Occupational Therapy at Franciscan Children’s

Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to the fullest by helping them promote overall health and prevent, or live better with injury, illness, or disability. Occupational therapists help patients improve their functional living skills despite any limitations they may have. These limitations can be physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and/or environmental. The goal of OT is to facilitate functional living skills across all contexts through the therapeutic use of meaningful activities (occupations). For the patients and students at Franciscan Children’s and Kennedy Day School, functional living skills may include the facilitation of skills in order to participate in activities related to play, school, work, community and self-care. Within the school setting, occupational therapists strive to facilitate participation across the student’s school day. They offer services along a continuum of prevention, promotion and interventions and work with individual students or in group settings with other students. Our occupational therapists provide direct and or consultative services, complete evaluations and make referrals as needed. The collaboration provided within the education and care teams is crucial to support both student and patient success.

Some of our favorite aspects of the OT program at Franciscan Children’s are:

• Getting to work closely with caregivers, building close-knit relationships with our patients, students and their families by:
  • Helping parents or guardians implement effective mealtime strategies at home
  • Demonstrating positioning and handling during tummy time
  • Showing how to best work with the toys their child has to facilitate development
  • Teaching exercises or stretching

• Helping students increase participation in school routines by adapting their environment or making modifications so it is easier for them to participate in classroom activities
• Assisting in preparation for transition post-graduation
• Tailoring each session to the individual so it is meaningful for them. OT’s make sessions fun by:
  • Creating scavenger hunts of celebrity faces to target visual-spatial skills
  • Taking community trips to Café Nero to work on safety awareness and social skills

Cooking a child’s favorite meal with a subtle twist to facilitate trying new foods

• Having the opportunity to creatively problem-solve with patients and families. Through our work, OT’s can adapt to the environment of every individual we work with through sensory strategies. Some of these strategies include:
  • Creating a calming classroom corner
  • Creating materials like visual schedules to improve self-regulation and sequencing
  • Fabricating upper extremity splints to support functional positioning and/or range of motion
• Seeing progress, no matter how big or small is one of the most thrilling parts of working as an occupational therapists

Occupational therapists are an integral part of Franciscan Children’s rehabilitative services department, helping patients and students overcome limitations to achieve their goals. So every kid can.