Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (OTPF–4) Vocabulary

Flashcards covering core terminology, constructs, domain components, process stages, intervention approaches, and definitions from the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, Fourth Edition (OTPF–4).

Occupational Therapy

The therapeutic use of everyday life occupations with persons, groups, or populations (i.e., the client) for the purpose of enhancing or enabling participation.

Occupational Therapy Practitioners

Term referring to both occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants; occupational therapists are responsible for all aspects of service delivery, while occupational therapy assistants deliver services under supervision and in partnership with an occupational therapist.

Client

Persons (including individuals involved in care), groups (collections of individuals having shared characteristics or a common/shared purpose), and populations (aggregates of people with common attributes such as contexts, characteristics, or health risks).

Domain

The profession's purview and the areas in which its members have an established body of knowledge and expertise, encompassing occupations, contexts, performance patterns, performance skills, and client factors.

Process

The client-centered delivery of occupational therapy services consisting of a three-part series of actions: evaluation, intervention, and targeted outcomes.

Cornerstones of Occupational Therapy Practice

Foundational, nonhierarchical qualities and competencies of practitioners that provide a basis for practice and distinguish occupational therapy from other professions, including core values rooted in occupation, expertise in the therapeutic use of occupation, professional behaviors/dispositions, and therapeutic use of self.

Occupational Science

A discipline that provides a way of thinking that enables an understanding of occupation, the occupational nature of humans, the relationship between occupation, health, and well-being, and the influences that shape occupation.

Occupations

Everyday personalized activities that people do as individuals, in families, and with communities to occupy time and bring meaning and purpose to life, including things people need to, want to, and are expected to do.

Activities

Actions that are objective and generic—separate from a specific client's engagement or context—selected and designed to support the development of performance skills and performance patterns to enhance occupational engagement.

Co-occupations

Occupations that implicitly involve two or more individuals and require a high level of shared physicality, emotionality, and intentionality (e.g., caregiving, parenting routines).

Occupational Performance

The accomplishment of the selected occupation resulting from the dynamic transaction among the client, their contexts, and the occupation.

Independence

A self-directed state of being characterized by an individual's ability to participate in necessary and preferred occupations in a satisfying manner, irrespective of the amount or kind of external assistance desired or required (such as directing personal assistants or using assistive devices).

Context

A broad construct that constitutes the complete makeup of a person's life as well as the common and divergent factors characterizing groups and populations, encompassing environmental factors and personal factors.

Environmental Factors

Aspects of the physical, social, and attitudinal surroundings in which people live and conduct their lives, which can serve as facilitators or barriers to occupational engagement.

Personal Factors

Unique internal features of a person that are not part of a health condition or health state and constitute the particular background of the person's life and living (e.g., age, gender identity, race, upbringing, lifestyle).

Occupational Justice

A justice that recognizes occupational rights to inclusive participation in everyday occupations for all persons in society, regardless of age, ability, gender, social class, or other differences.

Performance Patterns

The acquired habits, routines, roles, and rituals used in the process of engaging consistently in occupations and activities, which can support or hinder occupational performance.

Habits

Specific, automatic behaviors performed repeatedly, relatively automatically, and with little variation; they can be healthy or unhealthy, efficient or inefficient, and supportive or harmful.

Routines

Patterns of behavior that are observable, regular, and repetitive and that provide structure for daily life; they can be satisfying, promoting, or damaging and require delimited time commitment.

Roles

Sets of behaviors expected by society and shaped by culture and context that may be further conceptualized and defined by the client; they represent an aspect of occupational identity.

Rituals

Symbolic actions with spiritual, cultural, or social meaning that contribute to the client's identity and reinforce values and beliefs.

Performance Skills

Observable, goal-directed actions that result in a client's quality of performing desired occupations, divided into motor skills, process skills, and social interaction skills.

Motor Skills

Small, observable performance skill actions related to moving oneself or moving and interacting with tangible task objects (e.g., aligns, stabilizes, reaches, grips, manipulates, walks).

Process Skills

Small, observable performance skill actions related to selecting, interacting with, and using task objects, carrying out individual actions and steps, and preventing performance problems (e.g., paces, chooses, initiates, sequences, organizes).

Social Interaction Skills

Small, observable performance skill actions related to communicating and interacting with others in the context of engaging in daily life tasks that involve social partners (e.g., looks, touches, questions, transitions, takes turns).

Client Factors

Specific capacities, characteristics, or beliefs that reside within the person, group, or population and influence performance in occupations; categorized into values, beliefs, and spirituality, body functions, and body structures.

Values

Acquired beliefs and commitments, derived from culture, about what is good, right, and important to do.

Beliefs

Cognitive content accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion by the client.

Spirituality

A deep experience of meaning brought about by engaging in occupations that involve enacting personal values and beliefs, reflection, and intention within a supportive contextual environment.

Body Functions

The physiological functions of body systems, including psychological functions (e.g., sensory, mental, neuromusculoskeletal, cardiovascular).

Body Structures

Anatomical parts of the body, such as organs, limbs, and their components, that support body function.

Therapeutic Use of Self

An integral component of the occupational therapy process wherein practitioners develop and manage their therapeutic relationship with clients by using professional reasoning, empathy, and a client-centered, collaborative approach.

Professional Reasoning

The broad process that practitioners use to plan, direct, perform, and reflect on client care across all settings.

Occupational Profile

A summary of the client's occupational history and experiences, patterns of daily living, interests, values, needs, and relevant contexts, gathered using a client-centered interview and inquiry approach.

Analysis of Occupational Performance

The step in the evaluation process in which the client's assets and limitations or potential problems are specifically identified through assessment tools designed to analyze factors supporting or hindering occupational performance.

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Occupations oriented toward taking care of one's own body and completed on a routine basis, fundamental to basic survival and well-being (e.g., bathing/showering, toileting and toilet hygiene, dressing, eating and swallowing, feeding, functional mobility, personal hygiene and grooming, sexual activity).

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)

Activities to support daily life within the home and community that often require more complex interactions than ADLs (e.g., care of others, pet care, child rearing, communication management, driving, financial management, meal preparation, shopping).

Health Management

Occupations focused on developing, managing, and maintaining routines for health and wellness by engaging in self-care, with the goal of improving or maintaining health to support participation in other occupations.

Interventions to Support Occupations

Methods and tasks that prepare the client for occupational performance, used in preparation for or concurrently with occupations and activities (e.g., physical agent modalities [PAMs], orthotics and prosthetics, assistive technology, wheeled mobility, self-regulation).

Create, Promote (Health Promotion)

An intervention approach that does not assume a disability is present, designed to provide enriched contextual and activity experiences that enhance performance for all people in the natural contexts of life.

Establish, Restore (Remediation, Restoration)

An intervention approach designed to change client variables to establish a skill or ability that has not yet developed or to restore a skill or ability that has been impaired.

Maintain

An intervention approach designed to provide supports that will allow clients to preserve the performance capabilities they have regained or that continue to meet their occupational needs, without which performance would decline.

Modify (Compensation, Adaptation)

An intervention approach directed at finding ways to revise the current context or activity demands to support performance in the natural setting (e.g., using adaptive devices, simplifying sequences).

Prevent (Disability Prevention)

An intervention approach designed to address the needs of clients with or without a disability who are at risk for occupational performance problems, preventing the occurrence or evolution of barriers to performance.

Occupational Adaptation

The client's effective and efficient response to occupational and contextual demands, interwoven through all occupational therapy outcome categories.

Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs)

Any report of the status of a patient's health condition that comes directly from the patient, without interpretation by a clinician or anyone else, measuring what patients are able to do and how they feel.