Blog: ferramenta terapêutica ocupacional

A blog is a site whose structure allows fast articles postage update, or posts. In a blog, texts, images, videosand links to other blogs can be combined, and what makes it a potential therapeutic working tool are the users’ friendlyresources provided for creating and editing systems, which do not require complex knowledge of programmingresources. As in any activity, the professional needs to know it well before being able to use it as a therapeutic resource,but this one is free of charge and it can be performed in gradual steps at different complexity levels. A blog can beused as an idea-organizer, a site where the user decides what is pertinent to be posted, which vocabulary to be used,and the target public, as in a space to share experiences or an integral part in the elaboration of a history book. Tosupport this discussion, three cases where blogs were used as therapeutic resources were presented. In the first case, a12-year-old boy diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome created a blog about children characters; on the second, a groupof adolescents with school and social inclusion difficulties developed a blog to tell their adventures; finally, the thirdcase told the story of a girl with cerebral palsy who wrote and published a book and a blog with the help of alternativecommunication strategies. The following themes were addressed as topics for the discussion: activity as therapeuticresource; the different uses of blogs in the worldwide computers net; and the possibility of using blogs as occupationaltherapeutic resources for people with singular life histories, with very diverse abilities, limitations and desires