Digital rehabilitation in occupational therapy: integrating the tablet into your practice
📑 Table of Contents
- Why digital technology is transforming occupational therapy
- 5 concrete advantages of the tablet in sessions
- What functions to work on with the tablet?
- Relevant pathologies: from the office to the home
- How to integrate digital tools step by step
- The 5 mistakes to avoid with digital technology in sessions
- Case studies: 3 profiles, 3 concrete results
- Focus: the tablet as a balance tool
- Telecare and home exercises
- How to choose the right digital tool?
Occupational therapy is evolving. Between traditional sessions with physical materials and the rise of telecare, digital tools on tablets are becoming an essential complement to the practice of occupational therapists. But how to integrate them effectively? What functions to target? And above all, what results to expect?
This practical guide provides you with the keys to enrich your occupational therapy practice with suitable digital tools, from the office to the patient's home.
1. Why digital technology is transforming occupational therapy
Traditionally, the occupational therapist relies on concrete materials: board games, grasping exercises, real-life situations. These tools remain irreplaceable. But they have limitations that digital technology can fill.
Physical materials do not always allow for objective and quantified tracking of progress. They are difficult to use at home without supervision. And they do not automatically adapt to the patient's level.
This is where the tablet comes in: it offers a fine gradation of difficulty, immediate feedback, and usable tracking data to adjust your rehabilitation plan.
Moreover, today's patients are familiar with touch screens. This familiarity reduces the learning curve and allows for quick focus on therapeutic goals rather than on manipulating the tool itself. For children, the natural appeal of the tablet becomes a motivational lever that traditional materials sometimes struggle to provide.
💡 Did you know? According to a literature review published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, tablet-assisted interventions show a significant improvement in fine motor skills in children with coordination disorders, with a higher adherence rate than traditional exercises. Researchers particularly emphasize that immediate visual and auditory feedback enhances patient engagement in their rehabilitation.
2. The 5 concrete advantages of the tablet in sessions
- Patient motivation. The playful aspect of the tablet increases engagement, particularly in dyspraxic children and post-Stroke patients who may become discouraged by repetitive exercises. The "game" format transforms effort into a challenge, and the patient often asks to continue.
- Automatic adaptation of difficulty. Digital programs adjust the level in real-time according to performance. A progressing patient is stimulated, while a struggling patient is not set up for failure. This adaptability is nearly impossible to replicate manually with physical materials.
- Objective progression data. Reaction time, success rate, number of repetitions: you have precise metrics to measure progress and support your assessments. This data also facilitates communication with prescribing doctors and families.
- Continuity between clinic and home. The patient can practice between sessions with the same tools. You maintain control over prescribed exercises and monitor adherence remotely. This therapeutic continuity is one of the factors most correlated with successful rehabilitation.
- Therapeutic versatility. A single tool to work on fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, executive functions, spatial orientation, and autonomy in daily living activities (ADLs). This simplifies your logistics and reduces the cost of necessary materials in the clinic.
3. Which functions to work on with a tablet?
Digital tools in occupational therapy are not limited to cognitive games. They cover a wide spectrum of essential functions for functional rehabilitation.
Fine motor skills and coordination
The tactile manipulation of the tablet engages grasping, eye-hand coordination, and gesture control. Drag-and-drop, tracing, and precise touch exercises replicate the motor demands of many daily activities. Some devices even transform the tablet into a tool for gross motor skills through balance systems that work on bilateral coordination.
Executive functions
Planning, sequencing, problem-solving: these skills essential for activities of daily living (ADLs) are precisely those that digital games stimulate best, with progressive difficulty. Strategy, logic, and categorization games allow for the development of mental flexibility and inhibition, two functions often impaired after a Stroke or traumatic brain injury.
Attention and concentration
Selective and sustained attention conditions the success of all other functions. Digital exercises allow for precisely measuring reaction times and inattentional errors, providing objective data that observation alone cannot offer. You can thus quantify attentional progress and adjust session durations accordingly.
Autonomy and transfer to ADLs
The ultimate goal of occupational therapy is the patient's autonomy. Digital exercises that simulate daily tasks (sequencing dressing, organizing a meal, managing a schedule) allow for a direct transfer of acquired skills to real life. Digital repetition solidifies learning before transitioning to real-life situations.
🎯 Key functions to target
- Oculomotor coordination and fine motor skills
- Bimanual coordination and hand posture control
- Planning and sequencing of activities
- Selective and sustained attention
- Orientation and spatial awareness
- Working memory and procedural memory
- Management of fatigue and compensatory strategies
4. Related pathologies: from the office to home
Digital tools on tablets adapt to a wide range of pathologies encountered in occupational therapy, both in pediatrics and geriatrics or adult neurology.
| Population | Pathologies | Targeted functions |
|---|---|---|
| Children 5-10 years | Dyspraxia, dysgraphia, ADHD with praxic disorders, autism | Fine motor skills, executive functions, body schema |
| Adults | Stroke (hemineglect), traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis | Attention, AVD planning, coordination |
| Seniors | Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, progressive dependence | Orientation, sequencing, fall prevention |
The major interest of digital tools lies in the ability to cover your entire patient base with the same support, adapting exercises and difficulty to each profile. The same oculomotor coordination game can be used at an easy level with a 6-year-old dyspraxic child and at a difficult level with a 55-year-old post-stroke patient. Only the parameters change.
5. How to integrate digital tools step by step
The common mistake is to want to replace existing materials with digital ones. The right approach is to integrate it as a complement, following a logical progression.
Step 1: Identify unmet needs
Which patients would benefit from practicing between sessions? Which functions lack objective monitoring? Which exercises would benefit from finer gradation? Ask yourself these questions for each patient in your active file. Often, the answers converge towards the same needs: continuity at home and monitoring data.
Step 2: Start in supervised sessions
Introduce the tablet during your sessions to observe the patient's response, adjust the difficulty, and define relevant exercises. Start with 10-15 minutes at the end of the session. This phase is essential for the patient to understand the tool and for you to calibrate the optimal difficulty levels.
Step 3: Prescribe at home gradually
Once the patient is comfortable, prescribe short daily exercises (10-15 minutes). Use the monitoring platform to check adherence and adjust the program between sessions. Start with 2-3 targeted exercises rather than overwhelming the patient with an overly ambitious program.
Step 4: Measure and adjust
Utilize statistics to document progress in your assessments. Objective data reinforces the credibility of your follow-up with prescribing doctors and families. It also helps identify progress plateaus and modify your therapeutic strategy at the right time.
"The tablet does not replace my hands as an occupational therapist. But between sessions, it is what maintains the progress of my patients. And the statistics help me adjust in real time."
6. The 5 mistakes to avoid with digital tools in sessions
Integrating the tablet into your practice is an excellent initiative, but some common mistakes can compromise the expected benefits. Here are the traps to avoid, and how to circumvent them.
The tablet is not a universal substitute. Real grasping exercises, concrete situational setups, and handling everyday objects remain irreplaceable for the transfer to ADLs.
Use digital tools for what they do better than physical: objective tracking, motivating repetition at home, and automatic adjustment of difficulty. Keep concrete materials for grasping work and real situational setups.
Giving the tool to the patient or their family without a support phase in session often leads to poor calibration of exercises and quick abandonment.
Dedicate at least 2 to 3 sessions to supervised use of the tablet. Take the opportunity to identify the most suitable exercises, calibrate difficulty levels, and train the patient (or caregiver) for autonomous use.
Many applications focus on pure cognitive stimulation (memory, attention). In occupational therapy, neglecting the motor dimension means missing out on the essentials.
Choose tools that combine cognitive stimulation AND fine motor skills. Eye-hand coordination exercises, precise drag-and-drop tasks, or balancing activities engage the motor functions you work on in sessions.
Having detailed statistics and not consulting them is wasting one of the major advantages of digital tools. Without data tracking, you lose the ability to adjust your intervention between sessions.
Consult the patient's statistics before each session. Identify successful exercises, points of blockage, and trends in progress. Integrate this data into your assessments to justify your therapeutic choices to prescribers.
Prescribing 30 to 45 minutes of daily exercises out of enthusiasm is counterproductive. Cognitive fatigue and weariness set in quickly, especially in neurological patients or children.
Prescribe 10 to 15 minutes a day, with 2 to 4 targeted exercises. Regularity is more important than duration. A patient who practices 10 minutes every day progresses more than a patient who does an hour once a week.
7. Case studies: 3 profiles, 3 concrete results
How does digital technology concretely integrate into the care pathway? Here are three real situations encountered by occupational therapists using DYNSEO tools.
Context: Lucas is being followed in occupational therapy for visuospatial dyspraxia diagnosed in first grade. Writing remains laborious, letters are poorly formed, and fatigue sets in quickly. Weekly sessions progress, but Lucas becomes discouraged between appointments.
Digital protocol: The occupational therapist introduces the COCO application in session with exercises for oculomotor coordination and spatial awareness (levels 1-2). After three supervised sessions, she prescribes 10 minutes a day at home on the same exercises, supplemented by sequencing games.
Result after 8 weeks: Lucas maintained his motivation thanks to the playful format. His parents report that he spontaneously asks to "play" on the tablet. The occupational therapist then integrates the Rolling Ball to work on bimanual coordination on the balance board, in preparation for the graphic gesture.
📊 Measured results: reaction time in oculomotor coordination reduced by 35%, success rate in spatial awareness increased from 52% to 78%. The teacher notes an improvement in pencil grip and endurance in writing.
Context: Sophie suffered an ischemic stroke 4 months ago. She presents with moderate left hemineglect and difficulties in planning daily activities. She lives alone, and sessions in the clinic (twice a week) are not enough to maintain consistent progress.
Digital protocol: The occupational therapist chooses the CLINT application with exercises for visual attention targeting the left space, planning games, and sequencing. In session, the tablet is positioned slightly to the left to encourage exploration of the neglected hemi-space. At home, Sophie performs 15 minutes a day of prescribed exercises.
Result after 12 weeks: The platform statistics show a gradual improvement in detecting stimuli in the left hemi-space. Sophie is able to organize her meals independently, an activity she had abandoned since the stroke.
📊 Measured results: left visual attention score improved by 40%, planning time for a 5-step sequence reduced by 45 seconds. Adherence at home was 85% over the period thanks to reminders from the platform.
Context: Marcel lives in a Nursing home and presents with resting tremor, moderate rigidity, and a gradual slowing of fine motor skills. The occupational therapist intervenes once a week. Between sessions, Marcel is inactive and loses dexterity.
Digital protocol: The occupational therapist implements the SCARLETT app with adapted exercises: large touch buttons, no time constraints, systematic positive feedback. The exercises target oculomotor coordination (easy levels), simple sequencing, and spatial orientation. The designated caregiver is trained to assist Marcel for 10 minutes each morning.
Results after 10 weeks: Marcel has regained his interest in activity. The playful aspect and the absence of failure (no timer, no visible score) were decisive. The care team reports that Marcel is more alert in the morning after his exercises and that the fine motor skills of his hands are better preserved than expected.
📊 Measured results: maintenance of fine motor scores over 10 weeks (where degradation was expected), 20% improvement in spatial orientation. The care team notes an unexpected benefit on mood and social connection.
"What surprised me is the consistency. Marcel hasn't missed a single day. I've never achieved this adherence with paper exercises."
8. Focus: the tablet as a seesaw, an innovation for fine motor skills
Beyond the classic use of the tablet (touch, slide, press), an innovative approach consists of transforming the tablet into a tool for gross motor skills.
The principle: the tablet is placed on a support that transforms it into a seesaw. The patient must tilt the tablet to roll a virtual ball through a course. This device simultaneously engages several essential functions in occupational therapy:
🖐 What the balance beam works on
- Bimanual coordination : both hands must cooperate to control the tilt
- Fine motor control : precise adjustment of force and tilt
- Oculomotor coordination : follow the ball while anticipating the movement
- Muscle strengthening : hands, wrists, forearms in isometric contraction
- Indirect graphomotor skills : preparation for writing by controlling the posture of the hand
This type of exercise is particularly relevant for dyspractic children (preparation for writing, like Lucas in our case study), post-stroke patients with hemispatial neglect (reintegration of the neglected side by enforcing the use of both hands) and Parkinson's patients (prevention of loss of dexterity and maintenance of fine motor control).
The unique advantage of the balance beam is that it combines gross motor skills and fine motor skills in the same exercise, with immediate visual feedback and progressive difficulty. The patient directly sees the impact of their action on the screen, which reinforces motor learning through the sensorimotor loop.
9. Telecare and home exercises: extending the impact of your sessions
Telecare in occupational therapy is developing rapidly, and digital tools play a central role. The combination of video + tablet + monitoring platform allows for effective rehabilitation at a distance.
In practice, this means that your patients with reduced mobility, in rural areas or in a Nursing home without an occupational therapist on-site can continue to progress between your interventions. Marcel's example perfectly illustrates this continuity: a weekly in-person intervention, complemented by daily supervised exercises remotely via the monitoring platform.
Telecare is not limited to video consultations. It also includes prescription of digital exercises at home, monitoring adherence through platform statistics, and adjusting the program between sessions without the patient needing to travel. For the patient, it guarantees continuous care. For you, it offers the opportunity to optimize your time and increase your therapeutic impact.
🏠 Home training, the key to success. Studies show that patients who practice daily exercises at home, even short ones (10-15 minutes), progress significantly faster than those who limit themselves to in-office sessions. The key factor is not the duration but the regularity. Digital tools make this continuity possible and measurable, while relieving the patient of the responsibility to "find what to do" between sessions.
10. How to choose the right digital tool?
Not all digital tools are equal for occupational therapy. Here are the essential criteria to check before investing.
| Criterion | Why it's important |
|---|---|
| Unlimited patient profiles | You should not be limited in the number of patients followed on the platform |
| Statistical tracking platform | Essential for documenting progress in your assessments and communicating with prescribers |
| Difficulty adaptation | Each patient has a different level, even within the same pathology |
| Motor + cognition exercises | Occupational therapy requires both, not just the cognitive |
| Offline use | For nursing homes, homes without WiFi, travel |
| GDPR compliance | Protection of your patients' health data, mandatory in France |
| Free trial | Test before committing, with your real patients in real situations |
Beyond these technical criteria, a good digital tool must also be pleasant to use for the patient. A clear interface, understandable instructions, a non-patronizing design for adults and seniors: these ergonomic aspects condition adherence to the program. Always test the tool with your patients before making a decision.
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