Occupational Therapy practitioners ask,
what matters to you, not,
what's the matter with you?
AOTA President Ginny Stoffel
What is Occupational Therapy?
Throughout my career I have had many people ask me WHAT is an Occupational Therapist exactly? Now that is a loaded question!
And my response is........
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An occupational therapist is someone who supports you with your occupations. An occupation is anything that occupies
your time. We often fill our time with things we love and things that allow us to function in everyday life! For example, a child's occupations may include playing with friends, going to school, eating, toileting, bathing, drawing, etc.
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Occupational Therapists take a holistic approach when working with kids and families. What this means is we look at how the environment, and personal factors (cognition, sensory, motor skills, health) affect a person's participation, performance and level of engagement in different occupations (tasks, activities, routines).
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An Occupational Therapist can help to improve:
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Play skills
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Challenging Behaviours
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Fine Motor & Gross Motor Skills
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Visual Motor and Visual Perceptual Skills
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Self Help Skills
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Social Thinking Skills
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Emotional & Self- Regulation Skills
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Sensory Processing
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Feeding or Picky Eating
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Sleep
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Me2Be Occupational Therapy services and supports may include:
1. Identifying important and meaningful goals that parents and a child want to work on.
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2. Completing screens, assessment(s), and/or data collection to gain more information about a child's strengths and challenges in the areas of:
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fine motor
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gross motor
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visual motor & visual perceptual skills
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sensory processing
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activities of daily living
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adaptive functioning
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3. Taking a holistic approach to assessment, intervention and treatment; consideration of how the environment, and personal factors (cognition, sensory, motor skills, health) affect a child's participation, performance and level of engagement in different occupations (tasks, activities, routines).
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4. Suggesting and recommending child-friendly equipment/adaptations to increase safety, participation and performance in an activity and/or environment.
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5. Managing mealtime behaviours, motor and sensory concerns related to feeding and eating challenges to enable eating and feeding performance. Me2Be will support with referral(s) to appropriate services/supports if there are physiological, medical, or swallowing concerns.
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6. Coaching parents and a child through a challenging routine, task, or activity.
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7. Consulting to parents to help build their knowledge and capacity about an identified challenge.
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8. Sharing information and resources about the most current research regarding child development.
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9. Teaching a child and/or parents new skills and behaviours.
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10. Empowering a child and/or parent to try something new!
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11 .Collaborating and sharing information with the Me2Be Behavioural Consultant/Coach to consider the “whole” child.