Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and education of children from birth through age 8 bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8, a 2015 report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, explores the implications of the science of child development for the professionals who work with these children.

This man was born with two rare medical conditions that have made his legs look like a pair of SCISSORS. 33-year-old, Marty Sheedy lives with Arthrogryposis – the joint contracture in two or more areas of the body – and Prune Belly Syndrome – the lack of abdominal muscles. Marty weighs only 60lbs and stands at 4ft 10”, but his lack of weight and height are not the strangest symptoms of his condition. In order to be able to move around, Marty has to use his legs in a scissor-like fashion – something most people have never seen before. Doctors gave Marty just two years to live, but he has since defied all the odds and now loves people referring to him as ‘the scissor man’ and ‘scissor legs’.

Occupational justice is orientated to promoting fairness, equity, and empowerment to enable opportunities for participation in occupations for the purposes of health and quality of life.

Learning objectives:
1. Explore how international conventions can be used to advocate against barriers to occupational participation.
2. Understand occupational justice as freedoms to do and be
3. Apply a tool to analyse situations where the freedom to do and be is
repressed
4. Offer critical commentary to inform ongoing development of the tool

The following list of activities have been recommended as beneficial to the development of gross motor skills. The activities serve only as ideas for improving gross motor skills and should not be seen as comprehensive. However, it’s full of great ideas.

This teenager with albinism has faced various hurdles and has even been  called an ‘inside out Oreo’. Kimberley, 15, from Derby, was born with Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 1 – affecting the colouring of her skin, hair and eyes.

How would you intervene? Would you intervene? Would you focus on social skills, self care, self advocacy?    Hmmmm.....take a look. 

This study aimed to test a proposed structural model of the relationships and existing paths among cognitive processes (attention and planning), visual motor integration, and academic achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics. The study sample consisted of 50 students with mild intellectual disability or MID.

Here is a teenager whose skin is so fragile it bleeds and blisters as she sleeps. Sohana Collins’ morning routine takes longer than most: on schooldays the 16-year-old wakes up between 6-7am while her mother, Sharmila, carefully unwraps Sohana’s bandaged arms, then uses surgical needles to prick her daughter’s painful blisters before cleansing and moisturising Sohana’s paper-thin skin. Sohana suffers from Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare genetic condition commonly referred to as the butterfly syndrome because skin is as delicate as a butterfly’s wings.

Occupational justice:
New concept or historical foundation of occupational therapy?

In this booklet we will discuss how the bowel and bladder work, what effect spina bifida may have on them, some ways these effects are managed, tips for school staff to know, and some handy hints for the future.