Occupational Τherapy

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Occupational therapy combines the “therapeutic” use of occupations, self-service and play activities in order to increase independent functioning, to promote development and to prevent disabilities. Occupational therapy may also include the adjustment of an activity or the environment itself in order to succeed maximum independence and to promote the quality of life. (AOTA Executive board, 1976).

Occupational therapy services are provided for the purpose of promoting health and wellness and to those who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction. Occupational therapy addresses physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, communication, and other areas of performance in various contexts and environments in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life. An occupational therapy practitioner uses current assessments and assessment procedures and follows defined protocols of standardized assessments during the screening, evaluation, and re-evaluation process. (O.T. Practice for Regulation for A.O.T.A.)

Occupational therapy is a prevention and rehabilitation specialty whose aim is to help individuals to complete important everyday activities regardless of their personal functional limitations.

The Role of Occupational Therapy in
Child Development and Support

The services provided by the occupational therapy practitioners are:

To evaluate and intervene depending on the patient’s needs in co-operation with the family, the carer or others.
To develop, improve, support and preserve the patient’s skills in everyday activities, at work or other productive activities, during play or entertainment.
To promote, develop and reestablish the motor/sensory, cognitive and psycho-social elements of the patient in their everyday activities.
To “teach” the patient, their family, carer or other to perform the correct type of intervention depending on the circumstances.
To cooperate with the rehabilitation team or other organizations in order to provide full scale patient rehabilitation practices.

Who needs occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy is suitable for those who are at risk from:

Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Cerebral palsy
Cognitive deficiencies
Psychosocial dysfunction
Mental retardation
Developmental or learning disabilities
Behavioural disorders
Other disorders

Pediatric Occupational therapy

Petiatric occupational therapy is involved with and provides solutions to problems relating to the basic natural development areas. Motor areas in children who:

With motor development retardation
Exhibit gross motor skill ineptitude
Have balance problems and fall down frequently
Are getting tired more easily and are less energetic than their peers
Have bad body posture, lie down often or collapse in the chair
Exhibit fine motor skill deficiency, find difficulty in handling small objects, hold a pen or use the scissors
Exhibit difficulties in writing, letter formation or combining letters in words or phrases

Sensory areas in children who:

Exhibit hypersensitivity to the touch, withdraw or react negatively when held or patted on the shoulder
Avoid in an unusual way everyday grooming routines, such as combing their hair or brushing their teeth
Avoid games that require high kinetic involvement, do not enjoy themselves in the playground and, possibly, are very much afraid of falling down
Show hypersensitivity to noise or sounds

Behavioural areas in children who:

Exhibit difficulties in developing self-service activities (e.g. eating, using the toilet, getting dressed, button up or tie their shoe laces)
Exhibit feeding difficulties (they eat very little, have trouble chewing, get very dirty while eating, exhibit difficulties in holding a glass or other feeding utensils)

Η παιδιατρική Εργοθεραπεία:

Δραστηριοποιείται, στοχεύει και δίνει λύσεις σε προβλήματα που αφορούν βασικούς άξονες της φυσιολογικής ανάπτυξης.

Ways of intervention:

Based on the aforementioned areas of natural development, prevention, intervention and rehabilitation addresses the following skills areas:

Gross coordination, i.e. optico-kinetic coordination, balance, orientation in space and coordination of both sides of the body (bilateral coordination).

The occupational therapy practitioner confronts difficulties such as:

Ball activities teaching the children how to catch, throw or hit the ball
Balance difficulties, teaching the children how to balance on one foot, walk on a balance beam and heel-toe walking
Walking or running ineptitudes
Bilateral coordination such as walking over/by obstacles, turning or diagonal moving of the body
Rhythm, i.e. “dancing” or adaptation of kids songs

Fine motor skills, such as preschool writing, writing, using scissors, small object handling in construction games.