Occupational Therapy Assessments
Supporting daily skills and independence.
What it examines
Examine skills needed for daily activities at home and school, such as sensory responses and motor coordination. The assessment focuses on the specific concerns identified before it begins.
Asked for when everyday things are harder than they should be: dressing, handwriting, sitting through a lesson, coping with noise or texture.
The question it is usually asked to answer: What is making ordinary daily activities difficult, and what would make them easier?
Who carries it out. An occupational therapist. You will be told who your child is seeing before the assessment begins, and you can read their profile on our team pages.
Functional skills assessments
These are the areas this pathway can cover. Which of them a particular assessment actually looks at depends on the referral question agreed with you beforehand. No child is put through all of it as a matter of routine.
Sensory processing
Looks at how a child responds to sound, touch, movement and light, and at what a room has to be like for them to be able to concentrate in it.
Motor skills
Examines coordination and movement, both fine (pencil grip, buttons, cutlery) and gross, such as balance and moving safely through a busy space.
Daily living skills
Considers independence in the ordinary tasks of a day: dressing, feeding, toileting, managing belongings.
School readiness
Looks at the physical side of managing a classroom: sitting tolerance, handwriting readiness, keeping up with the pace of a lesson.
Practical recommendations
Produces strategies that can be used at home and in the classroom this week, not only a plan for therapy later.
What is included
Camali Clinic confirms what is included before the assessment starts, and says plainly what is not. In general an assessment involves:
- An agreed referral question, confirmed before anything is booked
- Sessions with the child, using methods chosen for their age and the question
- Information gathered from the adults who see the child every day
- A feedback conversation explaining what was found, in plain language
- A written report and practical recommendations, where the service includes one
An assessment is not a promise of a diagnosis
Not all assessments are diagnostic, and a diagnosis is not a guaranteed outcome. What the assessment is for and what it can and cannot conclude is explained to you before it begins, not afterwards.
Before you book
The first conversation is short and it decides everything else. Have these four things ready and it will be a better one:
- What prompted the question, and who raised it: you, the school, or another clinician
- What a school, an examination body or an insurer needs as an outcome, in their own words
- What has already been tried, and what happened
- Any assessment done before, and roughly when
If a school or an examination body needs a report, ask them what their requirements are and share those with us before booking. Their requirements decide which assessment is the right one. Discovering them afterwards is how families end up paying for two.
Understanding, then a plan
An assessment that ends in a document nobody can act on has not finished. The point is a clearer picture of your child and a set of recommendations the adults around them can actually use: at home, in the classroom, and in whatever support follows. Where that support is ongoing, it often continues through the school readiness programme.
Ask about occupational therapy assessments
Tell us your child’s age, what prompted the question and who raised it. The team will confirm whether this is the right pathway before anything is booked.
Not sure which assessment fits? The assessment hub compares all four.
If someone is in immediate danger, use the appropriate UAE emergency service rather than this form. See our Referral and Emergency information.