Occupational Therapy Baking Groups
In association with Heads Up Therapies (www.headuptherapies.co.uk), we are running occupational therapy baking groups.
The occupation (task) of making/baking can seem like 'aa piece of cake'. But for people living with chronic conditions, it can be challenging to complete the task.
As an occupational therapist, we need to understand the barriers for our clients to participate in activities of making/baking the meals they enjoy. We use activity analysis to inform our clinical reasoning and find ways to adapt the task, to maximise individual performance (Pentland et al., 2008).
In this week's occupational therapy baking group we made lemon drizzle cake, which involved three individual stages. The functions and core skills needed to complete the bake seated at the table included:
Cognitive:
Initiation to begin the task,
Focusing and attention throughout the task,
Problems solving and being able to think flexibly of complications during the task.
Sequencing to follow instructions and perform the task in the correct order.
Memory to keep track of the steps taken.
Visual and Sensory:
Depth perception to judge the distance between self and the equipment needed to place the ingredients into the mixing bowl and when mixed into the baking tin.
Sense of smell to know when the cake in the oven is ready.
Motor and Planning:
Fine motor skills when grasping the ingredient and using the equipment.
Muscle strength in shoulder/arms when mixing the cake batter.
Bilateral coordination when stabilising the bowl in pouring the cake mix into the tin.
Our clients (with individual adaptation) successfully completed today's bake in a social context, and they took the bake home to share with their family and friends.
