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There is often confusion between the terms Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy. Each term is often used in relation to Autism treatments.

Here is a summary of the two areas and where they overlap…

Occupational Therapy
As compared with Physical Therapy, occupational therapy tends to focus more on evaluating and improving a persons functional abilities. An occupational therapist often does not directly treat a person’s injury using techniques such as manual therapy or acupuncture like a physical therapist would but more commonly helps a person optimize their independence and their ability to accomplish their daily activities following an injury or in situations of physical impairment.

While occupational therapists sometimes do directly treat injuries, occupational therapy tends to be more focused on improving life skills and often involves adaptive tools at times customized by the therapist. In some parts of the world occupational therapists utilize practices such as use of ultrasound in injury rehabilitation, much like a physical therapist does.

Helping people improve their ability to carry out their daily tasks is a prime goal of the occupational therapist. An OT is more likely to perform on-site assessments of both the home environment and work environment and give recommendations on suitable adaptations of each to allow for a better quality of life. The occupational therapist is trained to modifying the physical environment as well as training the person to use assistive equipment to increase independence. While physical therapists do on-site assessments as well this tends to be less common.

Physical Therapy
Physical therapy tends to be more focused on evaluating and diagnosing movement dysfunctions as well as treating a persons injury itself. While an occupational therapist can also do diagnosis, the physical therapist will be more likely to diagnose and treat the physical source of the problem; the injured tissues and structures.

A physical therapist may be trained more extensively on anatomy and the musculoskeletal system resulting in a physical therapist often being as or more knowledgeable about musculoskeletal injuries and rehabilitation than a general practitioner medical doctor. Occupational therapists also undergo extensive studies of anatomy, often is equal to that undertaken by physical therapists.

Overlap Between OT and PT
Although the two health care professions have differences in their focus there is much crossover between OT and PT. For an example of the crossover, an occupational therapist is often involved in educating people on how to prevent and avoid injuries, as well as educating people about the healing process. Physical therapists in turn often help people improve their ability to do their daily activities through education and training. While there is this crossover between professions both play very important roles and are more specialized in their areas of expertise. In many situations, both types of health-care professional are involved in injury recovery.

(source: Occupational Physical Therapy? Differences Between Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy : (Physiotherapy))