Friday, 26th September, 2008
One of the boys in our class has a mum who has a very interesting job. She is an occupational therapist or OT for short. She came to our class today to show us what she does in her work.
Anita works with elderly people, or with young people who need help doing the basic things in life like feeding themselves, dressing themselves or looking after themselves.
One of the boys in our class has a mum who has a very interesting job. She is an occupational therapist or OT for short. She came to our class today to show us what she does in her work.
Anita works with elderly people, or with young people who need help doing the basic things in life like feeding themselves, dressing themselves or looking after themselves.
She brought in lots of things that she uses in her work, like a kettle/teapot pourer, elastic laces, a plate guard, an adapted spoon, a grabber for picking up objects and a splint for people with arthritis in their hands. 
She also brought in a skeleton of the spine and pelvis. We thought at first they might be dinosaur bones but they turned out to be a model of real human bones. OTs use lots of science in their jobs. They need to know all the bones, muscles and nerves in the body. They know lots and lots about the human body. They have to study for 3 or 4 years to learn how to be an OT. 
It is very important to lift things correctly. Anita showed us how to lift things by bending our knees and keeping the box close to us as we lift it. If we do this well we might not get any backache as we grow older. Lots of us had a go to try and see could we lift correctly. 
Some children and adults have to use wheelchairs if they find it really hard to walk. Our OT showed us the parts of a wheelchair and some of us got turns at trying it out. It was tiring.
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