Occupational Therapy for Children:
Occupational therapy focuses on helping children develop the skills they need to perform everyday tasks or “occupations'' that are important for their development and participation in daily life, and can be quite effective for children with autism, ADHD, or developmental delays. Each child’s therapy is individualized to their unique needs and strengths to help them foster independence, confidence and overall well-being. Our goal is to help your child build the necessary skills to be as independent and functional as possible.
Our occupational therapists can help in a variety of ways, including:
Fine motor skills:
Defined as the coordination and control of small muscles in the hands and fingers, as well as the coordination between the eyes and hands. Occupational therapists can address fine motor difficulties with hand-eye coordination, handwriting, cutting with scissors, copying shapes, coloring, and manipulating small objects.
Self-care skills:
These are everyday activities that we do to take care of ourselves and manage our personal needs. Occupational therapists assist children in learning and mastering tasks related to self-care, such as dressing (ex: using zippers), grooming, and feeding.
Sensory processing:
This is the way the nervous system takes in sensory information from the environment and produces responses. Occupational therapists can help children who have difficulty processing sensory information from their environment, which can impact their ability to participate in activities and regulate emotions.
Feeding:
The difficulties that can be addressed within occupational therapy include picky eating, texture sensitivities, tactile sensitivities, utensil use, straw or cup use, and overall mealtime regulation.
Primitive reflexes:
These are the automatic movements that babies are born with, which serve important survival and development purposes. As children grow, these reflexes should gradually disappear to enhance and refine motor movements. In some cases, these reflexes persist longer than they should, which can impact a child’s motor skills, balance, sensory processing, and more. Occupational therapists can assess and address persistent primitive reflexes in children to improve overall coordination and functional participation.
