The profession of occupational therapy, specifically pediatric occupational therapy, has captured my interest. I believe that I understand children and I can establish meaningful connections with them. Children who have experienced comas or physical disabilities such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) need occupational therapy. I have always known that I wanted to do something meaningful with my life that included pediatrics, but I never knew exactly what I wanted to do with children until I went through my own trauma.
Many people can benefit from an Occupational Therapist and their patients come from a wide variety of injured individuals and diagnoses. OT and OTA’s help treat premature babies and help encourage their families to help these children catch up developmentally to where they should be. They also work with children with developmental
In my intent to pursue occupational therapy, my ambitions have further flourished. I want to shift people’s perspectives of disabilities and bring international recognition to occupational therapy for its influence in the health and development of communities. In my mother country where I grew up, and in Nicaragua where I had the opportunity to serve and teach, I watched with frustration as disabled individuals were silenced and overlooked. I know far too well the stigma of seeking professional help. I have talked to parents who think that it means admitting there is something wrong with their child. The majority of citizens in other countries is unaware of the function of and need for occupational therapy. I want to help parents realize that
I am currently a senior in the Occupational Therapy program. As I prepare to go out on fieldwork in the upcoming semesters, reflecting on how music relates to occupational therapy has had a benefit in my thinking of my future job. I have had the amazing opportunity to be working with children with disabilities for many years. Most of the children I have worked with have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder is defined as, “a complex developmental disability; signs typically appear during early childhood and affect a person’s ability to communicate, and interact with others” (“About Autism | Autism Society" 1). Along with affecting communication and interaction, a lot of children have difficulty with the processing
Fostering a tolerant, inclusive and friendly environment for special needs children by creating activities which will bring them closer to the community they live in. The activities to which they will participate outside school such as visits at museums or other activities will make children visible in the community and contribute to a better understanding in society of disability and the role of community in integrating them in their daily life.
Occupational Therapy is a profession primarily centred around client-therapist interactions. The main objective of an occupational therapist (OT) is to empower and assist their clients in their return to everyday life and activities. Occupational therapists work with their clients for extended periods of time in order to ensure that they are able to participate in their normal daily routines with some degree of ease. OT's achieve this goal through building trust and rapport with their clients by representing themselves with the highest degree of professional identity and following the codes of conduct, to which ensures safety to all involved in the achievement of this goal. As occupational therapists work closely with a number of different
Occupational therapy can help a person with Asperger’s thrive physically, emotionally, and socially. As previously stated, if these symptoms were to be left alone, these children and adults would be subjected to bullying, ridiculed, and social isolation due to them being naïve and having concrete views of the world resulting in being vulnerable. Through occupational therapy intervention, this cycle can be interrupted by helping the patient adjust their sensory system. This means, “gaining the physical abilities needed to succeed, acquire valuable social, prevocational, and play skills, and improve their overall ability to function.” Through this intervention, one can not only learn to succeed in the classroom but when the time comes, uphold employment. (Murray-Slutsky, 2004). Occupational therapy intervention focuses on a few main areas such as improving the patient’s attention, learning and flexibility; improving physical function; and improving social, play and prevocational skills. When one speaks of improving the patient’s attention, this can mean they improve the patient’s ability to recognize, adapt, control, and process their response when around sensory and environments they are uncomfortable with (Murray-Slutsky, 2004). This is also known as sensory overload and can happen in a variety of places. For example, Jane has Asperger’s and one of her side effects is sensory overload. Jane and her mother walk into Dilliard’s. The entrance they walk in happens to be in the makeup and perfume department. When Jane smells all the different perfumes at one time, this overloads her processing system and she begins to shut down. However, Jane has been working with an occupational therapist and they have been using different strategies to help Jane stay calm during this process. Her staying calm allows her to attention to increase and she is able to shop with her mom. If Jane was not
This research paper gives a summer of five scholarly journal articles regarding the benefits and challenges of self-contained, inclusion, and resource room placement settings for individuals with mild to moderate disabilities.
Inclusion is a process of ‘narrowing the gap between learners with and without special educational needs’1.
Occupational Therapy is a therapy that blankets everything people do in their lives. Such a broad field can be very difficult to define. Unlike Physical Therapy who people instantly identify as a field that get people walking. In the past the vision of the field was broader. “In 2004 The Scenario were developed” a structure created with the Occupational Therapy framework. Medicare guidelines and reimbursement rates in the field of occupational therapy have been limited in the past because the Occupational Therapy field has failed id as a
Occupational therapy provides assistance for those who are in need of assistance with daily living and work skills. These specialists work with people of various demographics to handle normal life challenges in a safe and healthy manner.
Being able to work as an Occupational Therapy assistant will be life changing and helping regain the patient’s ability to do things independently is so rewarding. The core value of each and every individual is to be able to contribute and getting involved into the society and the welfare of people. It is really important to be creative and productive and finding new ways to help the patients to engage in their daily activities. In this modern society, every student should grow up enlightened, enjoying our potential and our ability to achieve anything we desire for. We should have the commitment to fulfill our duties towards the people and the community. We should always guide and support our patients to help them learn gain new knowledge and to learn to live their life independently. We work with people of different religion, diversity and culture and we should have knowledge about it and we are committed to generate new knowledge for the welfare of people and society. Being an Occupational Therapy Assistant
One of the assignments for the Introduction to Occupational Therapy is to select an article and write a review about it. The article that seized my interest is “Starting a Private Practice: The First Steps” by Tara J. Glennon. In this response paper, I am going to discuss about how to start a private own business. My discussion will include the fate of small businesses in the United States. However, this effect will less likely to impact potential occupational therapy practice entrepreneurs because of the higher demand of occupational therapy, and therapists in the future. Besides, I will discuss the challenges of starting a private practice. I will also explain about the ideas, opinions, advices, and the importance of self- efficacy, which
The field of Occupational Therapy kept growing. During the 1960s, as a medicine became “specialized”, so did OT. Occupational Therapists were also called upon and qualified to treat in the fields of pediatrics and developmental disabilities.
Assistive devices would provide support for students who need special needs in curriculum. Assistive technology helped children with physical difficulties to enhance school participation However, assistive technology in schools lack because there is not a supportive educational system.Hemmingston say, “Assistive technology has not been integrated into children’s daily lives in because they do not have inequity funding and failure to provide training” (464).Disabled students faced discrimination in public schools because they did not fit in social norms. This caused for students to face discrimination because they were judged based on obtaining assistive devices.Also, how teachers were not patient towards educating disabled children. For example, teachers did not put enough effort to help children who are slow learners. The children were looked as incapable of learning. Therefore, .Assistive technology helps disabled student’s to obtain social skills and interaction.This can help enhance their learning development .Also, assistive technology helps disabled children to not depend on others. The author explains how assistive technology programs have increased disabled students participation in classrooms. Also, they talk about how disabled students were limited to do activities in schools. This affected disabled children