WHAT IS CHILD OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY? - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The child occupational therapy analyzes the problems presented by children and provides them the way with activities and exercises to train the greatest possible autonomy in their life, from the recovery of diseases. It is recommended for diseases or disorders such as infantile autism, cerebral palsy, cerebrovascular accidents, among others.

In other words, occupational therapy is responsible for the study of human occupation and is used as a tool to intervene in the achievement of the objectives established so that the person becomes autonomous.

To speak of occupational therapy is to use the term "occupation", which refers to daily activities of daily use. In these we can include self-care, leisure, social and community participation, as well as economic. That is, activities of daily life, productive activities and leisure activities that the person must carry out by herself.

The fields of action in which occupational therapy participates are: hospitals, health centers, family homes, work and school environments, penitentiary or geriatric institutions.

How is occupational therapy in childhood?

In childhood, children learn through experience. They interact with the world and from these interactions they learn and become familiar with the outside world. From this interaction the child's growth develops, where she learns to face new situations generated from this learning.

Occupational therapy is distributed from seven contexts: cultural, social, personal, spiritual, temporal, physical, and virtual. In addition, they are classified as something essential in the choice and in the occupational development of the person and, therefore, at no time will they be studied individually since they occupy a single set and will be addressed from the culture itself, the historical context and of the politician.

Through the child's approach to the environment and its interaction with the environment, it grows and, consequently, the development of the skills that must be used in their environment, in culture, in society and in age what happens to him.

This is how child development happens, from the union of all factors. However, there are facets that develop before others, in addition to taking into account the stimulation that is given to it.

For example, it is recommended that in order for the child to speak earlier and develop language early, conversations be held with him from birth, regardless of whether he pronounces words or not, the conversation can be maintained through gestures shown through non-communication. verbal.

Occupational therapists sometimes encounter situations in which children have limitations in certain daily activities that limit the well-being that a child should enjoy.

In the early ages, the responsibility of the little ones is to have fun through play and begin to socialize. In addition, to learn to carry out daily habits.

However, there are various circumstances in which children do not have the ability to explore normally enough, as they have problems adapting to the environment and are limited.

For this reason, occupational therapy is committed to facilitating possibilities for these children, through stimulations managing situations in which they reach the execution of activities so that the exploration occurs with total normality, in an appropriate way.

How should the professionals in this area be?

An occupational therapist must be a professional with knowledge and extensive training in skills and competencies that allows him to work with individual people or groups who have some type of problem at the body or motor level and, therefore, have limitations to develop their life normally.

In the words of the Spanish Professional Association of Occupational Therapists, a professional in the field of Occupational Therapy can dedicate himself to rehabilitation in different areas:

• Geriatric
• Pediatric.
• Mental health.
• Drug addiction,
• Intellectual disability.
• Early stimulation.
• Physical.
• Labor.
• Psychosocial

In addition to intervening in social marginalization, social immigration and diabetes, among other diseases.

The occupational therapist is specifically responsible for evaluating the situation in which the person is. Investigate in what state are the elements that the human being executes to carry out daily actions. Therefore, the task of the therapist is to observe if the person's psychomotor skills, their interaction with the world and the communication they carry out are carried out optimally.

From here, we must specify that the intervention process carried out by the occupational therapist must meet, in most cases, the following phases:

1. Assessment.
2. Initial intervention to propose objectives.
3. Intervention.
4. Evaluation of the results obtained.

A real case

We will be able to observe the work carried out through motor stimulation as well as sensory stimulation, since the child is born with difficulties and does not eat normally, without having habits such as chewing, much less the need to sit at the table. It is fed during the first years of life of liquid nutrients without tasting, at any time, the foods in solid format.

In the first place, we must bear in mind that the participation of occupational therapists in childhood has had, throughout history, a great impact in various cases.

The boy who did not eat

Next, we present a case in which intervention has been carried out and results have been obtained, entitled The child who did not eat (Beaudry, 2012).

This child was born with an iron deficiency due to one that the mother already had during pregnancy and, therefore, was born weak with a low weight and poor health. All this led to a delay in their development during growth.

After attending consultations several times due to the delay in the child, some doctors came to diagnose him as autistic, however, the real situation, after numerous investigations, involved tactile hypersensitivity.

The child's mother decided to solve the problem of food because the little one only ate liquids and nothing solid. Therefore, in the first instance, the occupational therapist was consulted, who, as a professional, began to work on the feeding of the child, something indisputably had to begin to work from the first stages of the development of the person.

First, he began to perform facial muscle stretching techniques with him .

When there are problems at the moment when food is introduced into the body, then it is necessary to act with the rest of the body, since in this case the child has a generalized hypersensitivity. And, therefore, you have to start from the outside until you reach the mouth, the lips and the inside of them, the teeth (which until now had not shown them and had been damaged).

Once his mouth is close, he is offered an object that he can bite and vibrate at the same time, since his hypersensitivity is receptive to vibrations, since this vibration relieves pain and calms him down.

At first we will receive the negativity that the family has received until then, however, little by little, with patience we will achieve it. Subsequently, we stretch and relax the facial muscles continuing with the use of vibrating objects to calm this hypersensitivity.

So far only the possibility of approaching the mouth has been worked, leaving food aside, momentarily. In this way, we find ourselves in situations in which the child continues to refuse and the therapist resumes the task at all times, until he is achieving it, little by little.

Until now, only the sensitivity of the whole body has been worked on and at this point we begin to work with the oral.

We will find ourselves in situations in which, although it is not advisable to force, it is important that, in totally negative situations, it is forced, although to a lesser extent. From here, we start to touch the mouth with something hard and crunchy, for example, bread sticks. When putting the stick in the mouth, the child can bite it but does not chew it, since it does not know how to chew.

It is appropriate to maintain contact with the rest of the body while the process is being carried out, in addition to entertaining the child with a toy or something that can keep their attention for a while.

The possibility of having something between the teeth and the interaction with the tongue encourages him to bite. And, to start chewing, some pressure technique will be practiced on the outside of the gum. Tongue fiddling is beneficial in dealing with eating, as once the tongue is mastered, chewing is easier.

The first food that is put in the mouth, as such, must be small and have the possibility of degrading quickly, for example, corn.

This gives the possibility, in one of its variants, that the moment it comes into play with the output it collapses, therefore it gives more ease.

Not yet having control of the tongue, the food is put directly between the molars. Thus, as soon as other foods are introduced into the mouth, vibrating elements are used again to continue relieving pain.

The occupational therapist reflected and transferred his evaluation, pointing out that once the feeding improved, the child adapted more easily to the changes and, from here, began to work with the diet as such.

As food is a routine action, the therapist has a lot to say in this regard, since everything that involves eating is part of this routine, as is the situation of sitting or setting the table.

Finally, we must point out that, as in any other teaching-learning process, situations are generated in which other scientific aspects propose other ways of teaching.

There are psychological currents that propose that all the steps must be taught at the same time, that is, they suggest that all the variants; plate, table, chair, are given together so that the child assumes the situation as it is.

However, the therapist who reflects this case points out that his task was mainly for the child to eat and, therefore, he limited himself to teaching the behavior of eating, leaving aside other tasks that would be learned later and were not vital for the child. autonomy of the person.

References

1. BEAUDRY BELLEFEUILLE. I. (2012). Selective feeding: evaluation and treatment of a three-year-old child. In SANJURJO CASTELAO, G. (Coord.). III Cycle of clinical sessions Asturian Journal of Occupational Therapy, Asturias.
2. ROJO MOTA, G. (2008). Occupational Therapy in the treatment of addictions. Addictive Disorders, 10, 88-97.
3. VIANA MOLES, I. AND PELLEGRINI SPANGENBER, M. (2008). Contextual considerations in childhood. Introduction to child development. Occupational therapy in childhood.