The CO-OP (Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance) Approach was developed 2001 by Dr. Helene J. Polatajko and her colleagues. Their research, which focused on understanding how people who experience challenges in performing the essential tasks of daily life can overcome their obstacles, led to groundbreaking work on the effect of cognition on motor execution.

Initially, the CO-OP Approach was applied to children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), also known as Dyspraxia.

Nowadays, the CO-OP Approach enables children and adults with occupational performance difficulties, whether physical, cognitive or other, to succeed in performing the daily tasks and activities that are important to them. It is an evidence-based cognitive, top-down, individualized, task-oriented approach that enables success in occupational performance in an effective and efficient manner.

By implementing the CO-OP Approach people are able to quickly learn skills that have eluded them for years and/or skills that were often considered unimaginable to them. A distinctive example from Dr. Polatajiko’s research is Jace, a 15-year-old girl with dystonia (a severe neurological disorder that prevents her from using her body exactly as she wants, from controlling her lower limbs and torso to her upper limbs, neck and head) who wanted to learn to ride a bike. Although Jace had been receiving special education services for numerous years and yet had never managed to ride a bike independently up to that point, using the CO-OP Approach she learnt to ride a bike in just 180 minutes!

The CO-OP Approach is a client-centered, performance-based, problem-solving approach that enables the acquisition of skills through a process that includes the use of the Goal-Plan-Do-Check strategy and guided discovery.

References

Dawson, D. R., McEwen, S. E., & Polatajko, H. J. (2017). Cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance in occupational therapy: Using the co-op approach to enable participation across the lifespan. AOTA Press.
Icancoop. (n.d.). ICAN COGNITIVE ORIENTATION TO DAILY OCCUPATIONAL PERFORMANCE APPROACH. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://icancoop.org/
Kraversky, D. G. (2020, July). Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational  Performance (CO–OP) Approach: Evidence-Based, Occupation-Centered Intervention for Children. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.aota.org/~/media/Corporate/Files/Publications/CE-Articles/CEA_July_2020.pdf
Polatajko, H. J., & Mandich, A. D. (2004). Enabling occupation in children: The Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO–OP) approach. CAOT Publications.
Saeidi Borujeni, M., Hosseini, S. A., Akbarfahimi, N., & Ebrahimi, E. (2019). Cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance approach in adults with neurological conditions: A scoping review. Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 33, 99. https://doi.org/10.34171/mjiri.33.99
Sangster, C. A., Beninger, C., Polatajko, H. J., & Mandich, A. (2005). Cognitive strategy generation in children with developmental coordination disorder. Canadian journal of occupational therapy. Revue canadienne d’ergotherapie, 72(2), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/000841740507200201
TEDx Talks. (2016). The problem with cookie-cutter physical therapy | Helene Polatajko | TEDxToronto. YouTube. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://youtu.be/Au6jwjTB1WI.