What is the OT Role in Childhood Grief?
Question
What is the OT role in childhood grief?
Answer
Occupational therapy addresses children's grief by focusing on the disruption of meaningful occupations, including ADLs, play, education, and social participation. Practitioners use purposeful activities to promote mental health, helping children who may show behavioral regressions—such as loss of dressing skills or school avoidance—re-engage with their daily routines. By integrating holistic, client-centered interventions like mindfulness and sensory regulation, OTs provide a vital service that restores a child's ability to navigate their world after a devastating loss.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Addressing Children's Grief Head On From An Occupational Therapy Perspective, presented by Elizabeth Reymann, OTR/L.
Elizabeth Reymann
OTR/L
Related Courses
Case Studies of the Growing Mental Health Needs of School-Aged Children
This text-based course will focus on case studies and intervention strategies and will be a companion to the webinar on the growing mental health needs of school-aged children.Early Attachment: Impact on Maternal and Infant Health
Mother–infant bonding develops through everyday interactions, including feeding, soothing, bathing, dressing, play, and sleep routines. Therapy practitioners are uniquely positioned to support these relational experiences while addressing the sensory, environmental, functional, and occupational factors that influence caregiver and infant participation. This introductory course examines bonding, attachment, co-regulation, and co-occupations through a therapy lens. Participants will learn to recognize modifiable barriers and protective factors affecting the caregiver–infant relationship, observe the dyad within everyday occupations, identify when additional screening or referral may be appropriate, and apply attachment-informed, occupation-based strategies that support regulation, caregiver confidence, and opportunities for connection. This course is for an interprofessional audience.Is Anxiety Preventing Classroom Access?
Unpacking anxiety and its relationship to a child's well-being and their ability to access school-based demands can be complex. Anxiety in children may show up as separation anxiety, selective mutism, OCD behaviors, impairment of social participation, and sometimes excessive fear that is irrational. Fulfilling their role in a classroom setting often calls for close monitoring, active coaching, and interventions to help the student to self-manage. As therapists, we can offer a unique perspective and offer individual strategies based on functional needs. This course is designed for an interprofessional audience.