Occupational Therapy Assistant Assist occupational therapists in providing occupational therapy treatments and procedures. May, in accordance with state laws, assist in development of treatment plans, carry out routine functions, direct activity programs, and document the progress of treatments. Generally requires formal training.
Occupational Therapy Assistant is Also Know as
In different settings, Occupational Therapy Assistant is titled as
- Acute Care Occupational Therapy Assistant (Acute Care OT Assistant)
- Certified Occupational Assistant
- Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA)
- Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA)
- Licensed Occupational Therapist Assistant (LOTA)
- Licensed Occupational Therapy Assistant (LOTA)
- Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA)
- Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA)
- Registered Therapist Assistant
- School Based Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (School Based COTA)
Education and Training of Occupational Therapy Assistant
Occupational Therapy Assistant is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Occupational Therapy Assistant
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Occupational Therapy Assistant
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Occupational Therapy Assistant
- Bachelor in Occupational Therapist Assistant
- Associate Degree Courses in Occupational Therapist Assistant
- Masters Degree Courses in Occupational Therapist Assistant
Training Required for Occupational Therapy Assistant
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Occupational Therapy Assistant in different industries are
- Occupational Therapy Aides
- Physical Therapist Assistants
- Physical Therapist Aides
- Psychiatric Technicians
- Respiratory Therapists
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses
- Acute Care Nurses
- Massage Therapists
- Radiation Therapists
- Medical Assistants
- Occupational Therapists
- Recreational Therapists
- Physical Therapists
- Emergency Medicine Physicians
- Clinical Nurse Specialists
- Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses
- Nurse Practitioners
- Psychiatric Aides
- Registered Nurses
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
What Do Occupational Therapy Assistant do?
- Observe and record patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior and maintain this information in client records.
- Maintain and promote a positive attitude toward clients and their treatment programs.
- Monitor patients' performance in therapy activities, providing encouragement.
- Select therapy activities to fit patients' needs and capabilities.
- Instruct, or assist in instructing, patients and families in home programs, basic living skills, or the care and use of adaptive equipment.
- Evaluate the daily living skills or capacities of physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabled clients.
- Aid patients in dressing and grooming themselves.
- Implement, or assist occupational therapists with implementing, treatment plans designed to help clients function independently.
- Report to supervisors, verbally or in writing, on patients' progress, attitudes, and behavior.
- Alter treatment programs to obtain better results if treatment is not having the intended effect.
- Work under the direction of occupational therapists to plan, implement, or administer educational, vocational, or recreational programs that restore or enhance performance in individuals with functional impairments.
- Design, fabricate, or repair assistive devices or make adaptive changes to equipment or environments.
- Assemble, clean, or maintain equipment or materials for patient use.
- Teach patients how to deal constructively with their emotions.
- Perform clerical duties, such as scheduling appointments, collecting data, or documenting health insurance billings.
- Transport patients to and from the occupational therapy work area.
- Demonstrate therapy techniques, such as manual or creative arts or games.
- Order any needed educational or treatment supplies.
- Assist educational specialists or clinical psychologists in administering situational or diagnostic tests to measure client's abilities or progress.
- Communicate and collaborate with other healthcare professionals involved with the care of a patient.
- Attend continuing education classes.
- Attend care plan meetings to review patient progress and update care plans.
Qualities of Good Occupational Therapy Assistant
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- 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 Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- 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).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- 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.
- 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).
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- 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.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- 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.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- 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.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- 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.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- 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.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- 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.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- 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.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Tools Used by Occupational Therapy Assistant
- Alternative computer keyboards
- Arm braces
- Augmentative communication systems
- Automatic dishwashing systems
- Back braces
- Balance boards
- Beading needles
- Braille writers
- C clamps
- Canes
- Ceramic modeling tools
- Ceramics kilns
- Cold packs
- Commercial cooking ovens
- Commercial microwave ovens
- Communication boards
- Compression devices
- Compressive garments
- Continuous passive motion CPM equipment
- Crochet hooks
- Crutches
- Desktop computers
- Dynamometers
- Gait belts
- Glue guns
- Goniometers or arthrometers
- Hammers
- Hand drills
- Headpointers
- Heat guns
- Hydraulic lifts
- Hydrotherapy equipment
- Industrial clothes dryers
- Joy sticks
- Knitting needles
- Lacing needles
- Laser facsimile machines
- Latch hooks
- Leather scissors
- Light commercial washing machines
- Lower extremity braces
- Macrame boards
- Mechanical stethoscopes
- Metal shears
- Metalsmith molds
- Mini punch sets
- Mini screwdriver sets
- Mouthsticks
- Multi-purpose saw sets
- Needlenose pliers
- Notebook computers
- Optical pointers
- Orthotic devices
- Page turners
- Patient positioning devices
- Personal computers
- Photocopying equipment
- Power hand sanders
- Precision knives
- Protective gowns
- Punching awls
- Rasps
- Rawhide mallets
- Reflex hammers
- Rivet setters
- Rotary punches
- Safety gloves
- Safety goggles
- Sewing needles
- Sliding boards
- Slings
- Slip joint pliers
- Slip mixers
- Sphygmomanometers
- Squares
- Stretchers
- Surgical masks
- T squares
- Tablet computers
- Talking word processor software
- Therapeutic hot packs
- Trackpads
- Transfer belts
- Treatment tables
- Triangles
- Vises
- Walkers
- Wheelchairs
- Wing dividers
- Wire cutters
- Wood burners
- Wood chisels
- Word prediction software
- Writing support software
Technology Skills required for Occupational Therapy Assistant
- Accounting software
- Billing software
- Bookkeeping software
- BrainTrain Captain's Log
- BrainTrain IVA+Plus
- BrainTrain SmartDriver
- Client caseload management software
- Database software
- dBASE
- eClinicalWorks EHR software
- Email software
- Fifth Walk BillingTracker
- FileMaker Pro
- Financial record software
- Graphics software
- Laboratory information system LIS
- Language arts educational software
- Math educational software
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Patient documentation software
- Scheduling software
- Screen reader software
- SpectraSoft DocuPRO
- Spreadsheet software
- Text scanning software
- TheraClin Systems iMAPR
- Visual Health Information VHI PC-Kits
- Voice recognition software
- Web browser software
- Word processing software