Child occupational therapy: what is it and what are its objectives
Some children may have some difficulties in their daily life. These limitations may be due to simple individual differences, since there are children who are better at some aspects while others find it more difficult.
But sometimes problems can be really worrisome, especially if a disorder explains them. That is why the intervention focused on improving the weaknesses that a child may present is essential to achieve optimal intellectual and motor development.
child occupational therapy is in charge of detecting the limitations that a child can manifest, analyzing how to correct them and starting a focused program to this improvement, with the intention of ensuring that he can function fully both at home and at school and socially.
In this article we are going to talk about this type of therapy, explaining in more depth how it is performed and what are the characteristics to be expected in those professionals who perform it.
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What is child occupational therapy?
Child occupational therapy is a type of intervention that is specialized in find out what are the problems that a child can manifest that make it difficult for him to have a rhythm of development and fullness of life expected in other children of the same age. This type of therapy aims, once the limitations suffered by the infant have been detected, to initiate a process of overcoming them and promote greater autonomy in the child.
Although normally focuses on those problems related to motor skills, such as problems when walking or picking up objects, the truth is that trying to go a little beyond this, and see if there could be problems in the sphere of cognition or even perception. It is intended to improve fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and motor planning, as well as self-regulation and sensory processing issues.
There are several reasons that may be behind a child suffering from some kind of problem that affects her behavior and interaction with the world around him, developmental disorders and disease being especially significant medical.
One of the disorders in which this type of intervention is most required is dyspraxia, in which coordination problems occur, although it can also be applied to people who suffer from an autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy and other mental problems. development.
The word "occupational" indicates that this type of therapy focuses on providing the child with the necessary tools to be able to fulfill daily activities such as, for example, lacing the shoes, using the pencil or scissors correctly or preparing the backpack.
All these daily actions are within several spheres of fundamental importance for the mental and physical health of the infant, such as self-care, leisure, social interaction and participation in activities together with other children.
Thus, child occupational therapy is a type of intervention whose objective is to make the child as independent and autonomous that is expected at their age and, thus, ensure that the rest of the learning that can occur naturally occurs with greater ease. This child-focused therapy can be performed at school, the child's own home, the hospital, and in specialized health centers.
How it is performed?
Learning, during the first years of life, occurs mainly through interaction with the environment. Children relate to the world around them and become familiar with it. This child-world interaction is what allows the infant to develop, especially as far as motor skills and intelligence are concerned.
Each child is a world and if we add to this that each facet, both behavioral and intellectual, can be developed in differently, it is possible that there are children who are more advanced in some aspects while in others they are quite late.
The environment in which he has grown up and the encouragement he has received from the people who configure their close environment can be key factors to explain why the child has some limitation.
It is for this reason that, to give an example, it is recommended from the moment he is born, to speak to the child, even if he does not have the capacity to be able if he wants to pronounce "mama" or "dad". Having received this type of stimulation from the moment he came into the world It helps the child learn to speak quickly and more fluently and quickly.
The therapy is adapted to the specific needs of the child, for this reason, before it starts, the child occupational therapist must analyze the child, see which are their skills and what challenges are present in their day to day, in addition to understanding what are the daily tasks, whether at school or at home, that pose problems for them.
From all this information, the professional will elaborate an intervention program with activities focused on improving the weak points that the child has.
Some examples of activities that are usually done in child occupational therapy are the following:
- learn to dress
- write and draw
- throw and catch balls
- Organize the table, the desk...
- React to sensory stimuli
- running obstacle courses
The sooner this therapy is performed, the more benefits will be achieved.. Working on what is a problem and improving it can have the effect of better satisfaction in the child, Seeing that there are problems that apparently had no solution, how are they being fixed, in addition to improving their self-esteem. This can have another positive effect, such as increased confidence when interacting with other children.
Detecting the limitations of children in time is essential, since children with problems, especially in the field of motor skills, do not usually be very well accepted by other children, who can make fun of their difficulties, depress them, negatively affect their school performance and isolate.
- You may be interested in: "Psychomotor disorders: types, characteristics and symptoms"
What should child occupational therapists be like?
Childhood is a critical period. That is why the professional who carries out any type of therapy focused on children must be a specialist in the field.
In the case of child occupational therapists, it is necessary that, in addition to having extensive knowledge of psychology and pedagogy, they must know motor skills that allow improve both fine and gross motor skills and aspects more related to the mind such as planning and sensory stimulation.
They must have sufficient skills to enable them to face the difficulties that children may experience, either intervening individually or in groups of variable sizes. In addition, you must know how the interactions between these children are and if there is some kind of social hierarchy in the group that depends on the difficulties of its members.
The occupational therapist has, as previously mentioned, the main task of detecting to what extent the child's difficulties prevent him from relate to the world, have a satisfactory level of physical and psychological maturation, and to what degree is he furthest behind the rest of the children in his class? same age.
Child occupational intervention must comply with the following phases:
- Assessment: define the child's occupational profile and perform an analysis of her occupational performance.
- First intervention to define objectives to be met.
- Fully defined intervention.
- Evaluation of the results obtained.
- Analysis of weak aspects of therapy and improvement of them.
Bibliographic references:
- Rojo-Mota, G. (2008). Occupational Therapy in the treatment of addictions. Addictive Disorders, 10, 88 – 97.
- Viana-Moles, I. And Pellegrini-Spangeberg, M. (2008). Contextual considerations in childhood. Introduction to child development. Occupational therapy in childhood.
