{"id":345399,"date":"2023-03-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/the-bottom-up-and-top-down-approach-in-occupational-therapy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T09:00:00","slug":"the-bottom-up-and-top-down-approach-in-occupational-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/the-bottom-up-and-top-down-approach-in-occupational-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Bottom Up” and “Top Down” Approach in Occupational Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main goal of an occupational therapist is to improve the performance of a child with DYS disorders<\/strong> (dyslexia<\/a>, dyspraxia, dysorthographia, dyscalculia…) to teach them to work around and compensate for their daily difficulties. To achieve this, they may use conceptual models such as the “Bottom Up” approach and the “Top Down” approach<\/strong>, or even both. Here’s an overview.<\/p>\n

The “Bottom Up” approach, focused on the deficit<\/h2>\n

Under the “Bottom Up” approach, the occupational therapist considers the child’s abilities and skills and focuses their intervention on the deficient abilities<\/strong>, to improve performance. This analytical approach seeks to improve performance indirectly.<\/p>\n

Among the therapies based on this bottom-up approach are those based on sensory integration<\/strong>, which rests on the hypothesis that there is a correlation between sensory deficits and the child’s motor-planning difficulties. There are also sensorimotor therapies<\/strong>, which assume that coordinating sensory and motor information is necessary for motor execution. The Bottom Up approach is also reflected in process-oriented therapy<\/strong>, which aims to increase motor skills by improving kinaesthetic awareness.<\/p>\n

The “Top Down” approach<\/h2>\n

More recent, the “Top Down” approach is more direct<\/strong>: it aims to improve performance directly, by focusing the occupational therapist’s intervention on the problematic occupation itself<\/strong>, rather than on the underlying abilities that might affect it.<\/p>\n

Among the therapies based on this top-down approach is Neuromotor Task Training (NTT)<\/strong>, built around demonstration, verbal instruction, and final acquisition. There is also the CO-OP approach<\/strong> (Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance), which is person-centred and focused on activity and participation.<\/p>\n

Are these approaches opposed or complementary?<\/h2>\n

According to ANFE (the French National Association of Occupational Therapists)<\/a>, occupational therapy aims “to maintain, restore, and enable human activities in a safe, independent, and effective way. It prevents or removes situations of disability<\/strong>, taking into account people’s life habits and their environment.”<\/em><\/p>\n

With this goal in mind, the professional is free to use whichever approach seems best suited<\/strong> to their patient: while Bottom Up and Top Down are, admittedly, opposing approaches, they can prove complementary and compatible in achieving one or several shared goals…<\/p>\n

The choice of one approach over another essentially depends on the patient’s profile<\/strong> (for example, Top Down for a child with dyspraxia<\/a>), their age<\/strong> (younger children tend to respond better to Bottom Up approaches), but also their strengths and weaknesses<\/strong>. Finally, the occupational therapist’s sensitivity and experience<\/strong> naturally guide them towards the most suitable path…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don’t hesitate to contact a professional on the Ora-Visio platform<\/a> to discover how an occupational therapist can help your child with DYS disorders!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The main goal of an occupational therapist is to improve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":345400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[390],"class_list":["post-345399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-occupational-therapy","tag-occupational-therapy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ora-visio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}