Occupational Therapy Goals for Autism ASD

Cognition

  • Poor attention, highly distractible
  • Preoccupation for specific activities, repetitive actions
  • Difficulty with teamwork
  • Poor memory
  • Difficulty with complex cognitive tasks
  • Sequencing
  • Imitation
  • Generalizing concepts
  • Symbolism
  • Reading comprehension
  • Executive function
  • Language delay, verbal skills

Sensory Stimuli

  • Sensory-perceptual abilities
  • Tactile defensiveness
  • Hypersensitivity
  • Hyposensitivity
  • Postural stability without visual cues

Visual

  • Seeing images as a whole
  • Visual fascination with visual effects
  • Hypersensitivity to bright lights

Auditory

  • Decreased responsiveness to auditory stimuli, or
  • Oversensitive to auditory stimuli

Vestibular

  • Seeking or avoiding certain vestibular movements, e.g. swinging, spinning

Taste

  • Food preferences
  • Sensitivity to textures
  • Craving specific foods
  • Unusual smell preferences

Irregular sleeping pattern

  • Quality
  • Quantity
  • Disturbances

Emotion

  • Emotional regulation
  • Emotional lability
  • Emotion interpretation

Mental Health

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Loneliness

Socialization and Communication

  • Flat affect
  • Reading facial expressions
  • Reading body language
  • Interpreting voice intonation
  • Minimizing aggressive behaviors
  • Minimizing self-injurious behaviors
  • Minimizing self-stimulatory behaviors
  • Understanding dangerous situations
  • Dating and relationships
  • Public sexual behaviors

Activities

  • Feeding/eating
  • Brushing teeth
  • Grooming
  • Toileting
  • Dressing
  • Bathing

School

  • Writing/handwriting
  • Reading
  • Cutting
  • Communicating needs
  • Arts and crafts
  • School subjects
  • Interacting with peers

Work and Career

  • Preparing for a job
  • Applying for a job
  • Holding a job
  • Soft skills
  • Working with others
  • Judgment

Play

  • Playing with parents, family
  • Playing with peers

Leisure

  • Shared interests
  • Videogame addiction

Health Management

  • Medication management
  • Going to appointments

Gross and Fine Motor skills

  • Hypotonia
  • Apraxia
  • Toe-walking
  • Clumsiness
  • Poor coordination
  • Hand-eye coordination
  • Decreased speed
  • Poor posture
  • Poor balance
  • Difficulty with motor imitation
  • Abnormal gait pattern
  • Ambiguous hand preference

Other Behaviors

  • Pacing
  • Spinning
  • Running in circles
  • Hand flapping
  • Biting
  • Hitting self
  • Headbanging
  • Other self-injurious behaviors