Knowra Occupational therapy Occupational therapy Occupational therapy uses meaningful activities to help people develop, regain, or maintain abilities for daily life, work, and participation. It addresses the fit between a person, their activities, and their environments.
Occupational performance : The ability to carry out meaningful activities and roles in everyday life. Therapists assess and support performance across the activities that matter to each person.
Activities of daily living : Basic self-care tasks such as bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting. Therapists help people regain or adapt the skills needed for personal care.
Moral treatment : A nineteenth-century approach to mental illness emphasizing humane care, purposeful activity, and orderly surroundings. Its use of purposeful activity helped shape occupational therapy’s early practice.
Physical therapy : A health profession that improves movement, physical function, and mobility through assessment and intervention. It often emphasizes movement capacity, while occupational therapy connects abilities to everyday activities.
Activity analysis : The systematic examination of an activity’s tasks, demands, and required skills. Breaking an activity into demands helps identify barriers and guide treatment.
Instrumental activities of daily living : Complex daily tasks that support independent living, including cooking, shopping, and managing finances. These tasks reveal how therapy can support life beyond basic self-care.
Eleanor Clarke Slagle : An American social worker and occupational therapy pioneer who developed habit-training programs. Her habit-training work helped establish occupational therapy practice and education.
Speech-language pathology : A health profession addressing communication and swallowing disorders across the lifespan. Its specialized focus differs from occupational therapy’s broader attention to daily participation.
Adaptive equipment : Devices designed or selected to help people perform activities despite impairments or limitations. Equipment can change task demands when abilities alone do not make an activity accessible.
Hand therapy : Rehabilitation focused on conditions and injuries affecting the hand and upper limb. Occupational therapists may restore hand function for work, self-care, and other activities.
Show all 22