Activities of Daily Living,also called as Self Care Skills, play a major role in a child’s overall independence, confidence and functional growth.
These skills include the child’s ability to feed themselves using utensils appropriately and to perform personal hygiene like bathing, toileting activities.
Problems in this area may be due to an underlying problem, which may include impaired Sensory Integration or diminished Fine Motor or Upper Body Coordination. Some children may also exhibit poor motor planning which affects their ability to time, grade and sequence motor activities.
We can break these down further into Personal Activities of Daily Living, which are the things we do every day such as bathing, dressing, feeding ourselves etc.
To be able to perform ADL’s more independently and effectively, demand skills in multiple areas like:
- Gross Motor in order to stay sitting or squatting while using the toilet and lift up a leg to put on pants or trousers.
- Fine Motor in order to hold a spoon and eating food without spilling, undo a zipper
- Cognitive
- Visual
- Sensorial
- Communication Skills.
Children with Cerebral Palsy who are affected in any of these areas might have issues in performing some ADL’s e.g. impaired hand function, which affects 50% of children living with Cerebral Palsy, will have an impact on child’s performance in upper limb activities.
ADL’s are very important in the daily life of a Child.
Therapist in our Center train and encourage Child to use these moments:
- We help the child participate to the best of their ability
- We try to develop new skills for the child
- Engage in play activities and communication with the child
- Give the child multiple options
- Create bond between the child and the Therapist