What Is a Child’s Occupation?

Occupation refers to activities that may support your child's health, development and well-being. For children, occupations are activities that enable them to:

• Learn and develop life skills (e.g., school activities)
• Be creative and/or have fun (e.g., play)
• Thrive (e.g., care for themselves and others)

Occupational Therapy Services

When a child has a serious illness or injury, medically-based or rehabilitative occupational therapy services may be provided. Our developmentally appropriate services improve your child’s functional abilities and independence by emphasizing:

• Physical skills to increase movement, strength and/or coordination
• Adaptive skills – Age-appropriate skills necessary to live independently and to function safely and appropriately in daily life
• Cognitive abilities
• Sensorimotor skills – How the child processes information received from the environment
• Visual motor and perceptual skills
• Social and interpersonal skills

Our occupational therapists will create a treatment plan that addresses your child’s unique needs by:

• Collaborating with other health care professionals to identify your child’s needs
• Identifying and changing or overcoming barriers that interfere with, restrict or inhibit your child’s functional performance
• Teaching your child and family modeling skills and strategies to extend therapeutic intervention
• Adapting activities, materials and environmental conditions so your child can participate in activities

We work with children who are staying in the hospital (inpatients) and with children who are not hospitalized (outpatients).