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Course: Occupational Therapy Assistance
Taking a bath, tying your shoes, typing on a computer keyboard: imagine your life without the little things most of us take for granted. As a student of occupational therapy assistance, you’ll learn how to help people who can’t perform everyday tasks like these. While this major will not prepare you to become an occupational therapist, you will be a valuable member of the team as an occupational therapist assistant.
In lectures and labs, you’ll discover the tools, technologies, and treatments that can help people with disabilities and disorders. And you’ll get a chance to put your learning into practice during fieldwork, helping out at a clinic or hospital.
Students of occupational therapy assistance gain the skills they need to help occupational therapists teach clients how to accomplish everyday tasks despite physical, mental, and other challenges.
Did You Know?
You can’t become a certified occupational therapist assistant if you don’t graduate from an accredited program.
Are You Ready To...?
- Spend a semester in full-time fieldwork
- Demonstrate your physical ability to do the work
- Spend lab time learning practical skills, like making splints
It Helps To Be...
Patient, with a genuine desire to help others. Being in good physical shape is also important: in addition to moving and lifting patients, you’ll spend a lot of time standing, kneeling, and stooping.
College Checklist
- What’s the application deadline? Many schools admit students only once a year.
- Are labs equipped with the latest occupational therapy equipment and tools?
- Can you double major, adding physical therapy assistant or mental health care, for example, to your program?
- What fieldwork opportunities are there?
- Will the college help you find work after graduation?
Did You Know?
Occupational therapy took off after World War I, when thousands of injured servicemen returned home in need of rehabilitation.
Course Spotlight
Introduction to occupational therapy is where you’ll find out -- quickly -- whether this is the major for you. You can count on learning about the history and ethics of the profession as well as key concepts and practices, such as activity analysis. But you’ll probably take on practical assignments as well, such as writing a paper on how you would adapt a piece of equipment for a patient with a particular disability. You might also venture outside the classroom to observe, or even take part in, real-world therapy.