Description
Job percentage:
Immediate supervisor: School Principal
Nature of work
The position of occupational therapist encompasses, in particular, responsibility for screening and evaluating the functional skills of students experiencing physical or psychomotor difficulties and developing and implementing an occupational therapy treatment and intervention plan for students so as to develop, restore or maintain their skills, compensate for their disabilities, minimize handicap situations and adapt their environment to foster their optimal autonomy and help students pursue their educational path.
Main Responsibilities
The occupational therapist assesses the student’s development in various areas: fine and gross motor skills, sensory integration, perceptual-cognitive skills, social and rational aspect, daily living and domestic activities; he or she analyzes and evaluates the students' functional skills, including students with handicaps or social maladjustments and students suffering from a mental or neuropsychological disorder attested to by a diagnosis or an evaluation conducted by qualified personnel. He or she determines, as part of an individualized education plan, an occupational therapy treatment and intervention plan to meet the student's needs. He or she decides on the use of restraints, if necessary.
Through individual or group therapy sessions, he or she helps the student in the areas where he or she experiences delays to enable him or her to reach the maximum level of functioning; through activities and the education community, he or she promotes generalization of learning so as to develop skills to live a productive and independent life.
He or she works with a multidisciplinary team to draw up and review a student’s individualized education plan by including the occupational therapy treatment and intervention plan in the plan, if necessary; he or she participates in defining intervention objectives and means; he or she works with other team members to ensure concerted and coordinated interventions and assess the achievement of objectives.
He or she designs, selects, adapts and prepares the materials necessary for individual or group therapy sessions and recommends the purchase of equipment; he or she provides advice and support to teachers to enable them to adapt their teaching or materials and recommends strategies; he or she meets with parents and provides them with support and advice so as to develop attitudes and skills fostering the student's rehabilitation.
He or she may consult and train resources in the education, medical or rehabilitation community.
He or she advises management staff, prepares expertise, evaluation, briefing and progress reports and makes appropriate recommendations to support decision making.
He or she may also conduct workshops and offer support to groups of parents in conjunction with resources in the education or health and social services network.
- He or she prepares and updates files according to the standards related to the practice of the profession and the rules defined by the school board; he or she prepares progress reports.
