I just wanted to share a quick hello as a newbie blogger.
If you haven’t realized it yet, my name is Taelor and I like puns. I also love occupational therapy! It’s often referred to as OT, btw. I made this educational blog (with a splash of entertainment) for you on all things occupational therapy. You can read more about me and my story on this post.
Since I have a bit of a mixed audience, I’m going to first explain a little about what occupational therapy really is.
Here are some reactions I get when I tell everyone that I’m studying occupational therapy:
“Oh, physical therapy! Great!”
“So, you help people find jobs?”
“You do all of the hand stuff in rehab, right?”
… Close, but no cigar!
Occupational therapy is based off its root word, occupation. Occupation essentially means anything that takes up time. So, occupational therapists focus on what is meaningful in someone’s life that they need to improve on or would like assistance with. Occupational therapy practitioners are often consulted after an illness or injury when people need to get back to some prior level of functioning or learn how to adapt moving forward.
For example, this could be a teacher who got into a car accident and had a brain injury. She/he may need to do lesson planning and cannot organize themselves very well or even get themselves started. That’s something that’s important to the teacher and occupational therapy can help her/him work on those skills she/he needs to lesson plan. Another example you may have heard of is young children with sensory needs. This could be anything from picky eaters, a child who can’t sit still in class, or a child who can’t handle a loud room. Occupational therapists examine the client’s concerns and act as scientific problem solvers to figure out the cause, set goals, and work on their needs through therapy sessions.
To break this down even more. There are 8 domains of occupation that OTs focus on:
ADLs (self-care activities like dressing, grooming, toileting)
IADLs (more complex daily activities like pet care, grocery shopping, money management)
Work
Education
Social Participation
Leisure
Play
Rest/Sleep
That’s a pretty all-encompassing list of what humans do all day, don’t you think?
But wait, there’s more! OTs also consider the environment, the person’s values, beliefs, roles, and routines to tailor the treatment to them. Pretty remarkable if you ask me!!
As you can see, I’m very passionate about OT and I’m hoping you are too! And if not, I hope I can help you become a fan.
As Drake says, “OT-OT!”