Occupational Therapist

The Occupational Therapist (OT) assists the child/ young person to participate as much as possible in everyday life. The OT works closely with the child/ young person using a family centred approach to identify areas of difficulty that impact on their ability to carry out everyday tasks. This may involve tasks that are carried out at home, school or in the community.

Therapy or intervention may address the following areas:

• Developing age appropriate independence in self care tasks such as feeding and dressing. The OT may provide physical and/or cognitive strategies to manage self care routines, specialised equipment or recommend changes to the environment to maximise independence. For more information please see our Information Sheets
• Post Traumatic Amnesia (PTA) testing on the child/young person who is emerging from their coma after a brain injury. This test determines the child/young person's orientation to people, place and time, and tests their short term memory.
• Developing age appropriate play and leisure skills such as interaction with toys, peers and the environment.
• Enhancing school based skills. These may include:
• practice of appropriate classroom routines,
• facilitating handwriting and/or computer skills and
• providing classroom modifications to assist with access.
• Encouraging functional upper limb use to allow participation in everyday tasks. Children/young people with a brain injury may have problems associated with hemiplegia, tremor or reduced quality of motor coordination. The OT may recommend an exercise program, a splint, casting or prescription of specialised equipment to compensate for the upper limb difficulties.