What is an Occupational Therapist?

Many people ask me "what exactly does an occupational therapist do?"  Its hard to give a straight answer because really, OTs can do so much. It depends on where they work and who they work with. This is some information copied from the American Occupational Therapy Association website. AOTA.org 

About Occupational Therapy

What Is Occupational Therapy?

In its simplest terms, occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants help people across the lifespan participate in the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities to participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury to regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes. Occupational therapy services typically include

• an individualized evaluation, during which the client/family and occupational therapist determine the person’s goals, 
• customized intervention to improve the person’s ability to perform daily activities and reach the goals, and
• an outcomes evaluation to ensure that the goals are being met and/or make changes to the intervention plan.

Occupational therapy services may include comprehensive evaluations of the client’s home and other environments (e.g., workplace, school), recommendations for adaptive equipment and training in its use, and guidance and education for family members and caregivers. Occupational therapy practitioners have a holistic perspective, in which the focus is on adapting the environment to fit the person, and the person is an integral part of the therapy team.

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I am a pediatric occupational therapist which means I specialize in children. I work with all age children with any diagnosis but have a special interest in children on the Austism spectrum or those with sensory processing disorders.  I am certified in sensory integration which means I have extensive training in sensory integration and I am able to administer and interpret the standardized evaluation tool called the SIPT. What is sensory processing disorder? This is a great video about one moms experience: This child in the video is very sensitive to sensory input but there are also children who are hypo-sensitive. These kids excessively seek things like movement, touch, deep pressure, or smells. The next video is an introduction to the history of Jean Ayers who is the founder of sensory integration approach.