OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST?

Pediatric Occupational Therapists (OT) help infants and children maximize independence and life satisfaction! A child’s life is made up of a variety of everyday activities such as playing, learning, and getting dressed. Occupational therapy helps children develop by improving attention, coordination, feeding, fine motor skills, learning skills, self-care and sensory processing.

Listed below are some of the areas in which a pediatric occupational therapist might aide in your child’s development.

Coordination

Coordination for a child is important for all areas of life, including self-feeding, handwriting, putting shoes on and several other activities. There are different types of coordination, including fine motor coordination (small movements of the hand), gross motor coordination (larger body movements), and motor planning (how the brain and body work together to create movement).

Strength

Strength is an important component for children in order to successfully accomplish almost every daily activity. For example, some children with decreased strength will fatigue quickly when performing a simple handwriting task because their hand strength is below the milestone level for their age.

Sensory Processing

Sensory Processing involves how a person perceives information from their senses, such as touch, sight, taste, and sound. An example would be a child who dislikes wearing certain or specific types clothes because of the way the clothes feel on their body.

Visual Motor Integration

Visual Motor Integration involves the coordination of the child’s body movements and their visual skills. Examples of visual motor integration include cutting, tying shoes, and catching or throwing a ball.

Social Skills

Social Skills are important for children to learn in order to relate and communicate with their peers, parents, siblings and teachers.

Self Care

Self-Care is the ability to take care of one’s self. Some examples of self-care activities are dressing, bathing, and being able to zip a jacket independently.

Cognition

Cognition relates to how the brain thinks, processes, and learns. Some specific areas of cognition include attention, sequencing activities, time management, memory, problem solving, and following directions. Decision making is also a very important area of cognition.

Your child may be in need of a Pediatric Occupational Therapy if they are experiencing any of the following:

• Poor fine motor skills

• Trouble with reading/writing

• Immature gross motor skills

• Decreased motor control

• Decreased eye hand coordination

• Difficulty with visual perception

• Overly sensitive to sensory input

• Under responsive to sensory input

• Touches people or objects constantly (seeking sensory input)

• Crashes and/or bangs into people or objects

• Falls often

• Difficulty calming self

• Difficulty with sleeping

• Difficulty with eating and food choices

• Difficulty with sitting still, attention, and/or behavior

• Emotional reactivity

• Reactive to feel of clothing, baths, haircuts, nail cutting, or tooth brushing

• Limited play skills

• Poor social development

• Limited independence in self care skills

• Difficulty transitioning or accepting change in environment or routine

• ADD

• ADHD

• Aspergers Syndrome

• Auditory Processing Disorder

• Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Brachial Plexus

• Cerebral Palsy

• Childhood Stroke

• Cognitive Disorders

• Constipation

• Cri-Du-Chat Syndrome

• Delayed Milestones

• Developmental Coordination Disorder

• Developmental Delays

• DiGeorges Syndrome

• Doose Syndrome

• Down Syndrome

• Dravet Syndrome

• Dyslexia

• Epilepsy

• Failure to Thrive

• Feeding Difficulties

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

• Fine Motor Delays

• Generalized Weakness

• Genetic/Chromosomal Disorders

• Global Developmental Delays

• Hemiparesis

• High Muscle Tone

• Learning Disabilities

• Low Muscle Tone

• Mitochondrial Disorder

• Muscular Dystrophy

• Neurofibromatosis Type 1

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder

• Oral Motor Weakness

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Post-Surgical Needs

WHAT IS PEDIATRIC THERAPY?

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