Now that you have a better understand of what occupational therapy is, I would like to go more in depth about the different types of occupational therapy jobs one could have! The first one I want to talk about is a school occupational therapist. An OT in the school setting could work with all ages, kindergarten to high school, and even college students!
A school occupational therapist has many roles and duties within their jobs. The central purpose of their jobs is to “support a student’s ability to participate in desired daily school activities” (AOTA). The OT has the opportunity to work with a variety of students. Any regular student may see the OT just because they struggle with waking up in the morning, so they would see the OT before class to do some exercises to wake up! But, the main population of students that see the OT are in the school’s special education program. These students may only have learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Dyslexia, but see the OT to help their performance in both school activities and outside of school. Other students in this type of program may be students have mental disabilities such as Autism or Asperger Syndrome, who need more one on one attention to be able to learn everyday skills. The OTs help these students with behavioral and self-help skills, and vocational preparations. The vocational preparation is more in the high school age range, as the OT tries to teach these students skills that they may use for future jobs. The occupational therapist works collaboratively with the school’s educators, administration and parents. Other faculty members the OT works closely with could be the school’s speech therapist, psychologist, and physical therapist.
As you can see, school occupational therapists have a big role in a student’s success both in school and in life. They help all different age groups and a broad spectrum of students. Hopefully this inform you of what a school OT does or can do!
Thanks for reading,
Megan
References:
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2016). "Occupational Therapy School Setting Fact Sheet." https://www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/AboutOT/Professionals/WhatIsOT/CY/Fact-Sheets/School%20Settings%20fact%20sheet.pdf?la=en
Interesting post on the work of OT in schools for young people with various disorders. Good citation and in-text citations.
ReplyDeleteI have shadowed OT in an elementary and middle school setting and absolutely loved it. We both, as OT majors, know that OT focuses on ADLs (activities of daily living). I want to work with kids, so I think school OTs make a huge impact since that is where kids spend a lot of their time. It was also great to hear you talk about high school, as well, with vocational preparation. Loved your post! -Kayla
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