Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Mental health; Neurodevelopment; School achievement

Introduction

According to studies, children with SLD have difficulty engaging in activities outside of school, such as self-care activities like tying shoes, buttoning clothes, and getting dressed, productivity activities like writing in a legible manner, and leisure activities like painting and playing with peers [1]. Additionally, children with SLD frequently exhibit deficits in executive function, making it challenging for them to acquire new skills in almost every aspect of life. The extra effort required learning new skills like riding a bike or tying shoe laces prevents students from participating in these activities and places restrictions on their participation in activities outside of school. Sadly, only academic issues have received attention [2], despite the fact that children with SLD have a significant correlation between academic skills and participation in activities of daily living. “Participation in occupations is a key part of development and life experience for man, who provides the opportunity to gain competencies and skills and find meaning and goal in life,” states the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF-4th edition). As a result, one of the primary objectives of rehabilitation services should be to encourage participants to participate in activities outside of school [3].

This is an important indicator of health and well-being that helps to encourage positive development into adulthood. Children with SLD have been found to have problems in executive function domains like verbal working memory, sequencing, set-shifting planning, timing, and response inhibition. The various routine and non-routine activities of daily life, as well as participation in the various occupations, are shaped by executive function skills. IADL and social participation can be restricted in children with executive dysfunction because of their difficulties coping with complex occupations with dynamic task demands and multiple steps. As these children are unable to perform actions they have learned to perform automatically (inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility) for fulfilling new challenging activities in various contexts (transfer and generalization) [4], performing unpreceded tasks also presents a challenge for them. As a result, their participation in routine activities is restricted.

As a bio psychosocial framework, the ICF-CY (International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Children and Youth) demonstrates that a child's performance, health, and wellbeing depend on the dynamic interaction between activities, structures, and body functions, as well as participation that takes personal and environmental factors into account. As a result, allowing children to participate in activities outside of school not only improves their body function and structure, like their executive functions, but it also improves their independence in their work performance [5]. When compared to their siblings, mothers of children with SLD devote a lot of time and effort to their children's education. In their exploratory study of how families of SLD children perceive themselves, Sahu demonstrated that a variety of supportive strategies are required to empower mothers of these children. Additionally, mothers should be trained in these services to help their children learn [6]. However, research on children with special needs demonstrates that the most effective services emphasize family involvement in treatment.

Result

As a result, one of the top priorities for children's rehabilitation is empowering mothers to identify obstacles and facilitators to their child's participation in activities outside of school and working with a therapist to solve their problems. This can improve children's self-efficacy Word related Execution Training (OPC) is a familyfocused, occupation-based, arrangement centered mediation that straightforwardly targets kids' support in exercises outside school through working with their moms as the middle people of progress. Information exchange, emotional support, and a structured process that combines coaching methods with performance analysis frameworks of current performance to involve mothers in goal-specific and collaborative processes are the three main components of the OPC [7]. Using collaborative performance analysis (CPA), options for the child (knowledge, motivation, and ability), task (sequence, steps, and standard expected), and environment (physical and social) are investigated. Leading the mother to examine her child's current level of performance, determining the ideal level of performance they would like for her child, and identifying bridges and barriers to the child's performance success are all part of exploring options. In the end, child participation-related occupational performance goals are ultimately planned and implemented in the home and community. By identifying novel, ambitious, but highly individualized, and directly applied strategies to improve their child's participation in activities outside of school, mothers learn to develop their problem-solving skills through OPC.

Discussion

As previously stated, children with SLD have trouble mastering new daily activities. Utilizing learning and teaching as major means of intervening in pediatric practice is one way to achieve skill learning, which is a crucial step in achieving occupational goals. Children, according to Vygotsky's theory, require assistance in order to acquire the necessary abilities and skills. In other words, systematic facilitator support makes progress toward independence and autonomy in task performance possible. This idea is in line with the study by Mosston and Ashworth, which said that teaching a task is like a spectrum that starts with command-style instruction (teaching key concepts directly to the learner and how to respond to task demands) and ends with selfteaching instruction (motivating learners to consider the challenges of the activity and how to achieve independence and autonomy through decision-making processes).

Conclusion

As a result, it appears that selecting efficient and methodical teaching and learning strategies based on the body functions of SLD children (such as executive functioning), mothers' awareness of their children's learning level, and the shifting requirements of children as they acquire new skills appears to boost OPC and, ultimately, better improve children's participation in activities outside of school.

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