Occupational therapy is the antidote to skill loss during the pandemic

Key points:

More than three years since the start of the pandemic, students' social, emotional and academic development has clearly been affected. Investigation shows that the average student lost about a third of the school year due to the pandemic, resulting in academic setbacks and missed opportunities to develop skills fostered in school environments, such as learning to form study routines and habits, solve problems, and follow directions.

With students widely experiencing these developmental gaps, schools across the country need creative solutions to provide all students with additional support during this difficult time.

Occupational therapy (OT) is well equipped to address this need, but this field is commonly overlooked or misunderstood. Occupational Therapists (OT) are health professionals who support clients in the development or recovery of physical, sensory, or cognitive skills used in everyday life, including executive functioning skills and independent living skills. OTs are trained to be holistic and wide-ranging thinkers, allowing them to meet clients where they are and help them achieve their individual goals. However, the general lack of public awareness about the nuances of OT means that its wide-ranging benefits often go untapped, especially when it comes to its potential in schools.

By fostering greater understanding of OT as a highly specialized but expanding field, and by supporting OTs in leadership positions, we can ensure we maximize its potential benefits and help students achieve their growth goals.

Perhaps the most common Wrong idea What is interesting about this field is that school OTs focus solely on areas of practice such as writing and sensory processing. The reality is that OTs can help people in many areas depending on the clients' needs and environments. While one client may want to develop a skill like handwriting, another may be more interested in developing self-advocacy, decision-making, or goal-setting skills. As a result of their comprehensive training, OTs are adaptable and versatile in their approach to supporting a portfolio of clients with different needs.

The range of people who can benefit from OT services is also larger than commonly believed. Most people perceive that OTs only help younger children, but they are also effective in supporting people of all ages, including adolescents transitioning to adulthood and adults in their 20s and 30s. At Ivy Street, OTs offer programming for various age groups, including an integrated model of OT support in both residence halls and classrooms for students ages 13-21 and a “Life skills”program that supports clients over 16 years of age in their communities of origin. Although students and participants have different goals, OTs work with the same guiding mission: to help clients become more independent and achieve their own definitions of success.

Given the many different roles OTs can play, they are uniquely positioned to help students get back on track toward their goals post-pandemic. OTs can help students with skills they may have difficulty developing or regaining during this time, especially skills that affect overall performance, such as forming study habits, maintaining focus, or staying organized. Mastering these types of skills can have far-reaching benefits for students both academically and personally. Have effective study habits, e.g. can help a student improve their gradesbut on a broader scale, having this skill also helps the student gain greater independence in their daily routine and develop their self-confidence.

To be widely accepted as professionals who can provide such a breadth of assistance, OTs themselves must have a seat at the table alongside educational and regulatory leaders. in decision-making processes. Your presence here is vital to ensuring that your voices and the needs of your clients are best represented. For example, a school committee without OT representation may not be aware of the benefits that OT promises for both. neurodivergent and neurotypical students, leading the committee to potentially neglect the field when considering supports to help all students regain skills lost during the pandemic. When given opportunities to be equal to educational and regulatory leaders, OTs can help fill gaps in understanding by clarifying what types of OT services are available and advocating for OT as a broad practice to ensure that students can access the full scope of OT work. .

As educational and regulatory leaders look for solutions to guide students through this recovery phase of the pandemic, we have only scratched the surface of what OTs have to offer. However, throughout my 14 years at Ivy Street, I have seen OT services grow to assist more and more students as they work toward their personal, academic, and post-secondary goals. This gives me hope that other schools can expand access to OT services for their students as well.

By fostering greater understanding of the full scope of OT practice in the mainstream, and pushing for OTs to fill the positions necessary to advocate for their work among educational and regulatory bodies, we can maximize the benefits of OT work for meet this moment and ensure that all students have access to the tools and supports they need to thrive.