THE CHALLENGES OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY INTERVENTION IN SUPPORTING ADOLESCENTS WITH AUTISM TO ACCOMPLISH SELF-CARE ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to explore occupational therapy intervention approaches to strengthen and enhance the self-care skills of adolescents with autism. Method: This research used qualitative methodology and in total five occupational therapists working in rehabilitation centers were involved in expert interviews. The thematic analysis method was applied for data analysis and main categories were developed to describe occupational therapy intervention approaches used in enhancing the self-care performance of adolescents with autism (Guest, MacQueen, and Namey, 2012). Conclusion: Four themes were developed to describe the main difficulties of adolescents with autism in performing self-care activities: person-based difficulties in performing self-care activities; challenges in providing external assistance to carry out self-care. As well as effective occupational therapy support was formed to strengthen their active participation in self-care: execution of interventions based on adolescents' active involvement; a combination of occupational therapy specified approaches (using visual-verbal cues, chaining teaching, and time visualization).