"OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY"

An Occupational Therapist is someone who promotes health by enabling people with disabilities to perform meaningful occupations with daily purpose.  Occupation not only means "work related."  This is the active process of taking care of ourselves and others, doing every day routines, and being socially and economically productive throughout our lives.

With Occupational Therapy, the therapist helps the disabled person learn how to do things to enhance their skills to get involved with their surroundings.  This is the use of physical, environmental, psychosocial, mental, spiritual, political and cultural factors to identify things that disrupt their abilities.

While in therapy, the therapist will observe how well the child performs tasks and how they act when participating in age-appropriate activities or situations.  Within their observations, the therapist will know what aspects of the disability to work on with the child.

My son right now has seen 2 of these occupational therapists dealing with his autism.  I think there will be more to come.  One of these therapists work with him at school. He is doing well learning new abilities to be accepted in a social environment.  It is very important that he learns how to deal with life situations and be able to act responsibly for his actions.

The main goal of Occupational Therapy is to increase the individuals function and independence of life.  We are very lucky to have people trained in these areas to help parents learn more what we can do to overcome stressful situations.  They will teach you how to handle sensory meltdowns and give you advice on other topics troubling you.  All you have to do is ask.