Compass Blog #018_By Maeve J
What Is Occupational Therapy?
First, OT stands for Occupational Therapy. According to the American
Occupational Therapy Association, “Your life is made up of occupations-meaningful
everyday activities…We generally don’t think about our daily occupations until we have
trouble doing them.” When you have trouble doing your meaningful everyday activities,
which varies from person to person, this is where OT comes in to help.
A common misconception is that OT is geared towards helping you prepare for or
get a job, but, ”Occupational therapy is not about helping you find a job or workout for a
job, it is about helping you move forward successfully in the job known as life”
OT can be utilized at any age and stage of life but, perhaps surprisingly, nearly
one third of all OT patients are children. If a need arises when young, it best to address
it as early as possible to set them up for future success, helping them to be as
functional and independent as possible in all areas of daily life. This is the goal of
Compass Community Health’s Pediatric Occupational Therapy department!
Pediatric OT is geared towards helping children that have needs stemming from
a variety of diagnoses, such as Global Developmental Delays, Autism Spectrum
Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, Motor Disorders, Attention Disorders, and
more! They address the child’s specific needs in engaging, enjoyable, and effective
ways, meeting goals through developing skills relevant to them and their lives. This
could range from developing their motor skills to their social-emotional skills,
communication skills, and/or sensory integration skills. This could also mean developing
their self-help skills such as eating, bathing, grooming, dressing, or sleeping, as well as
cognitive skills such as problem-solving, memory, and attention.
At times tied closely with OT is speech therapy. For children on the autism
spectrum, with speech or language disorders, or with other speech and communication
difficulties, speech therapy can go a long way in improving a child’s quality of life and
connect with the people and environment around them. Compass’ Pediatric speech
therapy is designed to improve; “speech, fluency, functional communication, language
use and understanding.” Learn more about Compass’ Pediatric Occupational
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