Benefits Of Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy is a health care designed to treat an individual’s disability and difficulty to improve their performance in their daily life activities. The term occupation does not only refer to the job of an individual but refers to what they do in their everyday lives, which is why any individual, regardless of age, may benefit from occupational therapy. Occupation is everything people do to occupy themselves, which includes work, leisure, and self care (CAOT). An occupational therapy program aims to improve the individual’s performance and engagement because of their physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities. Because occupational therapy has a wide range of people who may benefit from this treatment, this paper is focused on pediatric

Occupational therapist do not just work with the patient to help them overcome their disability to perform the appropriate way in their occupations, but need the full support of the family and environment of the patient. They work with children to help them achieve their developmental milestones as well as their parents and surrounding adults to facilitate to the child’s learning and development. The most crucial part of the child’s rehabilitation is the family’s support and involvement because even when the best program is provided, if there is no cooperation with the family, there will be no progress (Lady Suarez). The environment of the child is key because the smallest details in the child’s setting, materials, and community can make a very big difference to their development, which is why occupational therapy in the school system is very beneficial to children who need it. As mentioned earlier, the occupation of a child is to learn and play, which is done in school for a very big part of their childhood. Occupational therapists in school are trained to assess and treat the student’s performance in school, in terms of academics, and behavioral and social

As mentioned earlier, the collaboration of the parents, teachers, and therapists is still essential to maximize the effectiveness of the therapy and treatment. Common cases treated by occupational therapists in school are gross motor and fine motor skills, visual-motor integration and visual-perceptual skills. Children having difficulties in those skills would probably be having difficulties in reading, writing, mathematics, manipulation of tools, physical education, independence, and social integration. As proven by Palisano in 1989, children of ages six to nine years of age with those difficulties were able to improve on those skills with the help of occupational therapy