Activities of Daily Living and You!
What are Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)?
Activities of daily living (ADLs), encompass a variety of meaningful tasks that involve taking care of one’s body (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020; Shrub Oak International School, 2024). Individuals engage in a variety of ADLs, you’ve likely done more than one today! The nine types of ADLs include:
Bathing/Showering: Implement the sequence to bathe or shower by soaping, rinsing, and drying off the body, sustaining and shifting to and from positions within the bathtub or shower, and utilizing the bathing/showering supplies appropriately.
Toileting and Toilet hygiene: Acquire the ability to take off and put on clothing, sustain and shift toileting position, clean the body, complete tasks that involve the menstrual cycle or continence needs (e.g., catheter, colostomy, and suppository), have internal control of bowel movement and urination, and use the essential equipment for bladder control if necessary.
Dressing: Picking out clothing and accessories that relate to the time of day, the weather, or a specific event; acquiring clothing from an area where it is stored; putting on and taking off clothing in an ordinary fashion; adjusting and securing clothing or shoes (e.g., tucking, tying, zipping, snapping, clipping, and strapping), and putting on and taking off personal devices, prosthetics, or splints.
Eating and swallowing: Maintain and control food or liquids in the mouth during chewing and swallowing.
Feeding: Activity that involves setting up in preparation for bringing food to the mouth.
Functional Mobility: The ability to shift from one position to another within one’s environment (e.g., wheelchair, tub, car, bed, shower, and chair).
Personal Hygiene and Grooming: Acquire to remove body hair, put on and take off cosmetics, care for your hair (e.g., washing, drying, brushing, and styling), use deodorant, and care for fingernails, toenails, skin, ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.
Sexual Activity: Engage in sexual experiences/expression individually or with others.
(AOTA,2020)
Importance of ADLs to OTs
Occupational therapists’ (OTs) involvement with ADLs is essential; they help individuals with injuries, conditions, illnesses, or disabilities participate and engage in meaningful daily activities based on their current and goal levels of independence (Franciscan Ministries, 2018). OTs also help educate individuals on compensating, modifying, and adapting to new changes to help promote and maintain overall health and well-being (Franciscan Ministries, 2018).
Importance of Sensory in ADLs
Individuals may experience challenges within their environment, such as feeling hypersensitive or hypersensitive when completing their ADLs, which can impact their development of ADLs skills, independence, autonomy, self-resilience, mental health, and overall lifestyle (Shrub Oak International School, 2024).
Sensory Strategies
Tactile: Playing with textured items (e.g., Play-Doh, slime, kinetic sand, shaving cream) helps stimulate tactile input. Other beneficial items are fidget toys, stress balls, and calming trips. Tactile input is used within all the ADL activities as individuals experience different textures (e.g., soft, rough, fluffy, fuzzy, squishy, hairy).
Visual: Changing the lighting (e.g., dimmer switch, lamp light, colorful changing lightbulb) can help create a calming space to help focus on meaningful activities. Neutral-colored walls or wallpaper related to nature promote self-regulation and increase positive mental health, such as calmness and serenity. Activities for visual input include mazes, tracing shapes or letters with chalk, or completing a puzzle. The benefits of visual input are that it increases visual tracking and scanning when using items within ADL tasks.
Auditory: Using white noise, calming music, or headphones to reduce background noises positively impacts the self-regulation of ADLs by increasing focus on them when completing ADL tasks.
Proprioceptive: Regulating specific movements, such as squishing with a ball or pillows, wearing a heavy backpack, or lying with a weighted pillow or blanket, can help increase body awareness.
Gustatory: Develop an adequate snack routine throughout the day and offer a variety of foods. These could be crunchy, chewy, sour, sweet, cold, hot, or spicy. To engage oral input, use a straw for liquids (e.g., smoothies, apple sauce, yogurt, or milkshakes). Chew toys can also be an alternative to help seek oral input. Gustatory is essential to ADL tasks, such as feeding and eating/swallowing.
Olfactory: Explore different senses using scented stickers, markers, playdough, candles, or beauty products (e.g., shampoo, lotion, and oils). Scents that can be beneficial are peppermint, lavender, or citrus. Deep belly breathing and practicing breathing through the nose are effective grounding techniques to help proactive mindfulness. Olfactory input can help enhance mood and detect odors within the environment when completing ADL tasks such as toileting, self-hygiene, bathing, and eating.
Vestibular: Vestibular input is essential within all of our ADLs. Some activities that help increase vestibular input are yoga, rocking in a chair, swinging, sitting on a yoga ball, walking, and dancing, which provide different head movements and regulate the inner ear.
Interoception: This type of input can be used in different ADLs, such as bathing/showering, toileting, feeding, and sexual activity. Other activities, such as yoga, meditation, or heavy work, can help us relieve interoception input, help us understand how our bodies feel on the inside, and indicate what is calming and altering to the body.
(Annika Reed, n.d.; Kid Sense, 2024; North Shore Pediatric Therapy, 2024; McKenna, 2021; Wood, 2022)
SENSE-ational Spaces Supports ADLs
The mission of SENSE-ational Spaces is to use their occupational therapy lens in supporting a child’s development by educating and designing a sensory-friendly space (SENSE-ational Spaces, n.d.a). Using an occupational therapy lens helps support individuals in engaging in what they consider their meaningful daily activities. Understanding the person’s goals, interests, and needs helps identify supports and barriers within their environment that impact their participation in daily activities. Members of SENSE-ational Spaces use their unique occupational therapy lens to support a child's development. This distinctive approach allows them to identify supports and barriers within the environment that impact a child's participation in daily activities and to create customized spaces that aid in their engagement with these activities (SENSE-ational Spaces, n.d.a).
Check out their website for more information on creating space through SENSE-ational Spaces!
https://www.senseationalspaces.com/services
(SENSE-ational Spaces, n.d.b)
References
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 1-87. https://doi. org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
Annika Reed. (n.d.). Why wallpaper is good for children’s mental health. Annika Reed Studio. https://annikareed.com/blogs/news/why-wallpaper-is-good-for-childrens-mental-health
Franciscan Ministries. (2018). Occupational therapy and adls. Franciscan Ministries. https://franciscanministries.org/blog/occupational-therapy-and-activities-of-daily-living/
Kid Sense. (2024). Sensory diet. Kid Sense Child Development. https://childdevelopment.com.au/areas-of-concern/sensory-processing/sensory-diet/#:~:text=Wheelbarrow%20walking,retrieve%20in%20these%20tactile%20products
McKenna, K. (2021). Sensory processing: The sense of smell. The Autism Helper. https://theautismhelper.com/sensory-processing-the-sense-of-smell/#:~:text=Incorporate%20opportunities%20to%20explore%20the,and%20some%20can%20be%20alerting.
North Shore Pediatric Therapy. (2024). Understanding spd: The gustatory system. Blossom illustration with the words North Shore Pediatric Therapy. https://www.nspt4kids.com/health-topics-and-concerns/sensory-processing-disorder/understanding-sensory-processing-disorder-the-gustatory-system#:~:text=The%20gustatory%20system%2C%20or%20our,toxic%2C%20spoiled%2C%20or%20inedible.
SENSE-ational Spaces. (n.d.a). Mission. SENSE-ational Spaces. https://www.senseationalspaces.com/mission
SENSE-ational Spaces. (n.d.b). Services. SENSE-ational Spaces. https://www.senseationalspaces.com/services
Shrub Oak International School. (2024). Importance of working on adls. Shrub Oak International School. https://www.shruboak.org/importance-of-working-on-adls/
Wood, V. (2022). Sensory diets for adults. The OT Toolbox. https://www.theottoolbox.com/sensory-diets-for-adults/