What is OT anyway?

A new day...a new blog! This will be a place for Therapy Threads to provide OT information and ways you can help your child at home. It is our desire to not only provide OT products, but also practical support and ideas for daily life with a child who has special needs. If you have specific questions, please let us know. We will either answer your question (if we have that information) or seek out that information and share it here for everyone's benefit.

Occupational Therapy...what is it anyway? "Occupational therapy (OT) is skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. OT assists people in developing the "skills for the job of living" necessary for independent and satisfying lives. Occupational therapy focuses on enabling people to participate in meaningful and purposeful activities of daily life. An individual's "occupation" is an activity that "occupies" his or her time. For example, a child in grade school has the occupation of learning. An adult may need to learn how to write after a traumatic injury. And a senior may want to continue driving safely in order to stay active in the community. All of these daily life activities are "occupations" and participating in them is vital to maintaining overall health and wellness." (quote from The American Occupational Therapy Association)



Occupational Therapists are highly skilled at figuring out what makes a child happy and motivated. They use this information to tailor the time they spend with that child into something unique and productive. Goals will be set with input from parents and teachers. Often improvement is seen after the very first appointment. A great benefit of sessions with an OT is that a parent can take a variety of ideas home with them to reinforce progress and take the next step toward a goal. OT can be very fun for the child and often looks like playtime to someone unfamiliar with the process. Anything fun, that helps a child make progress, becomes rewarding for everyone involved.

In my next blog, we will be talking about OT and sensory integration.

Until then...
Laurie

http://www.therapythreads.com/