WHAT IS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY (OT)?
A pediatric occupational therapist works with patients from birth through age 21 to determine underlying skill deficits that are impacting development and causing delays or limitations in the areas of fine motor skills, visual motor skills, cognitive skills, social development, and establishing self-care routines.
Occupational Therapy (OT) helps children succeed in important areas (occupations!) of their lives.
This includes helping children build the skills required for the following roles of their daily lives:
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Activities of daily living
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brushing teeth, getting dressed, putting shoes on
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Educational success
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writing name, attending for an appropriate amount of classroom time, following verbal and/or visual instructions, waiting for preferences
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Social Emotional Skill development
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Experience sharing, verbal and nonverbal communication, joint attention, working through peer conflict, sharing preferred items, reciprocity for turn taking, coping with disappointment and conflict in a healthy manner, identifying and understanding feelings and how to work through reactions, thoughts, and feelings, learning different points for play preferences.
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Why might my child need to see an Occupational Therapist?
OTs are clinically trained to look at the overall function of their clients and identify specific areas of development and neurology that may be impeding success in their client's roles.
Some of these areas include:
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Delays in fine motor skills
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Help developing visual motor skills – tracking an object, hand-eye coordination
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Cognitive delays including problem-solving skills, executive function, memory, and attention
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Children with increased sensory processing needs
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Delays in play and social interaction skills
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Help with learning basic self-care tasks, such as getting dressed
