Assignment: Occupational Change through the Lifespan

Human Occupation through the Lifespan

Points and Percent Grade for Assignment: 50 points/15% of total grade

Student Learning Outcomes Addressed:

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of human development throughout the lifespan.

2. Describe occupations and occupational behavior of children, adolescents, adults, and older adults in the context of age, gender, roles, and environment.

3. Discuss the relationship between typical challenges and the impact they have on engagement in occupation as applied throughout the lifespan.

4. Identify the influence of health care, education, community and social systems (context) in the occupation of typical children, adolescents, adults and older adults.

ACOTE STANDARDS Addressed:

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of human development throughout the lifespan (infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults).

Describe the contexts of health care, education, community, and social systems as they relate to the practice of occupational therapy. (B.6.1)

Task

Each student will write a paper on changes in human occupation through the lifespan. This will involve knowledge and understanding of human development through the lifespan, describing how client factors and activity demands support and or constrain occupational performance.

Students will select a theorist from Sladyk and Ryan Chapter 4 and describe how one could view occupational change through the lifespan from the point of view of that theorist.

Students will address the following 5 life stages in each response: (1) infancy,(2) childhood, (3) adolescence, (4) adulthood and (5) older adulthood.

Students will need to discuss the occupational changes that occur in each life stage and also include discussion about each of the following objectives for each stage:

a. Explain how culture and cultural competence impact occupational performance across the lifespan.

b. Explain how communication changes through the lifespan.

c. Explain how the environment impacts occupational performance across the lifespan.

d. Explain how education, health and social systems impact occupational performance across the lifespan.

This paper related to lifespan occupational change will be 4 to 6 pages long.