Does occupational therapy play a role for communication in children with autism spectrum disorders?

Abstract

This study investigates occupational therapy for early communication in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The research explored the role of occupational therapists in supporting children with ASD to become better communicators by considering their inter-professional collaboration with speech-language pathologists. Convenience samples of 21 clinical occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists were recruited to participate in semi-structured audio-recorded focus groups, using a qualitative design. Distinct views included a child-centred focus from speech-language pathologists, whereas occupational therapists spoke of the child through societal viewpoints, which later pointed to occupational therapists' proficiency in enabling skill generalization in ASD. An equal partnership was consistently reported between these clinicians, who identified the same objectives, shared strategies, joint treatments, and ongoing collaboration as the four main facilitators to inter-professional collaboration when treating children with ASD. Three unique roles of occupational therapy comprised developing non-verbal and verbal communication pre-requisites, adapting the setting, educating-partnering-advocating for the child, and providing occupation-based intervention. These three themes meshed with the discipline-specific occupational therapy domains represented in the Person-Environment-Occupation framework. When working in inter-professional collaboration, speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists agree that occupational therapy is indispensable to early intervention in enabling communication in ASD.

The Impact of Insurance Coverage Types on Access to and Utilization of Health Services for U.S. Children With Autism

“…Children with ASD have complex health care needs that require multiple types of specialized health care services (5,6). Behavioral interventions, including some developmental therapies, have been shown to be effective and are often recommended in treating ASD (7,8).…”

Interprofessional opportunities: Understanding roles in collaborative practice.

“…Occupational therapists Hébert, Kehayia, Prelock, Wood-Dauphinee, and Snider (2014) also identified the critical role of play in communication. Occupational therapists may help children with social interaction challenges involving communication, including difficulty interpreting social cues and rules and understanding the perspective of others.…”

Occupational Therapy in Autism

“…It's noted that play based occupational therapy improves motor and social skills in children with developmental delay [111]. Hebert reports in his study that therapeutic plays practiced for children with developmental delay in line with their occupational frameworks improve their non-verbal and verbal communication skills [112]. As noted by such evidence-based studies, well structured play which is commonly used in occupational therapy interventions has a positive impact on motor skill and planning, communication-interaction and social skills of children with autism.…”