American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)

Occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of occupations, including activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists work with individuals and populations to support participation and function activities and situations at home, school and the community. Occupational therapy provides rehabilitation as well as the promotion of health and wellness for patients who have or are at risk of having disabilities and impairments. Occupational therapists address physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory-perceptual, and other aspects of performance in a variety of contexts and environments to support engagement in occupations that affect physical and mental health, well-being, and quality of life (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014).

The AOTA put the standard practice under 4 categories: Professional Standing and Responsibility, Screening, Evaluation, and Re-evaluation, Intervention, and Outcomes. The AOTA also puts forth a Framework of Domain and Process, which “describes the central concepts that ground occupational therapy practice and builds a common understanding of the basic tenets and vision of the profession (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2014)”. The domain of OT includes occupations, client factors, performance skills, performance patterns, and context and environment. These domains interact and affect a person’s participation in life. The occupational therapy process is a client-centered delivery of occupational therapy services. This process involves an evaluation and intervention in order to achieve certain outcomes and requires the OT to engage in clinical reasoning, analysis of occupations, and collaborating with clients while staying within the scope of the occupational therapy domain.

Impairments Occupational therapists work with patients who have a variety of different impairments. In this section I am going to highlight OTs work with 2 particular impairments; stroke and autism. The reason

In an article by Latham et al. they describe the various therapeutic activities and the intervention techniques that therapist used during treatment sessions in an inpatient setting. What they found is that upper extremity and dressing activities were the most frequently used activates. When the activities were compared basic activities of daily living (ADLs) training such as dressing, grooming and eating versus instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) such as home maintenance or community integration. The reason for this is because treatment was taking place in a inpatient hospital when patients were still in the early rehabilitation phases and their stay wasn’t extensive so more advanced activities were used less. The most common interventions were neuromuscular, most often used were balance training, postural awareness, and motor learning. Adaptive approaches for ADLs were also frequently reposted with stroke patients whether using one handed techniques or environmental adaptation training such the use of a shower