For most, when they visit an OT, they see the fun and excitement that happens within a session. Maybe its messy play, building with giant cushions, playing board games, supporting with handwriting, designing obstacle courses, engaging in pretend play or one of the many other things we do with our clients.
What many don’t know is what OTs get up to during each day. Here’s what an average day for an OTHC therapist might look like!
6:30-7:30am: Rise and shine! It’s time to get up and get ready for the day. Choosing an outfit is normally influenced by how much messy play we have planned. White clothes stay at home. It’s then time to hit the road and make our way into the office (and grab a coffee).
7:30-8am: The first clients of the day arrive at 8am so it’s important to make sure we are fully prepared before they get to us. This might mean setting up gross motor equipment, printing worksheets, putting together visual plans or finding the right game.
8-12pm: During the first half of the day, we are busy, busy, busy! Things we may get up to include:
- Having back-to-back therapy sessions which doesn’t leave much time for anything other than chatting to parents about their child’s progress, writing our clinical notes and a quick bathroom-break (if you’re lucky!!). But because time flies when you’re having fun, the morning always disappears before you know it!
- Logging on to a telehealth appointment! As a part of our onboarding process, we meet with new families to discuss their child’s strengths and challenges. This allows us to provide recommendations on what services would best suit and benefit their child, whether its groups, holiday intensives or weekly individual sessions.
- Admin time. In this time, we are busy replying to emails, prepping sessions, returning phone calls or creating resources. In addition to our sessions OTs do a lot of background work.
12pm-1pm: At OTHC, we are lucky to all have the same lunch time. During our lunch break you may find us sitting at the table chatting, taking a break on a beanbag with a book (or scrolling socials), getting some sunshine, visiting the local café, or going for a walk with our therapy dog Pretzel.
1pm- 5pm: It’s time to get back to work for the afternoon. Our OTs may be busy:
- Report writing. As OTs we are often asked to provide letters or reports to other professionals (such as paediatricians), schools or to the NDIS. We won’t lie and say it’s our favourite thing to do, but it’s part of the job.
- Seeing more clients! More fun activities, discussions with parents, and clinical notes.
- Running groups! At OTHC we have weekly groups to support kids with a range of skills and they are a lot of fun for us to run! We love getting creative and finding new and exciting activities for our groups to do.
5:00-5:15pm: Clean-up and home time. Final notes are completed, resources put away, a quick vacuum of the carpet and it’s time to head home. Now all that’s left to do is rest-up before the next big day of fun!
Although our days are busy, each day is different. As OTs we love being kept on our toes, getting creative, and finding new activities and resources. Hearing about or seeing our clients make progress, achieve a new goal, or learn a new skill, no matter how big or small, makes it all worth it.
