Skip to main content

Wordy Wednesday: Occupational Therapy

Welcome to Wordy Wednesday!
 
Today's subject:
 
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
 
 
This is really only a brief and general introduction to occupational therapy. This type of therapy is very helpful for individuals with a broad range of diagnoses.
 
We tend to think of occupational therapy as primarily for adults who have perhaps had a stroke or accident that has resulted in a loss of the use of certain skills. It plays a vital role for certain children however, since this may be where a child learns and strengthens his life skills, which center around play, balance, body awareness, gross and fine motor development.
 
Most of us take these skills for granted, yet there is a large number of kids who struggle with some of the most basic daily tasks such as putting on or taking off clothes, brushing teeth, holding a pencil, all the way up to climbing or descending stairs, sitting, or tolerating the feel of certain textures. Even speech and language. Impairment of these skills and many others can make life extremely frustrating for a child, his family, teachers, and anyone else involved in his day to day life. Occupational therapy, followed up with helping strategies at home and school, can foster independence and ease the pressure and anxiety of these children and their families.
 
 Here is a quick explanation of the difference between Occupational and Physical Therapy: 
 



This is a nice one that shows some of what OT entails and how it helps: 
 



Here is a great video that can help with ideas for therapy at home or even just to provide good input ideas: 
 



A fellow blogger posted these two wonderful write-ups, no. 1 and no. 2 about what a typical OT session for her son looks like. And this one about the effects it is having on her sons daily life.

Most certainly this is a valuable and beneficial tool to helping kids reach their potential and keep doing their job, that of just being a KID!


 
 
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 16, 2013 at 11:46 PM

    The services of a therapist is usually called upon in cases wherein the patient has suffered major injury such as car crash, fire, plane crash while majority of the patients are brought upon the occupational therapist's care because of old age. Visit Our Website for more information.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Le Petite Chef: Mud Pie

Here it is, as promised, Grace's Mud Pie recipe! She did all the work, I helped explain terms and measurements, stirred at the very end to make sure everything was evenly coated (at her request), and helped hold the pot. She let one of her friends spread the Nutella and add the "dirt" to one of the pies while she did the other.  This is a very kid friendly recipe, I highly recommend it for ages 8 and up! The original recipe is in the book The Cooking Book, by Jane Bull. But we modified it just a bit. Here are our supplies: 3/4 c butter 1 tbsp cocoa powder 1/2 c sugar 1 c graham cracker crumbs 1/2 c dried fruit 1 chocolate bar (we used Nutella spread instead) We added: Heath chocolate and toffee bits Black Sixletts (found in the party aisle) These are the original measurements, we doubled the recipe though. Step 1: Crush graham crackers. We used a gallon size zipper bag and a coffee mug (I don't own
18 comments
Read more

Saying Goodbye

For the entire month of August, I just didn't let myself think about it beyond the facts. For the last two weeks, I just focused on anything else that took my mind off of it. Over the weekend I was busy getting things ready, so I was too busy to think about it. Tuesday came. Miss V came. It was a good visit, with laughing and smiling, and questions asked and answered, and Kit played with her, and smiled and made us laugh like usual. But it was different, and we felt it. I didn't let myself go there, because I didn't want to break down, not that it would have been the first time in front of her (nor the second, or third, or even fourth probably.)  And then it was time for her to go, and we took some pictures, and all the kids hugged her, and I held Kit on my shoulder on the steps so she could wave goodbye until Miss V is out of sight like she has every week for at least five months. And then we closed the door, and Kit went on with business as usual, beca
28 comments
Read more

Preschool at Home! Chalkboard Painting

Here is another treasure from the backfiles. This started as an act of desperation on my part, I just needed her to be occupied so I could finish something, but it quickly became one of her favorite activities. If you have a chalkboard (we made ours on a half wall with chalkboard paint), all you need is a paintbrush, sponge, or washcloth, and a cup of water. Dip the brush in the water and have at it! Kit LOVES how the water turns the board black. So often, she will be at this so long that by the time she gets across the board, the first area she painted will be dry and a fresh pallet once again. You can get creative with the things you use as paintbrushes, but she has been completely happy with our basic art brushes from Walmart. I love watching her do this.
27 comments
Read more