​What does Occupational Therapist do?

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Occupational therapy (OT) treatment focuses on helping people with a physical, sensory, or cognitive disability be as independent as possible in all areas of their lives. Occupation refers to all the tasks or activities that a person:

 

• Wants to do (interests, hobbies, play)

• Has to do (e.g. eat, toilet, dress)

• Is expected to do (reading, writing, academics)

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Occupational Therapy aims to help a person achieve success in their life occupations. It focuses on the main occupations of:

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• School (e.g. writing, reading, fine motor skills, learning, attention)

• Home tasks (e.g. fitting in with family life, jobs, homework, getting self- ready)

• Play (e.g. imaginative play, social interaction, gross motor skills)

• Self-care ( e.g. bathing, dressing, eating, cutlery use, organising self)

• Work (preparing a person to be able to effectively engage in the workplace)

 

Areas Addressed at Shine Therapy Centre's Occupational Therapy:

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• Sensory Integration

• Autism

• Fine Motor Skills

• Gross Motor Skills

• Visual Perception

• Memory Issues

• Handwriting Difficulties

• School Readiness

• Play

• Eating issues

• Developmental Delays

• Self-care issues

• Toileting – encopresis/ enuresis/ delays

• Dressing

• Behaviour management

• Most other functional difficulties

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How Occupational Therapy will help?

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The therapist carefully analyses the sensory, physical, cognitive and behavioral aspects causing the child to have difficulties in his/her life occupations.

Intervention is then targeted at the weak areas to improve the underlying skills. Intervention looks at a combination of:

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• Education of child and adult caregivers as to the reasons for the difficulties.

• Environmental modification where appropriate to help ensure that the child has the "just right" level of challenge to enable success.

• Remediation of the underlying skills through clinic treatment and/ or home and school programming.

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