Occupational Therapy for
Children with Disabilities
-13|02|2021 Saturday
Prajaahita foundation conducts various webinars under the supervision of experts for the healthcare awareness of the people with disabilities. "Saukhyam" is a project for health and wellbeing of persons with disabilities and our effort is to dispense healthcare facilities for the mon an individual as well as institutional level.
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It is a challenge for the children with disabilities to go out and attend therapy sessions during this pandemic situation. Mrs Arsha Arjun,
a PediatricOccupational Therapist, has explained the methods and techniques to the parents with which they can assist their ward by themselves at home.
General activities performed in the Pediatric Occupational Therapy.
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Disorders found in the recent times are; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Behavioral Disorders and Intellectual Disabilities. An Occupational Therapist can facilitate a major role in this field. Occupational Therapy serves their share in bringing these children (fully or partially) back to
their own living system with the help of Play Therapy, Sensory Integration, Recreational Activities or BehavioralTherapy. Children with autism show signs of it from a very early stage of their growth but they fail to get diagnosed sometimes. It is possible to identify from their behavioral patterns whether they are autistic or not, and can provide the required therapy, if the parents can observe and identify the children from their early stages of growth. The role of occupational therapy is very effective to autistic children. Sensory processing issues highly affect Autistic children.
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Tactile defensiveness is a situation in which an individual is highly sensitive to light contact. Theoretically, irregular neural signals are sent to the cortex of the brain when the tactile system is immature and functions poorly, which may interfere with other brain processes. A dysfunctional tactile system may lead to a misconception of touch and/or pain (hyper- or hypo-sensitive) and it may lead to self-imposed isolation, general irritability, distraction, and hyperactivity.
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The vestibular system refers to structures within the inner ear that detect movement and changes in the position of the head. Dysfunction can manifest itself in two different ways. Some kids maybe hypersensitive to vestibular
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stimulation and have fear to perform ordinary activities of movement (e.g.:swings, slides, ramps and inclines). They may also have difficulty learning to ascend or descend stairs and hills. They may be anxious to walk or crawl on uneven or unstable ground. As a consequence, in a vacuum, they seem afraid. The proprioceptive system refers to muscle, joint and tendon components that provide a subconscious knowledge of the location of the body to an individual.The body positions, locations and reflex systems of a person changes automatically according to various circumstances when proprioception works effectively. Any imbalance in this system cause issues with body balancing:- such as difficulty standing on one foot or repeated falls while walking or sitting, uncoordinated motion- like being unable to walk in a straight line, etc.
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