Occupational Therapy

Pediatric Occupational Therapy helps children gain independence while also strengthening fine motor skills, sensory motor skills, and visual motor skills that children need to function and socialize.

Your child’s life is made up of occupations, or everyday activities. These occupations include playing, learning, sleeping and resting, interacting with friends, getting dressed, and other daily activities. Everyone has occupations—from the toddler whose occupations are playing and learning, to the older child whose occupations are being a student and developing the skills to become more independent. Occupational therapy supports children of all ages—newborns to teenagers—by incorporating the occupations that are important to you and your child into the intervention process. OTs help children perform daily activities they may find challenging by addressing sensory, social, behavioral, motor, and environmental issues.

Children may require occupational therapy with or without the presence of a medicalcondition. Kids with the following medical conditions are considered to be ‘at risk’ for delays in skills impacting participation in home and school environments:

Prematurity and/or birth injuries/birth defects
sensory processing disorders
traumatic injuries (brain or spinal cord)
autism/pervasive developmental disorders
behavioral problems in the presence of sensory processing disorder
developmental delays
post-surgical hand/arm conditions
spina bifida
cerebral palsy and other chronic illnesses

Occupational therapists work with children in the following areas:

improving fine motor skills so they can grasp and release toys and develop good handwriting skills
addressing hand-eye coordination to improve kids’ play and school skills (hitting a target, batting a ball, copying from a blackboard, etc.)
learning basic tasks (such as bathing, getting dressed, brushing their teeth, and feeding themselves)
maintaining positive behaviors in the presence of sensory processing difficulties in all environments (e.g., instead of hitting others or acting out, using positive ways to deal with anger, such as writing about feelings or participating in a physical activity.)
evaluating the need for specialized equipment, such as splints, bathing equipment, dressing devices, and other adaptive equipment
improving attention and social skills to allow development of interpersonal relationships.

OUR OTS

ELIZABETH LINDSEY