First off, I would like to make a disclaimer.
Just because someone is Autistic or has ADHD, it doesn't automatically mean that they need therapy. There are many neurodivergent people who are thriving, well supported, and just don't need therapy support.
Similarly, just because someone is neurotypical, it doesn't mean that they don't need therapy. There are plenty of neurotypical and able bodied people who need help.
Therapy is for anyone who needs support. Diagnosis or not.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the question at hand.
What does an OT do for Autistic and ADHDers?
OT's work in a lot of different scopes in a lot of different ways. We've covered in a previous post that OT's help people do the things that are important to them like self-care, productivity, and play.
But how do we do that? Well we use lots of different strategies to....
Help people understand how they experience sensations
Neurodivergent people often experience sensations like sound, touch, differently which can have a huge impact on our daily activities.
If we understand how our body experiences sensations, we can develop strategies around these sensations.
Help them develop body listening skills
This is also called intercoception, which involves being able to understand and make sense of our body's sensations. This is important as our body tells us when we're hungry, tired, thirsty, what we're feeling, and what we need.
Many neurodivergent people have differences in how they understand and experience body sensations. OTs can help to build skills an understanding in listening to our bodies, which can help in lots of other areas
Finding new ways of doing things
OTs really are professional creative problem solvers and we love working out different ways of doing an activity to make it more accessible to someone.
Maybe it's brushing your teeth in the shower instead of at the sink.
Maybe it's using different cutlery to make cutting and eating food easier
Maybe it's walking home from school instead of driving to get some easy regulation time in.
There are so many ways OTs work to find new ways of doing things so you can still do what's important to you
Learn new strategies
As well as working on new ways of doing things, OTs also help people develop strategies to get them through difficult tasks or activities.
Building caregiver skills
OTs will also work with caregivers and family members to build their skills in supporting their loved one.
Therapists typically only spend 1-2 hours a fortnight with children and while we can do lots in that time, if we can give caregivers the skills and knowledge we have, the child is going to build so much more skills.
Similar to up-skilling caregivers, we also often work with providing education to the child's support system (e.g. school) so they can understand and work with the person better.
This is just a really short summary of how OTs can support neurodivergent people. How else have you seen OTs work with your loved ones to support them? We'd love to hear about it!