational therapy as games to play. They get to have fun while mastering new skills. The more games they play, the more of those skills they will master and the further ahead they will get. Occupational therapy covers all types of skills, and allows children to get caught up, and in many instances, move ahead of their peers.

Assessment:

Occupational Therapy Assessment is a detailed assessment of Sensory-Motor and Neuro-motor Development of a child with standardized tools.

The sessions include:

• Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT): a set of 17 standardized tests that measure tactile, proprioceptive, vestibular and visual sensory perception as well as Motor Planning, Balance, Bilateral Coordination and Sequencing, Visual Perception and Visuo-Motor Integration.
• Sensory Processing Measure (SPM): A standardized parental questionnaire that measures parent perception of sensory over or under responsivity to various sensory experiences with their child.
• Assessment of Oral Sensitivity using Oral Placement Therapy Assessment tool.: A standardized tool that assess oral placement/feeding/speech problems based on muscle systems.
• Sensory Processing Checklist questionnaire.
• Observations during unstructured play.
• Structured clinical observations of Sensory Integration.
• Interview with parents.

A detailed report is formulated using results from SIPT, SPM, Sensory Processing Checklist questionnaire and clinical observations. The report also includes activities for home, strategies, school and life-skills recommendations. Recommendations may also include occupational therapy or structured monthly reviews with therapists.

Procedure of occupational therapy

Evaluation, Intervention, and Outcome

Many professions use the process of evaluating, intervening, and targeting intervention outcomes that is outlined in the Framework. However occupational therapy's focus on occupation throughout the process makes the profession's application and use of the process unique. The process of occupational therapy service delivery begins by evaluating the client's occupational needs, problems, and concerns.

Understanding the client as an occupational human being for whom access and participation in meaningful and productive activities is central to health and well-being, is a perspective that is unique to occupational therapy. Problems and concerns that are addressed in evaluation and intervention are also framed uniquely from an occupational perspective, are based on occupational therapy theories, and are defined as problems or risks in occupational performance.

During intervention, the focus remains on occupation, and efforts are directed toward fostering improved engagement in occupations. A variety of therapeutic activities, including engagement in actual occupations and in daily life activities, are used in intervention.