Areas of Occupation

Occupational therapist's use the term "occupation" to refer to "everyday activities."  (OTPF, 2008) Many therapists even use the words activity and occupation interchangeably.  In order to classify the endless amount of activities someone can be involved in on a daily basis, occupational therapist's have categorized occupations into eight major areas. Individual differences play a key role in how someone categorizes their daily activity. For instance, while one person may consider walking a dog to be leisure, another person may consider the same activity to be work or play. Occupations are multidimensional and complex and " the client's perspective of how an occupation is categorized varies depending on that client's needs and interests" (OTPF, 2008).

 

 Areas of Occupation

• 
  
  Activities of Daily Living (ADL's)
• 
  
  Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL's)
• 
  
  Rest and Sleep
• 
  
  Education
• 
  
  Work
• 
  
  Play
• 
  
  Leisure

Occupation has also been defined as:


"Goal-directed pursuits that typically extend over time, have meaning to the performance, and involve multiple tasks" (Christiansen et al., 2005, p. 548).


"Chunks of daily activity that can be named in lexicon of the culture" (Zemke & Clark, 1996, p.vii)


"Activities that people engage in throughout their daily lives to fulfill their time and give life meaning. Occupations involve mental abilities and skills and may or may not have an observable physical dimension" (Hinojosa & Kramer, 1997, p. 865).

The Aspects of Occupational Therapy