Occupational Therapy

Occupational scientists study the “phenomenological aspects of occupation through qualitative research”. Occupational scientists focus on human occupation and study humans as occupational beings. This means that there is not one direct way to study occupations but rather many ways in studying occupations. This involves studying the different aspects of occupations by asking individuals about their experiences when accomplishing tasks. These different aspects include the subjective individual experiences, meanings behind participating in occupations, and bodily experiences when engaging in occupations. It is important to study these qualitative aspects along with the study of observable quantitative aspects because they go hand-in-hand with
This study looks at the applied science research journey of implementing the use of occupational science knowledge into the practice of occupational therapy. The process of arranging occupational science information for use involves the various steps of identifying, developing, analyzing, and optimizing the knowledge. The case study follows these steps in order to identify the practice problem of exclusion in everyday activities amongst children with physical disabilities, identify the intervention needs of the contextual factors involved that create barriers for these individuals, develop the intervention of two different therapy approaches of context-focused therapy and child-focused therapy, test the intervention by implementing these programs and analyzing the changes in functional and participation outcomes, evaluate the cost-effectiveness for future research, study the outcomes that were produced between the context-focused and child-focused therapies that both identified goals for therapy intervention, and develop a theory based on the results of this study. The effective results of this study allows researchers to apply their knowledge to create several evidence-based, participation-focused assessment tools for occupational therapist to use in practice. These assessment tools will allow children with physical
It is also different than basic science because it is not based on theory but rather is an evidence-based practice intervention approach to make decisions about the well-being of the target population, which are children with physical disabilities. Additionally, it follows the several steps of arranging occupational science information for application by the occupational therapists within the intervention process.
From material in the case studies of this chapter, provide ONE example of how occupational science research has promoted the use of a top-down approach to occupational therapy intervention. Be sure that your answer conveys an understanding of the essential differences between top-down and bottom-up approaches in the occupational therapy