Recreational Therapist Plan, direct, or coordinate medically-approved recreation programs for patients in hospitals, nursing homes, or other institutions. Activities include sports, trips, dramatics, social activities, and crafts. May assess a patient condition and recommend appropriate recreational activity.
Recreational Therapist is Also Know as
In different settings, Recreational Therapist is titled as
- Activities Coordinator
- Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS)
- General Activities Therapist
- Recreation Therapist
- Recreational Therapist
- Recreational Therapy Program Coordinator
- Rehabilitation Therapist
- Therapeutic Recreation Specialist
- Therapeutic Specialist
- Therapist
Education and Training of Recreational Therapist
Recreational Therapist is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Recreational Therapist
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Recreational Therapist
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Recreational Therapist
- Bachelor in Therapeutic Recreation/Recreational Therapy
- Associate Degree Courses in Therapeutic Recreation/Recreational Therapy
- Masters Degree Courses in Therapeutic Recreation/Recreational Therapy
Training Required for Recreational Therapist
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Recreational Therapist in different industries are
- Occupational Therapists
- Art Therapists
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Music Therapists
- Physical Therapist Aides
- Physical Therapist Assistants
- Physical Therapists
- Occupational Therapy Aides
- Rehabilitation Counselors
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Massage Therapists
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
- Mental Health Counselors
- Clinical and Counseling Psychologists
- Psychiatric Aides
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
- Psychiatrists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
What Do Recreational Therapist do?
- Observe, analyze, and record patients' participation, reactions, and progress during treatment sessions, modifying treatment programs as needed.
- Develop treatment plan to meet needs of patient, based on needs assessment, patient interests, and objectives of therapy.
- Encourage clients with special needs and circumstances to acquire new skills and get involved in health-promoting leisure activities, such as sports, games, arts and crafts, and gardening.
- Counsel and encourage patients to develop leisure activities.
- Confer with members of treatment team to plan and evaluate therapy programs.
- Conduct therapy sessions to improve patients' mental and physical well-being.
- Instruct patient in activities and techniques, such as sports, dance, music, art, or relaxation techniques, designed to meet their specific physical or psychological needs.
- Obtain information from medical records, medical staff, family members and the patients, themselves, to assess patients' capabilities, needs and interests.
- Plan, organize, direct, and participate in treatment programs and activities to facilitate patients' rehabilitation, help them integrate into the community, and prevent further medical problems.
- Prepare and submit reports and charts to treatment team to reflect patients' reactions and evidence of progress or regression.
- Develop discharge plans for patients.
Qualities of Good Recreational Therapist
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Tools Used by Recreational Therapist
- 35 millimeter cameras
- Acoustic guitars
- Archery bows
- Audio tape recorders
- Baseball bats
- Baseballs
- Basketballs
- Bicycles
- Bowling balls
- Canoes
- Compact disk CD players
- Croquet sets
- Desktop computers
- Digital audio recorders
- Digital camcorders
- Digital cameras
- Digital drumsticks
- Drum sets
- Electronic keyboards
- Electronic metronomes
- Exercise bicycles
- Fishing poles
- Fluidotherapy equipment
- Footballs
- Free weights
- Golf clubs
- Handbells
- Harmonicas
- Headpointers
- Kayaks
- Laptop computers
- Motorized wheelchairs
- Oil painting brushes
- Patient hoists
- Personal computers
- Pianos
- Ping pong paddles
- Pool cues
- Pottery wheels
- Racing wheelchairs
- Recreational rowboats
- Recreational sailboats
- Shuffleboard equipment
- Skeet shooting equipment
- Snow skis
- Softballs
- Tennis rackets
- Therapeutic treadmills
- Therapeutic weight machines
- Volleyballs
- Water skis
- Wood carving tools
Technology Skills required for Recreational Therapist
- Avid Technology Sibelius
- Email software
- Hyperscore
- MakeMusic Finale
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Musical instrument digital interface MIDI software
- Patient electronic medical record EMR software
- Speech recognition software
- Steinberg Cubase Pro
- Web browser software