Medically Reviewed By Sonam Kothari, Written By Tejasvi Parekh
The goal of occupational therapy (OT), an allied health field, is to treat various physical, mental, developmental, and emotional conditions by using common activities, or occupations, as therapeutic tools. Encouraging people to engage in everyday tasks will increase their independence and well-being. This is the aim of occupational therapy.
The foundation of occupational therapy is that occupation may help people avoid and reduce dysfunction and enable positive adjustments. In this therapeutic setting, occupations are defined as common activities chosen for their potential therapeutic benefits.
This Article thus aims to employ an Understanding of the Roles of Occupational Therapists, explore the diverse activities employed at home by occupational therapists and the benefits of employing those activities.
Occupational therapists (OTs) are essential in improving the quality of life for people dealing with diverse difficulties because of disease, injury, or disability. Their major goal is to assist patients in acquiring, recovering from, maintaining, and improving the abilities required for working and living their everyday lives.
OTs address the full person rather than simply the condition as part of their complete therapy approach.
Assessing a patient's state and needs is one of the core duties of an occupational therapist. Typically, this first evaluation includes examining the patient's medical history, interviewing the patient, and seeing the patient engage in particular motions or activities.
OTs build a comprehensive awareness of the patient's strengths and problems through this in-depth examination, which guides the creation of a tailored therapy plan.
OTs create specialised treatment plans that target certain goals after evaluating the requirements of their patients. The goal of these programmes is to assist patients in enhancing their capacity to carry out everyday tasks at home, at work, or in the community.
This entails picking suitable exercises or tasks, demonstrating them, and continuously evaluating and modifying the treatment plan.
Occupational therapists frequently assess a patient's home and workplace to suggest modifications that might improve the patient's safety and independence. This might entail recommending changes like putting grab bars in restrooms, moving furniture to improve accessibility, or endorsing ergonomic workplace equipment. OTs assist in lowering obstacles and facilitating simpler navigation and day-to-day task performance by optimising the surroundings.
Providing patients with emotional and psychological support is a fundamental component of occupational therapy. OTs assist patients in becoming more self-aware and functioning by encouraging them to look past their limitations.
OTs serve patients in developing resilience and confidence by creating a positive and encouraging atmosphere, both of which are critical for their healing and reintegration into society.
Occupational therapy is a holistic field, addressing the full individual instead of simply their symptoms. OTs design individualised interventions for each patient, guaranteeing successful and individualised therapy.
For example, an older person with mobility challenges may need different help than a kid with the same condition, but both receive tailored care plans.
Helping people, especially kids, reach their maximum potential in daily tasks is a crucial function of occupational therapy (OT). The main goals of occupational therapy (OT) for kids are play, independence building, and skill acquisition.
A child's growth can be effectively supported in a comfortable and familiar setting by incorporating occupational therapy exercises into daily life.
Here, parents and other carers may encourage the development of critical life skills by including many fun and therapeutic activities into everyday routines. Given below are some activities.
Children may have a lot of fun and benefit from creating an obstacle course within the house. Obstacle courses are a great way to practise gross motor skills like leaping, climbing and crawling, even if they may appear intimidating because of possible domestic mess.
They also assist kids in developing better movement planning and positioning awareness. When you set up a course on a wet day, indoor fun may become productive and interesting.
Cooking together with kids is a great approach to improving social skills and fine motor abilities. Start small and manage the bustle in the kitchen by starting with easy dishes like pancakes or banana muffins.
Through the use of various utensils, cooking jobs can aid in the development of finger and hand strength, coordination, and hand manipulation in children.
Cooking together also promotes asking for assistance when needed, taking turns, and developing resiliency in the event of a setback, making it a comprehensive developmental activity.
Making bath time enjoyable and therapeutic can satisfy a need for personal care while supplying sensory stimulation. Bath time becomes more enticing when bubbles or skin-safe food colouring are added.
Bath time can be improved by applying shaving foam as a visual signal or by teaching and identifying body areas that require cleaning using a favourite toy.
By encouraging sensory processing and good personal hygiene, these activities may make bath time entertaining and informative.
A sensory diet is a regimen of exercises created to provide kids with the sensory experience they require to go about their everyday lives with ease.
Exercise ball rolling over the kids, animal walks, and tugging or pushing on the body can all provide substantial sensory advantages.
A sensory diet can also include blowing bubbles, swinging, bouncing on a trampoline, and playing with tactile items like sand or playdough. Children with sensory sensitivity can better manage their sensory requirements with the use of these activities.
Storytime may greatly support the development of imaginative play abilities, attention span, and focus. It's also a terrific way to unwind after a long day. Storytime may become more instructive by selecting books that allow counting things, tracing faces, or telling stories through visuals.
Making book selections based on the child's age, interests, and attention span guarantees that story time is still enjoyable and productive.
Walking on lines, jumping on number mats, and climbing stairs and wedges all improve balance and coordination for vestibular exercises and body awareness.
While swinging and trampoline activities give vestibular input, which helps children manage their perception of motion and balance, simple teaching games and mirror exercises help youngsters become more aware of their bodies.
Artistic expression and sensory integration can be achieved through tactile activities such as finger painting and textured mat walks.
Assembling puzzles and trimming clothespins are good ways to help children with their fine motor abilities. While imaginative crafts like creating edible necklaces help them with their motor and sensory skills.
1. Straw race
Oral motor issues, such as controlling mouth motions or embracing various textures, are common challenges for kids with sensory processing disorders. Putting on a straw race is an enjoyable and useful method to assist in the desensitisation of this region. Get a big plastic container and fill it with water for this project. Put two lightweight items in the water, such as paper cups.
To get to the opposite side of the container first, you and your child blow the paper cups across using straws. If your child isn't old enough for competitive games, you can still make it fun for them by having them time how long it takes them to blow the cup as quickly as they can.
2. Engage in a Repetitive Warm-Up Activity
Repetitive activities might help children feel relaxed, prepared, and focused at the beginning of each session. Play games like tossing beanbags back and forth or throwing a ball.
Repetitive exercises are a great warm-up because they stimulate the area of the brain responsible for controlling emotions. This helps your child feel more solid and concentrated, and it also gets them ready for more regimented work.
A famous game that may be modified to incorporate different occupational therapy skills is Simon Says. For example, your child can practise deep pressure by crawling in a lycra tunnel, then leap five times to improve body awareness.
Incorporating a social skills element, lets your youngster guide you in turns, promoting creativity and a different point of view. This engaging and social game may help with a variety of skill sets.
Children diagnosed with autism can differentiate various degrees of annoyance or distress by utilizing an emotion thermometer, which serves as a valuable visual tool. Collaborate with your child to establish three to five distinct emotional levels by either drawing or tracing a thermometer on a piece of paper and subsequently cutting it out.
Allowing the kids to colour and embellish their thermometers can help them improve their fine motor and visual perception abilities. Children can identify their emotional states and express them more effectively with the aid of this tool.
Occupational therapy (OT) provided at home has several benefits that can make a big difference in the way many people recover. The increased engagement and drive it produces is one of the main advantages.
Being in a location that is comfortable and familiar helps reduce anxiety that is frequently connected with clinical settings. This eliminates outside distractions and enables patients to concentrate more on their treatment objectives.
The enhanced transfer of skills into everyday life is a noteworthy advantage of home-based OT. More functional training is possible when therapy is delivered in a setting where patients will use their abilities.
To ensure that the skills acquired are easily transferred to daily duties, therapists can address issues unique to the home environment.
A more tailored approach can be made possible by home-based therapy's ability to help therapists uncover underlying limitations that would not be obvious in a clinical environment.
In addition to ensuring continuous support, involving family members and carers directly in treatment sessions emphasises the implementation of newly acquired skills.
