Priya-the-OT

  Ask any newly qualified OT, what Occupational Therapy is, and 99.99% of the time you get the same answer, "Occupational Therapy is all about improving ADL skills and helping the client achieve ADL independence." Of course, if you probe deeper, you may get a more elaborate answer that may branch into other things (apart form ADL) that an OT can help a client with. Let me just a do a bit of introduction first, before I get to the point!  ADL, which stands for Activities of Daily Living, is the most common term you would hear many OTs use.  It is a term used to collectively describe fundamental skills that are required to independently care for oneself such as eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, grooming and mobility.  ADLs are essential and routine tasks that most young healthy individuals can perform without assistance. The inability to accomplish essential activities of daily living, due to an injury, illness or any other physical or emotional challenges, may lead to unsa

There are many things I disagree with and the usage 'Differently Abled' is among few others on the top. When I first started working as an Occupational therapist in 1999, the word  'Mentally retarded'  was common.  It did feel then (and does even now), quite a 'disgraceful' word to use when referring to an individual, though I agree it was a 100 times better than a couple of its predecessors, which I prefer not to name.  Mental retardation slowly evolved to 'Intellectual Disability' which stole the show for a brief while before giving way to include specific tags like 'Learning Disability', 'Dyslexia', 'Dysarthria', 'Dyscalculia', and the like, which are actually the diagnoses themselves, and some other fancy titles like 'Slow Learner', 'Late Bloomer', etc.  Coming to the physical disability part, 'Handicapped' was the most common usage at one time which then went through a very happening metamorpho

Parent-Teacher Meetings came by twice a year at the Centre I worked in. There was one right after the IEPs for the year were made and another towards the close of the year. When most parents were happy with their child's progress and eager to know what the next steps were, there was one particular couple that had something very different to say. 'S' was a little girl, 5 years of age. She was on the Autism spectrum and was non-verbal. When she first joined the Centre, S had poor eye contact, a decreased attention span, poor recognition of common objects, and poor comprehension of facial expressions & environmental cues. By the end of one academic year, S was by then able to identify her school bag, could point to the picture of a glass to ask for water, and signal for 'toilet'. She would recognize the names of the most common things she carried in her snack box, like banana and sandwich. S could also eye-point to the identify her teacher and the class helper, whe