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Occupational Therapy For Kids

Willie Said:

How is occupational therapy different for kids than it is for adults?

We Answered:

The basics are the same. You will remedied the occupations of each. Occupations for children (play/school) are different than adults (jobs/recreation/parent etc). OT in schools work on fine motor, visual motor, handwriting, computer access, feeding, ADLs, adaptive equipment, sensory integration, and strengthening. OT in hospitals work on ADL's mostl and adaptive equipment. OT in rehab work on fine motor, ADL's, feeding, adaptive equipment, strengthening etc.

www.aota.org

Pauline Said:

Info on occupational therapy(for kids) ?

We Answered:

Occupational therapy is a very interesting job. I am an occupational therapist and have been working in this job for 20 years. The aim of an occupational therapist is to help people to develop or maintain their independence. That is - to help people manage to do the things they want to do for themselves - as independently as possible. Occupational Therapy training is general - so at university you learn how to work with people who have physical, mental and learning difficulties. You also learn how to work generally across all age groups. After training most occupational therapists specialize in both a type of diagnosis i.e. physical health issues or mental health issues, and then assess and treat people in a particular age group. I am an OT working with people who have physically based problems, and have specialized at different times in work with adults and children. As well as treating the person themselves, an OT learns how to change the environment around someone to remove obstacles to their independence, ie to change a bath tub for a level access shower, or to replace steps with a usable ramp. They also are experts at prescribing equipment i.e. specialist cutlery, wheelchairs, writing equipment etc so that the person can still do what they want.
Many occupational therapists work in hospitals, helping people recover from illness and teaching them how to manage independently after injury (rehabilitation). Other OTs work in the community - they help people who have long term illnesses, or children who have disabilities, and again work with the person to develop their independence skills as far as possible.
Some OTs work with children who have specific learning disabilities. These are children who have conditions like dyspraxia. This is a lack of co-ordination and organization which leads to difficulties completing everyday tasks easily and heavily impacts on being able to take part in sports and physically write. OTs can make a significant change to a child's abilities - which is obviously very rewarding.
Personally I enjoy working with adults and children outside the hospital setting since then it is possible to work in greater detail on everyday skills - rather than only focusing on being independent enough to be discharged from the hospital.
I hope this helps.

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