Paivi Petaja

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children and the Role of Ot: a Systematic Review of Literature and an Outline of a Research Project Paivi Petaja

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects children's perception, concentration and behaviour, which in turn affects their performance in all areas of functioning. Paediatric occupational therapy (OT) helps children to perform functional tasks that occupy their lives. Today it is still unclear how commonly occupational therapists treat PTSD-children and where the treatment is focused. This book firstly helps the reader understand the effects of PTSD in children's school functioning and explores the treatment they receive. This is done by systematically reviewing the literature and discussing the findings in a thematic manner. Secondly, the author outlines a research project, which aims to discover the perceptions of occupational therapists regarding their role in treating children diagnosed with PTSD. The aim of the systematic review is to broaden the knowledge base in paediatric OT and to assist with training new occupational therapists and paediatric professionals in this area of practice. The outlined research project gives an idea of real-life-research which could be carried out in order to gather information on the role of OT in treating children with PTSD.