Occupational Therapy: What is it?
Author: Nammie on Tuesday, January 26, 2010





Occupational therapy is a science-driven, evidence-based profession that enables people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health and prevent—or live better with—illness, injury or disability. Occupational therapy is about enabling people with physical, mental or social issues to adapt to any aspect of their life with more confidence and control.

Working under the supervision of occupational therapists, support workers help to equip clients with the skills needed to take part in everyday activities. The occupational therapist enters the field with a master's or doctoral degree. The occupational therapy assistant generally earns an associate degree. Practitioners must complete supervised clinical internships in a variety of health care settings, and pass a national examination. In today's health care and social landscape, occupational therapy practitioners can be found in the six broad areas of practice listed below. For more information, see the fact sheets and articles that illustrate occupational therapy in action.

Occupational therapy support workers assist occupational therapists in their job. Occupational therapists devise treatment programmes that enable people to achieve as much as possible for themselves. Support workers then work with people, in groups or on a one-to-one basis, encouraging them to progress towards the goals that have been agreed with the occupational therapist. They help to equip clients with the skills needed to take part in everyday activities.

Occupational therapy support workers work in a wide range of areas, such as social care, mental health, learning disabilities, education and physical rehabilitation. They may work with children, adolescents, adults or older people. Their involvement varies greatly according to individual needs.


Category: | 1 Comment
What Is Physical Therapy?
Author: Nammie on Sunday, January 24, 2010


Physical therapy is a health care profession that provides treatment to individuals to develop, maintain and restore maximum movement and function throughout life. This includes providing treatment in circumstances where movement and function are threatened by aging, injury, disease or environmental factors.

Physical therapy is concerned with identifying and maximizing quality of life and movement potential within the spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment/intervention, habilitation and rehabilitation. This encompasses physical, psychological, emotional, and social well being. It involves the interaction between physical therapist (PT), patients/clients, other health professionals, families, care givers, and communities in a process where movement potential is assessed and goals are agreed upon, using knowledge and skills unique to physical therapists. Physical therapy is performed by either a physical therapist or an assistant acting under their direction.

Following an injury, a body part is often too damaged to get better on its own, but not so damaged as to require operation. In such cases, the doctor will prescribe physical therapy so your injured body part can heal itself over time through the right movements and treatments.

In addition to having you do therapeutic exercises that will gradually strengthen the injured body part, physical therapists may also use massage, ultrasound, heat, ice, and electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) to help you recover. The exercises your physical therapist will have you do may include lifting weights, riding an exercise bike, stretching, and resistance training using rubber bands. The physical therapist will also likely massage your joints and muscles to help improve balance, strength, alignment, and mobility.

There are types of Physical Therapy

Pediatric Physical Therapy

Pediatric physical therapy assists in the early detection of health problems among infants, children and adolescents. Treatments often seek to improve gross and fine motor skills, strength, cognitive functioning and balance.

Geriatric Physical Therapy

Geriatric physical therapy generally focuses on older adults, but also covers normal aging issues.

Orthopedics

Orthopedics focuses on disorders and injuries of the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedics can also help patients heal after bone and muscle surgeries.

Neurological Physical Therapy

Neurological physical therapy is one treatment path for patients with a neurological disorder or disease.

Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapy

Cardiopulmonary physical therapy helps patients with heart or lung problems.

Category: | 1 Comment
Gross Motor Skill Training
Author: Nammie on


The term gross motor skills refer to the abilities usually acquired during infancy and early childhood as part of a child's motor development. By the time they reach two years of age, almost all children are able to stand up, walk and run, walk up stairs, etc. These skills are built upon, improved and better controlled throughout early childhood, and continue in refinement throughout most of the individual's years of development into adulthood. These gross movements come from large muscle groups and whole body movement.
Motor skills are actions that involve the movement of muscles in the body. They are divided into two groups: gross motor skills, which are the larger movements of arms, legs, feet, or the entire body (crawling, running, and jumping); and fine motor skills, which are smaller actions, such as grasping an object between the thumb and a finger or using the lips and tongue to taste objects. Motor skills usually develop together since many activities depend on the coordination of gross and fine motor skills. Gross motor skills develop over a relatively short period of time. Most development occurs during childhood. However, soldiers, some athletes, and others who engage in activities requiring high degrees of endurance may spend years improving their level of muscle and body coordination and gross motor skills.
Gross motor skills development is governed by two principles that also control physical growth. Head to toe development refers to the way the upper parts of the body develop, beginning with the head, before the lower ones. The second principle of development is trunk to extremities. Head control is gained first, followed by the shoulders, upper arms, and hands. Upper body control is developed next, followed by the hips, pelvis, and legs.
Encouraging gross motor skills requires a safe, open play space, peers to interact with, and some adult supervision. Promoting the development of gross motor abilities is considerably less complicated than developing fine motor skills. Helping a child succeed in gross motor tasks requires patience and opportunities for a child to practice desired skills. Parents and other persons must understand the child's level of development before helping him or her master gross motor skills. Children reach developmental milestones at different rates. Pushing a child to perform a task that is impossible due to development status promotes frustration and disappointment. Children should be allowed to acquire motor skills at their own paces.

There are a number of activities parents can have children do to help develop gross motor skills. These include:

* playing hopscotch and jumping rope; activities that help children learn balance
* hitting, catching, kicking, or throwing a ball, such as a baseball, football, or soccer ball; activities that help develop hand-eye or foot-eye coordination
* Kangaroo hop, in which children hold something, such as a small ball or orange, between their knees and then jump with their feet together frontward, backwards, and sideways
* playing wheelbarrow, in which someone holds the children's legs while they walk on their hands along a specific route
* walking on a narrow bar or curb, while holding a bulky object in one hand, then the other hand, and then repeating the activity walking backwards and sideways
* toss and catch, in which children toss an object, such as a baseball, in the air and then catch it, while sitting or lying down and also while using alternate hands.


Category: | 0 Comments
Autism Children have Distinctive Abilities
Author: Nammie on Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Autism is a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.

Knowing a child who has the disorder of autism who can memorize a small telephone directory, with names in alphabetical order. This child, in addition, can read extremely difficult words, but he does not have the knowledge or the ability to know the meaning of the words he reads, or relate to them. Some autism children are able to sing on tune or have the correct pitch. Other individuals have played musical instruments with not having any knowledge as to how the notes are played or read. Playing the piano, is one of the instruments that seem to be acknowledged, as the most popular instrument, a child with autism gravitates towards, without having the experience of knowing music. In addition, the ability to play a song from memory after only hearing it once is also a unique ability. This also helps children’s development even they can’t said to us what they want. Sometimes the person with autism can display a deficit that might be like a computer. They are able to remember many words, but do not understand the meaning of the words to put them together in a sentence. They have a limited vocabulary. Their comments or sentence structure may not make sense with what they are communicating. Their speech may be a challenge to understand or relate to. These individuals usually do not comprehend the ideas or meaning that the words are to represent, but they do have a unique ability, that their memory is excellent when it comes to learning the words. There are other children with autism who use gestures, facial expressions, nods, and pointing. These are forms that do not have verbal communication. It is essential to understand that all individuals with autism are not the same. Each person has his or her, own unique ability that depends on the severity of the disorder and age. When one discovers the unique ability of an individual with autism, encourage that ability and it will develop in another positive trait.

Category: | 0 Comments
Social Skill Training
Author: Nammie on Tuesday, January 19, 2010


A major goal of social skills training is teaching persons who may or may not have emotional problems about the verbal as well as nonverbal behaviors involved in social interactions. There are many people who have never been taught such interpersonal skills as making "small talk" in social settings, or the importance of good eye contact during a conversation. In addition, many people have not learned to "read" the many subtle cues contained in social interactions, such as how to tell when someone wants to change the topic of conversation or shift to another activity. Social skills training helps patients to learn to understand these and other social signals, so that they can determine how to act appropriately in the company of other people in a variety of different situations. Its good foundation to the young ones or the children’s to have a social; skill training. Social Skill training proceeds on the assumption that when people improve their social skills or change selected behaviors, they will raise their self-esteem and increase the likelihood that others will respond favorably to them. Trainees learn to change their social behavior patterns by practicing selected behaviors in individual or group therapy sessions. Another goal of social skills training is improving a patient's ability to function in everyday social situations. Social skills training can help patients to work on specific.

Category: | 0 Comments
What is Music Therapy?
Author: Nammie on Sunday, January 17, 2010


Therapy or treatment is the attempted child’s development remediation of a health problem, usually following an analysis. In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word "treatment".

The term "children’s therapy" can be used to describe therapy caring for children with many challenges, including Attention Deficit Disorder, dyslexia, sensory processing and other sensory issues, oppositional and defiant disorders, head trauma, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and Autism. Therapy for these issues can sometimes be hard to find. Parents and caregivers should know how to help them understand why the children development isn’t going as planned and giving them tools to help the child progress. There are different kinds of therapies. Music therapy is a service provided for children to influence changes in learning or behavior patterns. Music is used to assist a child with disabilities to benefit from special education. Music Therapy has been effective in helping children with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, brain injuries, chronic illnesses and more.

Therapy is designed to reinforce and strengthen skills. That can address areas such as receptive language ,expressive language, socialization, and motor development. There are many reasons why music therapy is effective in children’s treatment. Rhythms of sound have a powerful impact on cognition. Music is processed by a different area of the brain than speech and language; therefore, a child may be able to more easily absorb information and skills presented with music. Memorizing songs and rhymes is helpful in developing literacy skills. The rhythm and repetition in songs can help the student internalize the sounds and patterns of language. Music is motivating and fun, which is useful when working with a child who demonstrates low motivation to learn. Music enhances attending skills and reduces distraction. An important thing to keep in mind is that music services are provided according to demonstrated educational need.

Category: | 0 Comments