Occupational Therapy Project Report

Introduction There are so many ways in which we can work collectively as a society to help make a child’s life better. When asked at the beginning of the semester to pursue a project that is going to make a real difference in the life of a child I immediately became excited. I have a passion for children and have loved learning about their different stages of development throughout the semester. I also have a passion for occupational therapy, and aspire to begin graduate studies in this field once I have completed my undergraduate degree. Therefore, for my final project I decided to incorporate the two. I have spent a lot of time recently with a particular occupational therapist and she likes to define occupational therapy simply as “how

Within these pages, I have outlined the importance of using scissors, a basic overview of what fine motor skills are and why they are important, and also a guide as to how to navigate through the manual. After thorough research, I was able to come up with rough guidelines a parent can follow notifying them of the appropriate stage for their child’s age. That being said, it was still clearly stated that every child is different, with some developing at a faster or slower pace than others. Depending on the child they may begin or end each stage at different times. Ideally this manual was created to be followed through from start to finish, meaning that as soon as the child has developed the basic prerequisite skills for cutting, such as: being able to use a fork and spoon, able to open and close their hand, use hands in a bilateral fashion, and create isolation and distinction between thumb, index and middle fingers, that they will be able to proceed on to the first stage and follow the manual to the end. After the basic overview portion of the manual, it then moves into the stages of fine motor development beginning with stage one, which is entitled: “Fine Motor Activities”. The main goal of this stage is to allow the child to strengthen those tiny muscles in their hand by participating in fun, entertaining games. The purpose of these games is to enhance their fine motor skills by practicing their pincer grip (clothespin game), tearing and crumbling paper, and stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner. Next is stage two, in which the child will properly learn how to hold scissors and work on mastering the hand movements that are associated with this task. This has proven to be the most difficult area, as children tend to position the scissors in a way that is most comfortable to them, which often can hinder their successful develop in this regard. In the next series of stages the goal is to move the child—in a sequential