Foundations Study Guide

OT Domain — Occupations

Meaningful activities that people need, want, or are expected to do.

OT Domain — Contexts

Environmental and personal circumstances that influence occupational performance and participation.

OT Domain — Performance Patterns

Habits, routines, roles, and rituals that influence occupational performance.

OT Domain — Performance Skills

Observable motor skills, process skills, and social interaction skills used during occupational performance.

OT Domain — Client Factors

Values, beliefs, body functions, and body structures that influence occupational performance.

OT Process — Evaluation

Gathering information about the client's occupational needs, problems, strengths, contexts, and performance.

OT Process — Intervention

Planning and providing services designed to address identified occupational needs and improve participation or performance.

OT Process — Outcomes

Determining the results of intervention, including changes in occupational performance, participation, health, well-being, and quality of life.

OT Foundations — Distinct Value of OT

OT enables participation in meaningful occupations by addressing the interaction between the person, occupation, and environment.

OT Foundations — Occupation

Meaningful everyday activities that people need, want, or are expected to do.

OT Foundations — Activity

A broader action or set of actions that may or may not have personal meaning or purpose.

OT Foundations — Task

A specific step or component of an activity or occupation.

OT Foundations — Occupation vs. Activity vs. Task

Occupation is meaningful and purposeful to the person; an activity is a broader action; a task is a specific component or step of an activity.

ACOTE — Purpose

The Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education accredits OT educational programs and establishes educational standards.

OT History — Eleanor Clarke Slagle

An important OT pioneer who emphasized habit training and purposeful activity.

OT History — George Barton

An early OT founder who promoted occupation as part of health and rehabilitation.

OT History — William Rush Dunton Jr.

An early OT leader who promoted occupation as treatment and is often called the father of occupational therapy.

OT History — Susan Tracy

An early OT pioneer who promoted occupational therapy through purposeful activities.

ICF — Definition

The WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health; a framework for describing functioning and disability in relation to health conditions and contextual factors.

ICF — Purpose

Provides a common framework for describing functioning, disability, activity, participation, and contextual factors rather than focusing only on diagnosis.

ICF — Body Functions & Structures

Physiological functions and anatomical structures of the body that may be affected by a health condition.

ICF — Activity

The execution of a task or action by an individual.

ICF — Participation

Involvement in a life situation.

ICF — Environmental Factors

Physical, social, attitudinal, and other environmental factors that influence functioning and participation.

ICF — Personal Factors

Individual characteristics that influence functioning; they are recognized by the ICF but are not formally classified in detail.

ICD-10 — Purpose

A system primarily used to classify diseases, diagnoses, and health conditions.

ICF vs. ICD-10

ICD-10 classifies health conditions and diagnoses, while the ICF describes how a health condition affects functioning, activity, participation, and context.

OT in the ICF

OTs may address body functions and structures, activities, participation, environmental factors, and personal factors, with a strong focus on occupational performance and participation.

Disability Models — Medical Model

Views disability primarily as a problem within the individual caused by disease, injury, or impairment that should be treated or corrected.

Disability Models — Social Model

Views disability as resulting largely from barriers in society, environments, attitudes, and systems rather than solely from an individual's impairment.

Disability Models — Medical vs. Social

The medical model focuses on changing or treating the individual, while the social model focuses on changing or removing environmental and societal barriers.

Universal Design — Definition

Designing products, environments, and systems so they can be used by as many people as possible without requiring specialized adaptation.

Universal Design — Equitable Use

Design is useful and accessible to people with diverse abilities.

Universal Design — Flexibility in Use

Design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

Universal Design — Simple & Intuitive Use

Design is easy to understand regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, or abilities.

Universal Design — Perceptible Information

Information is communicated effectively through different sensory abilities or modalities.

Universal Design — Tolerance for Error

Design minimizes hazards and the negative consequences of accidental actions.

Universal Design — Low Physical Effort

Design can be used efficiently and comfortably with minimal fatigue.

Universal Design — Size & Space for Approach and Use

Design provides appropriate space for people with different body sizes, postures, and mobility devices.

Universal Design — Application

Analyze whether an environment, product, or task can be used by people with different abilities without requiring specialized adaptation.

Occupational Justice — Definition

Every person should have equitable opportunities and resources to participate in meaningful occupations.

Occupational Justice — Application

Identify barriers that unfairly restrict occupational participation and consider changes to environments, systems, resources, or opportunities to promote equitable participation.

Occupational Injustice — Definition

A situation in which individuals or groups experience unfair or unequal opportunities to participate in meaningful occupations.

Occupational Deprivation

A prolonged restriction from participation in meaningful occupations because of circumstances outside the person's control.

Occupational Imbalance

An unhealthy or unequal distribution of time or energy among occupations.

Occupational Alienation

Experiencing occupations as meaningless, purposeless, or disconnected from one's identity or values.

Occupational Marginalization

Social, cultural, or institutional expectations limit a person's ability to make choices about their occupations.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Beneficence

The principle requiring OT practitioners to promote good and act for the benefit of the client.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Nonmaleficence

The principle requiring OT practitioners to avoid causing harm to the client.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Autonomy

The principle requiring OT practitioners to respect the client's right to make their own decisions and choices.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Justice

The principle requiring OT practitioners to promote fairness and equitable treatment and access to services.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Veracity

The principle requiring OT practitioners to be truthful, accurate, and honest.

AOTA Ethical Principles — Fidelity

The principle requiring OT practitioners to maintain professional trust, commitments, responsibilities, and relationships.

AOTA Code of Ethics — 2025

The AOTA professional code that establishes ethical principles and standards guiding OT practitioners and students.

Ethical Decision Making — Process

A systematic process of identifying an ethical problem, considering relevant facts and stakeholders, applying ethical principles and professional standards, evaluating possible actions, choosing a course of action, and reflecting on the outcome.

Ethical Decision Making — Ethical Dilemma

A situation in which competing ethical principles, values, responsibilities, or obligations make the appropriate action unclear.

Ethical Decision Making — Scenario Application

Identify the ethical problem, relevant facts and stakeholders, applicable ethical principles and standards, possible actions and consequences, and the most ethical course of action.

Safety — Squat-Pivot Transfer

A transfer in which the client rises into a partial squat, pivots toward the target surface, and sits down without taking full steps.

Safety — Squat-Pivot Transfer

Lock wheelchair brakes, move or remove footrests as needed, position the wheelchair appropriately, use proper body mechanics, ensure appropriate footwear, and provide the correct level of assistance.

Safety — Rolling Walker Transfer

Position the walker appropriately, ensure stability, avoid having the client pull on the walker to stand, and provide appropriate assistance.

Wheelchair Management — Brakes

Wheelchair brakes should be locked before transfers to prevent the wheelchair from moving.

Wheelchair Management — Legrests

Support the client's lower extremities and should be moved or removed when necessary for safe transfers.

Wheelchair Management — Folding

Fold the wheelchair using the appropriate frame/components while keeping fingers clear of pinch points.

Wheelchair-Level IADLs

Consider reach, positioning, accessibility, energy conservation, safety, and environmental modifications when performing IADLs from wheelchair level.

Professional Skills — Bias-Free Language

Language that avoids stereotypes, assumptions, stigma, and discriminatory descriptions while respecting the person or population being discussed.

Professional Skills — Person-First Language

Language that identifies the person before the disability or diagnosis, such as "person with a disability."

Professional Skills — Identity-First Language

Language that places an identity or disability before the person, such as "autistic person"; the preferred form depends on the individual or community.

Professional Skills — Respectful Language

Language that is accurate, non-stigmatizing, culturally responsive, and appropriate to the individual and context.

Professional Skills — Clinical Documentation

Documentation that uses objective, accurate, concise, observable, measurable, and clinically relevant language.

Professional Skills — Scholarly Writing

Academic writing that uses precise, evidence-based, formal, unbiased language supported by appropriate citations.

Evidence — Finding Evidence

Use credible databases, peer-reviewed research, professional organizations, and other appropriate sources to locate evidence relevant to the clinical question.

Evidence — Evaluating Evidence

Consider quality, credibility, relevance, currency, methodology, and applicability before using evidence.

Evidence — Evidence-Based Practice

Integrating the best available evidence with clinical expertise and the client's values, preferences, and circumstances.

Professional Skills — Universal Precautions

Infection-control practices based on treating blood and certain body fluids as potentially infectious and using appropriate protective measures.

Practice Settings — Acute Care OT

OT in hospitals and other acute settings addressing functional status, ADLs, mobility, safety, discharge needs, and participation during acute illness.

Practice Settings — Outpatient OT

OT provided without inpatient admission, commonly addressing rehabilitation, injury recovery, chronic conditions, and occupational participation.

Practice Settings — Community OT

OT addressing participation, independence, accessibility, and occupational performance in community environments.

Practice Settings — Mental Health OT

OT addressing meaningful occupation, routines, roles, coping, social participation, and functioning related to mental health.

Practice Settings — School-Based OT

OT supporting a student's participation and access to education and school-related occupations within the educational environment.

Professional Skills — OT Scope of Practice

The professional activities an OT practitioner is educated, trained, and legally authorized to perform.

Models — PEO

occupational performance results from the interaction or fit between the person, environment, and occupation.

PEO — Person

The individual's characteristics, abilities, values, beliefs, and experiences that influence occupational performance.

PEO — Environment

Physical, social, cultural, institutional, and other environmental factors affecting occupational performance.

PEO — Occupation

The meaningful occupations in which the person engages.

PEO — Application

Identify whether a problem is related to the person, environment, occupation, or the fit among all three.

Models — PEOP

occupational performance results from the interaction among the person, environment, and occupation.

PEOP — Application

Identify person, environment, and occupation factors and determine how their interaction affects occupational performance.

Models — MOHO

The Model of Human Occupation; explains occupational participation through volition, habituation, performance capacity, and environment.

MOHO — Volition

The person's motivation, values, interests, and sense of personal causation related to occupation.

MOHO — Habituation

Habits and roles that organize and structure occupational behavior.

MOHO — Performance Capacity

The physical and mental abilities underlying occupational performance.