OTLE key terms

A summary of a client's daily life, history, roles, interests, values, and the contexts in which they act, gathered at the start of services to guide goals and intervention choices.

Breaking an activity into its steps, required abilities, objects, and environmental demands so the therapist can judge fit between the task and the person's current capacities.

Examining how a specific person actually performs an activity, noting their particular methods, errors, and supports rather than the generic demands of the task itself.

Assessment and intervention that begin with the client's meaningful roles and routines, then work backward to identify the body functions and skills limiting performance.

Evaluation that starts by measuring underlying components such as strength, range of motion, or cognition, then predicts how those findings affect daily performance.

Deliberately increasing or decreasing the demands of an activity, such as time, weight, or complexity, so the client can succeed while still being challenged to progress.

The level of task difficulty that sits slightly above the client's current ability, requiring effort and problem solving without causing failure or undue frustration.

An approach that treats the client as the expert on their own life, collaborating on goals and respecting their preferences, culture, and chosen level of involvement.

The planned use of the therapist's personality, communication, and relationship skills as a deliberate part of treatment to build trust and support client change.

A trusting working relationship built through consistent, respectful, and responsive interaction, which supports disclosure, cooperation, and engagement in therapy.

Observable, goal-directed actions a person uses during tasks, such as reaching, sequencing, or sustaining attention, that link underlying body functions to actual participation.

Habits, routines, roles, and rituals that shape how a person organizes daily life; they can support or obstruct engagement and are often targets for intervention.

An automatic, repeated behavior learned through practice and triggered by context, which conserves effort but may need restructuring when it interferes with valued occupations.

A regular sequence of occupations performed in a predictable order, such as a morning self-care routine, that organizes time and can be adapted to support function.

The environmental and personal circumstances surrounding performance, including physical, social, cultural, and temporal features that enable or restrict what a person can do.

The specific features of a task, such as objects, space, social requirements, and sequencing, that determine what abilities a person must bring to perform it successfully.

Changing physical or social surroundings, through equipment, layout, lighting, or support people, so that a client's participation improves without requiring new personal skill.

Designing products and spaces so they are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, reducing the need for later individual adaptations.

The degree to which a space, service, or information source can be reached, entered, understood, and used by people with varied abilities and needs.

Temporary support, such as cues, prompts, or adapted tools, provided while a client learns a task and gradually withdrawn as competence grows.

The process by which practice and feedback produce relatively lasting changes in a person's ability to perform a movement skill, informing how therapy tasks are structured.

The nervous system's capacity to reorganize connections and function in response to experience, practice, and injury, which underpins skill relearning in rehabilitation.

A skill or behavior most children acquire within an expected age range, such as sitting unsupported or using two-word phrases, used to screen for delay.

A test administered and scored by fixed procedures with established reliability and validity, allowing a client's results to be compared with a normative reference group.

Scoring that compares a person's performance with the distribution of scores from a defined reference group, often reported as percentiles or standard scores.

Scoring that compares performance against a defined standard or mastery level rather than other people, useful for judging whether a functional skill has been achieved.

The consistency of a measurement across repeated administrations, raters, or items; a reliable tool yields similar results when conditions are unchanged.

The extent to which an assessment measures the construct it claims to measure and supports the inferences and decisions the therapist intends to make from it.

An outcome method in which individualized goals are written at several expected levels and later rated, producing a numeric score of how far the client progressed.

A goal written to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, giving clear criteria for judging progress and guiding intervention planning.

A tool or indicator used before and after intervention to document change in function, participation, or satisfaction, supporting decisions about continuing or revising treatment.

A client's voluntary agreement to evaluation or treatment after receiving understandable information about purpose, risks, benefits, alternatives, and the right to refuse.

The professional duty to protect client information from unauthorized disclosure, limited by legal exceptions such as consent, court order, or serious risk of harm.

A legal obligation, triggered by reasonable suspicion, to notify designated authorities about suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a child or vulnerable adult.

The legally defined boundaries of what a professional may do, including permitted assessments and interventions, and the activities that must be referred elsewhere.

Oversight provided by a qualified clinician who reviews the work of a supervisee, ensures competence and safety, and remains accountable for delegated services.

Assigning a specific task to another person, such as an aide or assistant, while retaining responsibility for deciding what is delegated and monitoring its safe completion.

A collaborative process in which clinician and client exchange information about options and preferences and agree together on a plan of care.

Attending fully to a speaker's words and feelings, reflecting and clarifying to confirm understanding rather than planning a reply while the other person talks.

A group of professionals from different disciplines who coordinate assessments and plans, sharing information and goals to deliver integrated care to the same client.

The written record of evaluation findings, services provided, client response, and progress, which supports continuity of care, billing, and legal accountability.