Occupational therapy (OT) is also called occupational therapy. In simple terms, it is to treat your ability to perform functional activities. Functional activities are even simpler. When we get up in the morning, any meaningful thing we do can be called a functional activity. Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, sleeping, food, clothing, housing, transportation, entertainment, study and work!
So do children really need occupational therapy (OT)?
Feeding intervention
In daily life, nothing is more important than eating to maintain life, development and growth!
If a child has the following conditions, special attention must be paid to the child’s feeding problem:
unwilling to eat, limited or insufficient food intake;
over 2.5 years old or even 3 years old, still can’t drink beverages with a straw, and water leaks when drinking;
has difficulty biting, chewing or handling age-appropriate food texture (in principle, children after 2 years old can eat all kinds of food, except for those that are too big or too hard), and eats very slowly;
picky eaters, only eat a fixed few types of food, refuse to try new food or new texture of food, and even refuse new tableware;
easy to choke or cough when eating and swallowing, or even suffocate;
eating, eating and swallowing problems are usually caused by multiple factors. A comprehensive assessment and intervention of occupational therapy is needed.
Comprehensive assessment: feeding problems, neuromuscular movements, oral structure & movements, diet and feeding performance, swallowing examination, related diseases and situational factors (physical, social, time and culture).
Intervention strategies: modification of the eating environment, intervention of sensory problems, oral motor neuromuscular intervention, modification of assistive devices, change of the properties of food and liquids, behavioral intervention, intervention to improve self-feeding, etc.
Activities of daily living (ADL)
Activities of daily living (ADL) encompass most of the most important functions of children as they grow up.
Self-care: taking care of your own body, going to the toilet, showering, personal hygiene, washing; eating, dressing, functional mobility (moving from one location to another, such as different rooms at home; different places in school), functional communication.
Personal equipment care: materials and equipment required for the above activities, encourage children to be responsible for their own equipment. Only
by learning to express sexual needs and using socially appropriate methods to perform daily living activities can children participate in family and community life.
Adolescent children will pay more attention to their independence: taking care of clothing and appearance, preparing food, shopping, money management, safety and emergency response, so that they have the opportunity to integrate into social groups and face independent life.
Being able to actively participate in ADL activities can help children improve their physical functions and health (such as muscle strength, endurance, coordination, memory, sequencing ability, concept formation, etc.), and can also improve their problem-solving ability.
More importantly, it can make children feel more in control of themselves, achieve and be confident, and enhance their self-esteem, self-reliance and self-determination! With the increase of independence, parents will have more time and energy to return family life to normal.
Games
Every child will play. From birth, through different forms of games, children learn about themselves and the world around them. Games are also very important! Think about it, what stage has your child “played” to?
Sensory action games: kicking, pulling, rolling, crawling… Children try to use their body parts to experience the impact of their own actions on objects and people in the environment.
Exploratory games: want to touch everything, try to classify objects, operate purposefully, explore different objects, and learn their meaning. Constructive
games: build blocks, play Lego… may also gradually develop into handicrafts or art.
Symbolic games: The ability to pretend begins to appear, and slowly evolves into “drama” games and “mind” games.
Social games: They appear when babies interact with their mothers. After the age of 3, they can participate in complex social games and learn social rules and cultural understanding through role-playing.
[Occupational therapy] Games are a serious experience, not idleness; games are purposeful activities and are the result of mental and emotional experiences.
Pre-writing and writing skills
Occupational therapy divides children’s functions into daily life, games, education, work and social participation.
In the field of education, “writing” is an indispensable skill for primary school students! The writing we are talking about here is not just a hand movement skill!
It includes a complex process:
connecting the meaning of words and fonts – language reading, concept formation;
extracting the visual pattern of the font in memory – memory retrieval, organization and problem solving;
executing the action pattern of writing the font – integration of muscle movement ability and thinking.
Writing, in addition to allowing children to complete a homework that everyone can understand in school. More importantly, writing ability builds a communication tool for children (some people may not be able to speak, but can write, or writing is easier to express), it provides a way to express thoughts, feelings and opinions.
【Occupational Therapy】Writing skills cannot be improved at the last minute! From the age of about 1, children have actually begun to develop their early writing skills: scribbling on paper, drawing a line… Occupational therapy provides comprehensive assessment, writing skills development and auxiliary support to help children achieve writing functions!
Social Participation & Social Psychological Issues
Promoting children’s social participation in family, friendship, classmates, caregivers and teachers is a basic and important area of occupational therapy. We should not only pay attention to the development of children’s own abilities, but also pay attention to and continue to promote the results of children’s interaction with the surrounding environment (social relationships).
Do you really understand your child in depth? Do you understand the child’s innate and relatively stable characteristics – [temperament]?
Have you established a “secure attachment relationship” with your child? Or does this [attachment] contain escape, resistance or contradiction, or even confusion?
Are there some environmental stress factors for children in the family and school? For example, moving, changing schools/institutions, family members getting sick or leaving suddenly, complex family relationships, alienation and even domestic violence.
Do you know that children and adolescents can also have mental illnesses? Including: depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), etc.
[Occupational therapy] Fully evaluate the child’s temperament, parent-child attachment, environmental factors, mental health status and the child’s social participation performance; provide strategic, phased intervention goals and specific intervention methods. Based on the child’s current ability, improve the child’s social participation and bring a more quality social integration life!
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