Final Occupation-based Practice Reflection

The engagement in occupations is the core theme of what we do as occupational

therapist. Occupations are the meaningful activities that make up our lives, and make us who we
are. The occupations people engage in are individualized and provide an identity and meaning to
each person. The implementation of occupation-based practice is essential to providing the best
occupational therapy services. One of the first assignments we had in the program was to define
occupational therapy and honestly my definition was completely different then than it is now.
Throughout the program I have developed my understanding of what goes into the occupations
we do on a daily basis, the importance of them, and how I can use occupations to provide my
skilled service. The use of occupation-based practice was first introduced to me in the first
occupational analysis and intervention plan I completed in first semester. Prior to this assignment
I never realized the components that make up the simple tasks we do every day. I feel that
this assignment is where I begin thinking and acting like a real occupational therapist. It was
also my first experience with intervention planning. The assignment put me in a place where I
had to critically think about the clients needs and how I was going to achieve a successful
intervention. I learned how to break down an activity, how to realize the successful areas and the
problem areas in an activity, and how to focus my interventions on the areas of need. This
assignment was my first step in beginning to THINK like an OT.
Another occupation-based assignment I completed was an intervention plan based on a
pediatric case study. For this assignment we received a pediatric case study and a specific OT
based setting. We were assigned to develop an evidence-based intervention plan to treat the child.
My group was given a case study about Natalie, a child with Developmental Coordination
Disorder attending the second grade. The project was over the whole semester

and incorporated all of the knowledge we had gained from the semester. It required evidence
based research, collaboration between the team members, planning, critical thinking, and
creativity skills to complete. Through this assignment I learned a lot about school based practice,
the interventions practiced in the school setting, and many resources that can be used by school
based therapist.
I had the opportunity to use occupation- based practice also in assignments such as the
assistive device project, developing and planning occupational profiles and interventions, and
completing an occupation-based home assessment. I believe one of the biggest areas of growth
pertaining to occupation-based practice came from the development and planning of the
occupational profile and intervention plans we complete on real life patients we had treated.
These assignments increased my knowledge of occupation-based practice and how to apply it to
real life practice. Having to determine the clients history, problem list, short-term and long-term
goals, intervention plan, as well as the model or theory guiding the interventions provided me
with the skills required to competently provide individualized occupation-based treatment.
Throughout the program I have learned the importance and impact of using occupation
based practice. It is so very important to be client centered and work together with the client
through the OT processes. The use of occupation based interventions is impactful to the client
and provides a means of independence and to live life to the fullest.