Pediatric Occupational Therapy Paper

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Pages: 4

Pediatric OT plays a crucial role in enhancing the lives of children with disabilities. OTPs often have to create new ways to address the highly individualized needs of each child they work with. This includes addressing ADLs during intervention, such as toileting and toilet hygiene. Toileting and maintaining toilet hygiene is a key occupation addressed within pediatric occupational therapy practice (Collis et al., 2019). It is described as, “various unprompted behaviors, including recognizing the need to go to the toilet and waiting before eliminating” (Leader et al., 2018). Pediatric occupational therapy practitioners typically address toileting and toilet hygiene in children who are working towards achieving milestones in bowel and bladder …show more content…
When looking at independent sample t-tests, it was found that children between the ages of 5 to 17 years old with ID scored significantly higher on the POTI in comparison to those who did not have ID (Leader et al., 2018). Research revealed that children and adolescents with disabilities and toileting difficulties experienced rejection by their peers, teasing from others due to odor, gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, and bloating (Leader et al., 2018). A limitation of this study was no distinction made when discussing what being independent in toileting and toilet hygiene meant, as this could be described differently depending on the parents (Leader et al., 2018). A similar study conducted investigations into teaching two boys aged 5-6 years old with ASD toilet hygiene skills. The two participants were taught discrimination, and naming skills, and utilized a simulation doll to train wiping skills (Byra et al., …show more content…
The group-based workshops entitled “Pondering Poos” and “Wondering about Wees” (Collis et al., 2019, p.133) were 3 hour in length workshops led by an interdisciplinary team of occupational therapists, child health nurses, and dieticians. The team provided the parents with educational resources such as a “Participant Workbook” with diagrams, books, toys, child stories, and management advice (Collis et al., 2019, p.133). The Children's Continence Clinics is comprised of an interdisciplinary team including a pediatrician, pediatric gastroenterologist, occupational therapist, dietitian, and psychologist (Collis et al., 2019). The families received 45 initial appointments with a medical specialist and then received individualized occupational therapy consults on how to manage the toileting environment, routing, and motivation strategies. After the initial consultation appointments, 75% of the participants received follow-up appointments at the clinic (Collis et al.,