Copywork pages How an occupational therapy perspective can support home education
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent changes it has caused in K-12 education, has lead to a recent increase in home education, or homeschooling, throughout the United States (Census Bureau, 2021). But home education itself has been around far longer than the pandemic, and the term home education encompasses a variety of philosophies and perspectives related to the education of children in the home. Some versions of home education function very much like the public school system with structured daytime schedules, courses, and textbooks that follow a traditional school-based approach within the home, while others, sometimes referred to as “unschooling,” may be child lead and very unstructured, not resembling public education much at all. Additional approaches fall somewhere in the middle, having both structured and unstructured components. So within this broad range of educational approaches, how can the occupational therapy perspective–with its emphasis on occupation-based interventions–be utilized within home education in order to improve student engagement and educational outcomes?
Occupational therapists use occupation-based interventions, or meaningful daily activities, in a purposeful manner in order to develop or restore skills that an individual needs to participate successfully in their daily life. For example, a student who is unable to listen attentively during lessons will likely struggle with understanding the material that is being taught. By working with an occupational therapist to increase attention through games or other enjoyable activities, the child can develop the necessary attention skills to then be better able to learn and function in school. Or, a child who is unable to correctly hold a pencil or pen will likely struggle with handwriting tasks and written assignments. But by working with an occupational therapists on activities such as hand strengthening and movement while using modeling clay, the child can advance in handwriting skills and increase performance during written tasks. In both examples, the occupational therapist has used activities that the child finds enjoyable to develop skills that are necessary for academic participation and success.
In order to determine both the missing skills that are causing the learning related struggles as well as the enjoyable activities that can be used to develop these skills, occupational therapists rely on an activity analysis. An activity analysis is a systematic evaluation of a task that determines all of the skills that are necessary in order to complete that task. Once the component skills are identified, an occupational therapist can then determine ways to modify the task in order to make it easier or more challenging, depending upon the needs of the particular student.
But the use of occupational analysis is not limited to the occupational therapist, and parents can also use this approach, albeit in a simplified manner, when teaching their children through home education. For example, a child who is learning fractions can study fractions in a textbook, or the child can complete a cooking activity that relies on various measurements that involve fractions. To make this cooking task more difficult, a parent could instruct the child to make a half batch or double batch of the recipe, further complicating the fractions already involved but in a practical and meaningful way. In this manner, the child is still learning the necessary educational skill–fractions–but in a way that is integrated within their daily life in a manner that is both more applicable as well as more likely to be retained.
While the use of daily activities to teach academic skills is not unique to occupational therapy, it is an approach that occupational therapists utilize regularly during clinical practice and is therefore one that comes naturally to occupational therapy practitioners who are working with home educated students or educating their own children at home. If you are struggling in your own journey with home education, I would encourage you to consider utilizing this approach to see if it improves academic understanding and educational outcomes in your children.
To learn more about how an occupational therapist can assist you in your home education, contact us today!
References:
census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html