Under the auspices of Professor Safwan Al-Assaf, Rector of Manara University, the Faculty of Health Sciences- Department of Occupational Therapy held a viva voce session to examine the graduation projects of the first batch of occupational therapy graduates in the department as well as in Syria. Nine projects prepared by 21 students were examined, all of which followed the narrative review methodology, and some of which were written in English which would constitute a kernel for future research projects eligible for publication in international journals in line with the university’s aim to improve the skills of its graduates in the field of academic research and encourage them to be academic researchers as early as possible.

The projects dealt with various topics and had various aims. One of the projects tackled the characteristics and differences between the two performance measurements SP/SP2 of Sensory Integration Assessment as a preliminary step for establishing a Syrian version, having acquired the consent of the publisher beforehand. This will open the horizons for introducing a better-quality evaluation assessment and diagnosis of this new science in the Syrian context. Other research projects dealt with the role of occupational therapy in improving the functional performance in cases of multiple sclerosis disease, memory disorders, visual perception disorders, apraxia and autism, comparing and contrasting the current therapeutic techniques used in these cases, the thing that would help the therapist select the most adequate technique case-wise according to the situation. Other projects dealt with the role of certain occupational therapy techniques such as treatment through memories in cases of dementia and sensory integration technique in cerebral palsy, in addition to using therapeutic mirror technique and studying the role of these techniques and their efficiency and effectiveness in the field of occupational therapy.