What is Occupational Therapy (OT)?

The central point of OT revolves around what an individual does during the day to 'occupy' their time. The activities that we spend out time on have particular meaning to each of us and often change over the course of our life span. A toddler, having learnt how to control the basic movements of his / her body is focused on exploring everything and anything. Play is the main 'occupation' of children, allowing them to learn how to develop greater mastery of their own bodies and build successful interactions with people and objects within their home, pre-school or local community environments.
We all know that life is not just made up of playtime. Children also spend part of the day as they get older, taking care of essential daily needs. These are called self-care activities and can include dressing, grooming and feeding skills (knife and fork use).

When children start school, their main occupation changes to being that of a student. However, to make sure that you get to school on time, you still need to be able to finish the self care activities (shower, back bag, tie shoelaces). Once at school, students are involved in different learning and sport activities. Independence in these activities requires many skills that are like building blocks. They all add up to the end product of success in academics.

 

Some of those building blocks include:

General coordination for participating in PE
Short and long term memory for handing in homework
Concentration and handwriting to take a spelling test
Visual processing skills for copying words from the blackboard to paper
Appropriate hand control to form letters and cut out complex shapes
 
An Occupational Therapist looks at the child's individual ability to perform the activities that they are required to complete every day. Information about strengths and weaknesses are used to develop a program aimed at enhancing skill level. Parents and other professionals are an integral part of a child's Occupational Therapy program.

Occupational Therapy treatment typically uses the occupation of 'play' as a medium through which to strengthen the building block skills. So it looks like and is FUN. Motivation is a key for developing skills through use of the 'just right challenge'.

 

Challenges can take the form of:

Achieving early developmental milestones
Developing play skills
Learning social skills and making friends
Coping with changes in routines and activities
Coordination necessary for the playground or sports
Becoming independent; learning organisational and planning skills.
Developing or expanding hobbies/interests.
Developing skills in taking care of yourself e.g. getting dressed
Tolerating the sights and sounds of busy, crowded or complex place