Welcome to Balancing Life and Play , a blog run by the occupational therapists at National Therapy Center. The goal of this blog is to provide helpful information related to occupational therapy.
What Is An Occupational Therapist?
An occupational therapist (OT) is a health care professional that works with children and adults when they have trouble participating in meaningful daily activities. For children this means everything from playing to feeding to getting dressed and even going to school.
Typically children first see an occupational therapist to get evaluated and then the therapist uses that information to create a treatment plan. Occupational therapy works on developing and strengthening a variety of skills of daily living. The following are great examples of the skills and areas addressed through occupational therapy.
- Fine Motor Skills (cutting, handwriting, buttoning, holding a pencil and small objects).
- Coordination (using both sides of the body together to complete activities such as playing catch or tying shoes).
- Strength (upper body strength and core strength required to complete movement and maintain a seated or standing position during activities).
- Sensory Processing (how the body takes in and processes information from the different senses: touch, taste, sound, movement).
- Visual Perception (taking in visual information and completing tasks such as puzzles or hidden pictures).
- Self Care (dressing, feeding, bathing, and grooming).