Occupational Therapy | Somerset West | Et Al Therapy and Learning Centre

1. What is Occupational Therapy?
According to WFOT (2012): “Occupational Therapy is a client centred health profession concerned with promoting health and well being through occupation. The primary goal of Occupational Therapy is to enable people to participate in activities of everyday life…”

For children, Occupational Therapy aims to enable them to reach their potential to learn and develop through play, self care and school activities as these are their occupations while growing up.

2. What is the role of our profession:
Occupational Therapists provide therapeutic intervention for babies and children who have developmental and/or learning difficulties. Intervention is holistic and aims to influence all facets of a child’s life including self care activities, play and school work, with the aim of improving independence and functional skill. This is done through individual or group therapy sessions, school and home visits as well as activities and strategies for home, school and other environments.

3. When is therapy needed/ what diagnoses can benefit from our profession:
• Cerebral Palsy
• Intellectual disability
• ADD/ADHD
• Autism
• Sensory Processing Disorder
• Learning disability
• Babies who:
– Show delayed milestones and other developmental delays
– Are “high-risk” e.g. born pre mature, lacked oxygen after birth etc.
– Difficulty with sensory modulation e.g. eating and sleeping disorders

• Children who have difficulty in the following areas:
– Postural control
– Crossing the midline and Bilateral Integration
– Development of preferred dominance
– Gross motor coordination