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Occupational
Therapy
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.
OT's 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. OT's 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. OT's use a fun multi-sensory 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 OT's 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
http://www.aota.org/
and
these other helpful sites:
http://www.sensorysmarts.com/
(above information taken from this site)
http://www.ldonline.com/
http://www.henryot.com/
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