Panaji : Dr Priyanka Raikar, an occupational therapist from Goa,
recently spoke on paediatric occupational therapy practices in India to master level students, at Winston-Salem State University of North Carolina, USA.
Paediatric Occupational Therapy is a branch of psychology which helps children with different needs to develop skills in performing day to day purposeful activities . Occupational Therapy aims to help children to be as independent as possible in their everyday lives.
Dr Raikar touched upon topics like cognitive development, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social skills development, sensory development, play development, neonatal development, writing skill development, visual aids in
non-verbal kids, development of activities of daily living skills
and behavioural treatment.
Comparing the status with regard to awareness about occupational therapy in India and abroad, Dr Raikar states: “Referrals for occupational therapy from doctors, paediatricians are most common throughout the world for both acute and chronic cases with paediatric population”.
She informed that “Awareness in India about occupational therapy is much less compared to other countries.”
According to her research, she inferred that in the USA and many other counties, occupational therapy treatment fees are easily covered by insurance companies. In India however, only 5-8 % is covered by insurance companies.
