Most of us go about our days without thinking of what it takes to type an email, cook dinner, or get dressed in the morning. However, tasks that felt so normal before can suddenly become challenging or frustrating after an injury, surgery, or health condition.
Occupational therapy in Michigan can help improve skills you use in daily life by addressing strength, coordination, fine motor skills, and mobility. The goal is to be able to complete these activities more comfortably and independently.
Check out these seven everyday tasks an occupational therapist in Metro Detroit can make easier for you.
1. Getting Dressed
It takes a surprising amount of coordination and fine motor skills to button a shirt, tie your shoes, and zip up a jacket.
An occupational therapist can determine why these tasks are challenging for you and work on the specific movements involved in their execution. They can also let you in on various techniques or adaptive tools that make it easier to get dressed on your own.
2. Bathing and Personal Care
Balance, mobility, coordination, and hand function are all needed to complete daily routines such as bathing and brushing your teeth.
Occupational therapy puts the emphasis on independence, safety, and modification suggestions to make tasks more manageable.
3. Preparing a Meal
Making dinner is made up of a bunch of small tasks that help you open jars, grip utensils, and chop vegetables with ease. But when you have an injury or condition that interferes with these abilities, your Metro Detroit occupational therapist can work on these movements and skills to make meal times easier again.
4. Writing and Using Your Hands
Hand and wrist problems can interfere with writing, picking up small objects, or opening a jar. Your occupational therapist can introduce exercises and activities designed to improve hand strength, dexterity, coordination, and range of motion.
5. Using a Computer or Phone
Typing, using a mouse, and texting on a smartphone involve a lot of repetitive movements and fine motor control. Your therapist can suggest modifications and treatments that help you better perform these critical everyday tasks.
6. Housekeeping
Laundry, cleaning, carrying groceries, and other household chores take a lot of movements to complete. When you’re injured, these tasks can pose a big challenge. Rather than avoid these activities, occupational therapy offers safer and more manageable ways to complete larger tasks. Breaking one big task into smaller chunks is one such suggestion.
7. Returning to Work
Returning to the workplace after an injury, surgery, or illness requires you to rebuild strength, endurance, and coordination, in addition to job-specific abilities.
Getting Back to Your Life
Occupational therapy is about much more than just a checklist of exercises. It’s about getting back to the point where you can once again participate in the everyday activities that are important to you.
Whether that’s getting dressed without assistance, preparing meals for your family, returning to a favorite hobby, or getting back to work, occupational therapy in Michigan is customized to your unique abilities, challenges and goals.
Contact Specialty Physical Therapy
If an injury, surgery, or health diagnosis is making everyday activities more difficult, our occupational therapists can develop a treatment plan that helps you accomplish your goals. Contact us today to schedule an occupational therapy session.