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Occupational Therapy

 Occupational Therapy at CLL

Occupational Therapy

The practice of occupational therapy (OT) means the therapeutic use of everyday life activities (occupations) with individuals or groups for the purpose of participation in roles and situations in home, school, workplace, community, and other settings. Occupational therapy at CLL is concerned with helping students acquire skills needed to achieve academic success within the educational environment. Occupational therapy addresses the physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, and other aspects of performance in a variety of contexts to support to support engagement in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life (AOTA, 2008, p.673).            

Several Areas where an OT can help provide services to help your student’s school success:

  • Attention span and arousal level
  • Sensory Processing Skills
  • Gross Motor Skills
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Activities of daily living (ADLs)/ Self-Care Skills
  • Visual-Perceptual Skills
  • Handwriting

Occupational Therapy intervention delivered in several ways to help a student:

  •  Therapeutic use of self: which is a therapist planned intervention – individually or in a group
  •   Therapeutic use of occupations and activities: individually or in a group - which includes
  •   Occupation-based interventions – activity matches goal
  •   Purposeful activity – activity allows client to develop skills
  •   Preparatory methods – activities used to prepare for the actual completion of a goal

Occupation that may affect the student’s participation in daily activities:

  • Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) - include areas of care that involve bathing, dressing, feeding, eating, mobility, hygiene and overall personal care.
  • Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) - include areas that require caring for others, communication, community, mobility and financial management and caring for home, meals, religious, shopping and safe of one’s overall life activities. 
  • Rest & Sleep - include the preparation and participation in activities that support the need for rest and sleep to be able to actively engage in other areas of occupation.
  • Education - include formal and informal educational needs for personal and academic exploration and participation in learning.
  • Work - include employment, volunteer and retirement interests, pursuits, looking for and supporting skill needed to performance these interests.
  • Play - include all play exploration and participation in any spontaneous or organized activity that provides enjoyment.
  • Leisure - include all leisure exploration and participation in interests that are nonobligatory activity and are intrinsically motivated and enjoyable.
  • Social participation - include engaging in activities that result in successful interaction with others in the community, at home and with friends.

Reference:

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2008). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (2nd ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62, 625-683.