What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy
is a healthcare profession concerned with helping people of all ages to better perform
those tasks that occupy their time. For children, this typically means playing
and learning, as well as eating, getting dressed, grooming and so on. OT’s
are trained in psychology, development, neurology and kinesiology. Through the
use of meaningful occupations, they work in places such as hospitals, schools,
nursing homes, therapy clinics and in the home.
In the school district,
OT is provided as a related service under the Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA). OT is implemented
to help students with learning disabilities to function better. An OT provides carefully designed
challenges that build on your child's unique strengths and interests to build
developmental skills such as...
Attention span and arousal level
If a child isn't interested, fidgets constantly, or simply doesn't look at
what she is doing, she can't learn effectively. An OT will help you discover
what motivates your child, makes his body ready to learn (that is, what helps
him keep still, calm, and alert), and to pay attention and stay focused.
Sensory processing skills
A child needs to effectively use information derived from all the senses
that pick up input from the environment (vision, hearing, touch, smell, and
taste) as well as from inside the body (movement and internal body awareness).
All this input must be registered by sensory receptors, processed in the brain,
and acted upon in an adaptive way for a child to function at her best.
Fine motor and gross motor skills
Many children have difficulty with fine motor skills such as drawing, using
scissors, buttoning, and stringing beads. Their small hand muscles are still
maturing, and they may not have developed the strength, coordination, and
dexterity they need. OTs also work on gross motor skills that use
"larger" muscles, such as throwing and catching a ball, climbing
stairs and playground equipment, jumping and hopping, and so on.
Activities of daily living
Children have lots of ADL tasks to master, and most
children love becoming independent with these tasks. OTs help children learn to
eat with utensils, drink from a cup, get dressed and undressed, take a shower
or bath, use the toilet, and handle grooming and hygiene tasks
age-appropriately.
Visual-perceptual skills
From stacking blocks to doing puzzles to understanding geometry, a child
must be able to perceive differences and relationships between objects in the
environment. An OT can help a child to form a mental map of how the world works
and where he fits in it, all of which are essential to feeling physically and
emotionally secure.
Handwriting
Over the years, the time spent learning and practicing handwriting in
school has dramatically decreased. Handwriting skills, from the basics of
letter formation to taking class notes legibly, can be extremely difficult for
some children to learn quickly. OTs use a fun multisensory approach to
handwriting, including use of touch (e.g., using a wet finger to write on a
chalkboard) and sound (teaching a special story about how a specific letter is
formed).
Assistive technology
Low-tech devices (like pencil grips and slantboards) and high-tech
equipment (like adapted computers) are increasingly used in schools. If your
child needs them, he has a legal right to use them. An OT can help you to find
the right AT for your child, teach him how to use it, and
help integrate it into the classroom. Many OTs work with kids with mild to
profound physical disabilities, helping them function at their best using
wheelchairs and other ambulatory devices as well as helping non-verbal children
access communication devices that help them communicate with the world.
To learn more, please visit The American
Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. at
and these other
helpful sites:
http://www.sensorysmarts.com/
(above information taken from this site)