Learning in school, learning to play an instrument, and receiving occupational therapy are all processes that develop, refine or improve upon skills that support a child’s success, confidence, wellbeing and independence.

All three contexts involve the child’s participation in structured learning activities under the guidance of a skilled instructor. Structured learning activities (SLA) are activities with guidelines and a goal. SLA’s typically a require specific set of skills or preparatory methods to complete, and the goal of the activity itself is to support a higher, more complex or difficult, functional goal.

Repetitions, training, exercises, homework, drills. These are all forms of practicing. Practice and doing repetition outside of structured sessions are the keys to developing a new habit or learning a skill. We’ve discussed the similarities between school, learning piano, and occupational therapy in the “Analogs” article. All three of these contexts take advantage of some form of a home program to maximize a child’s learning and promote progress in a timely matter.

TherapyForte’s practice model can be broken down into three components

1)     Therapy with a mandatory Home Practice Program

2)     Home Health Context

3)     Piano Instruction & Performance as the Primary Modality for Therapy

We will discuss the evidence from scientific literature in the first two. Evidence from practice does not yet exist for component three and is the subject of TherapyForte’s ongoing research.