“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” –Desmond Tutu
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
3 year old to adult
What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy (OT) is a degree-based health profession, regulated by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Occupational therapists use a person-centred and whole-of-person approach with individuals, groups and communities to achieve optimal health and wellbeing through participation in the occupations of life. The term ‘occupation’ is used to describe all the everyday things we do in our life roles, but also the things we do to be who we are, the things we do to create a meaningful life and to engage with wider society and culture.
An Occupational Therapist will gather information about the person and their environment and the impacts this may have on their performance in every day occupations (ie. aka activities).
Occupational therapists work within many areas of practice to provide support to those who experience difficulties engaging in the everyday activities of life one of the many areas is paediatrics.
Occupational Therapy and Childhood
Paediatric occupational therapy applies specialist approaches and techniques to maximise a child’s engagement, achievement and independence in all activities, including those at school, play, leisure and self-care skills such as dressing and feeding.
The OT will gather information through observation and subjective information provided by the parents and if appropriate from the child’s, childcare, kindergarten or school and analyse why a child may be struggling to carry out specific tasks to then devise a bespoke treatment plan to address the specific issues. The OT may recommend further assessment which will provide an in depth understanding in relation to barriers the child may be experiencing and the best course for intervention.
The OT will take a collaborative approach with the aims to ‘up skill’ the people that surround and support a child in their daily life to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to maximise a child’s independence; helping a child is a round the clock approach and not solely focused on the OT sessions.
Common areas an OT may target can include but is not limited to:
Gross & Fine motor development skills (critical in enabling a child to perform in all activities of daily living (ADL’s) without basic gross and fine motor skills a child may present with difficulties participating in every day occupations.
Pre-writing skills, pencil grasp and control
Visual motor integration (hand eye coordination)
Visual perception (identifying similarities and differences between letters, finding items in cluttered spaces.
Organisational skills
Development of routines and schedules
Time management
Home modifications and reports
Trialling of assistive technology and reports
Sensory processing (Accurate registration, interpretation and response to sensory stimulation in the environment and their own body)
Emotional regulation
Recognition of emotions in self and others
Increasing independence in self-care skills (washing, dressing, grooming, eating, toileting)
Fussy or picky eaters
Handwriting
Attention and participation in non-preferred tasks
Turn-taking, winning and losing
Social skills building and recognising social cues
Imaginative Play
Develop confidence and self-esteem
OT Paediatric Assessments
Functional Independence assessment (FIA)
Sensory Profile and School Companion
Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI)
Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2)