Occupational therapists are concerned with promoting a person’s health through meaningful activity called occupation.
For children occupation includes a child’s play skills, social skills, emotional skills, motor skills and self-care skills. To participate in meaningful activities children need to develop skills, maintain a calm alert state and have their sensory needs respected.
Play skills are the foundations from which children learn and develop. It includes learning about cause and effect (“if I touch this button I can make the light flash”), exploring properties of objects, posting objects into containers, pretending to be someone else (eg. Role playing Mum or Dad) and acting out a story in play (eg. Pretending to go to the shops, buy groceries and go home to cook dinner!).
Social skills involve a child connecting with an adult caregiver and then with other children. They include sharing joy with another, having back and forth communication turns and learning to understand what another person is thinking.
Emotions are how we feel – they are complex and they affect behaviour. Children need to learn to recognise their feelings and manage them in appropriate ways so they can attend, learn and connect with others.
Gross motor skills are activities that involve large movements of the body such as walking, running, hopping, skipping and climbing.
Fine motor skills are activities that involve small movement of the body such as opening containers, managing zips and buttons and holding a pencil for drawing, colouring and writing.
Self-care skills involve taking care of yourself. They include feeding, toileting, dressing and bathing.
A calm alert state is also called a “just right” state. Sometimes children are “too high” and have trouble calming down. Sometimes children are “too low” and have trouble waking up. For children to attend and learn at their best they need to be “just right”.
Senses are things that come from our environment and also from our body. Senses from our environment include noises, smells, sights, tastes and touch. Senses from within our body are called “hidden” senses as we cannot see them. They are our sense of movement (also called “vestibular”) and the awareness of where our body is in space (also called “proprioception”). Our body detects different senses, interprets them and then responds. We need to learn which senses are more important and we should listen to and which ones are less important and we can ignore.
We all have different sensory preferences. Some of us love hot spicy foods, riding on roller coasters and loud concerts. Some of us like to snuggle up under a heavy blanket and read a book. Some of us love wearing perfume and getting our fingers messy. Some of us like to keep our hands clean.
Occupational Therapists work with a child, their family and their community to help the child gain independence in their everyday occupations.
They can work directly with a child and support and train parents and teachers to work with a child to help them maximise their skills in all developmental areas.
Occupational Therapists look at the whole picture of a child’s functioning – their skill areas, attention and learning and a child’s ability to regulate their emotions, arousal level and their sensory preferences. They also look at the environment in which the child completes their occupations, the child’s family and their community.
Occupational Therapists work directly with the child to build skills and where necessary will modify the task or the environment to help maximise a child’s independence.