So, what is an OT?!
There have been very few times I have found myself in a social situation when speaking about what I do as a job that people respond with, “oh yeah OT, I know what that is!”. Sometimes I get, “oh I think my friend/sister-in-law/cousin does that” or, “do you help people find jobs?” or even better, “is that like a physio?”.
As an Occupational Therapist the biggest question that I get asked is, “What does an occupational therapist do?”. The professional of occupational therapy, commonly known as OT, has been around since 1920 and still over 100 years on the general community and even OTs themselves have difficulty defining exactly what we do!
A lot of the confusion comes from the term “occupation”, in occupational therapy, occupations means everyday activities that people do to occupy their time that bring meaning and purpose to life. Occupations include things people need to, want to and are expected to do (WFOT). Ultimately, an OT works with people to develop skills so that they are able to do what they want and need to do every day. There are many different areas that OTs work within including: physical and cognitive rehabilitation, emergency departments, aged-care, hand therapy, mental health- in the community and acute and paediatrics. The variety in the field is what makes OT such a great career choice!
Ultimately, an OT works with people to develop skills so that they are able to do what they want and need to do every day.
Even as an OT working with children there are many different areas I work on and no two days are ever the same. I work with children of all ages on developing skills in the areas of: toilet training, play, social skills, mealtimes, self-care, emotional regulation, school readiness and participation, fine and gross motor skills.
The children that I work with may have a medical diagnosis, commonly ASD or ADHD, or they may not. The beauty of working as and OT the focus is not on the diagnosis instead I focus on what meaningful skills does the child need support with and how can we work together to develop these.
I take a functional approach to therapy with the overall aim to provide children with the life skills to be a functioning member of society by directly addressing the skills that the child needs to engage in their everyday life. This may mean breaking the skill down into small achievable steps with a lot of support and encouragement in order to work towards a long-term goal. I believe that if a child is not learning a skill, that it is my responsibility as a therapist to modify my approach and support the family to also do so top enable the child can develop the skill. We need to set the children up for success in order for them to learn a skill.