What is OccupationalTherapy(OT)?
OT combines both the art and science of helping people across the lifespan to perform daily activities that hold meaning in their lives despite impairment, disability or illness. For children, daily activities would include play, self care (e.g, feeding, dressing) and school activities. OT also helps children who are stuck in a "fight, flight or freeze" pattern due to difficulties with sensory processing. Supporting growth in which a child more accurately and efficiently processes sensory input, frees them to interact with the world around them with more comfort, ease and joy.
OT combines both the art and science of helping people across the lifespan to perform daily activities that hold meaning in their lives despite impairment, disability or illness. For children, daily activities would include play, self care (e.g, feeding, dressing) and school activities. OT also helps children who are stuck in a "fight, flight or freeze" pattern due to difficulties with sensory processing. Supporting growth in which a child more accurately and efficiently processes sensory input, frees them to interact with the world around them with more comfort, ease and joy.
Your child may benefit from OT if they experience difficulties with any of the following:
- Under reactive or overly sensitive to touch, movement, sights or sounds
- Delayed fine motor skills
- Poor coordination/body awareness - appears clumsy or awkward with movement
- Difficulty with transitions or changes in routines
- Unusual or repetitive behavior patterns
- Poor organizational skills or attention skills
- Avoidance of activities in which children the same age are usually proficient (resists arts/crafts, sports, playground equipment)
- Difficulty with or slow to learn new motor actions, games, and how to play with unfamiliar toys
- Poor self-regulation (e.g, has frequent or extreme "melt-downs", disruptive sleep patterns)
Children may or may not have a diagnosis or medical history that would account for these difficulties which may include:
- Apraxia
- Atypical utero, birth or early development (e.g,in utero drug exposure, difficult delivery, institutionalization)
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Cerebral Palsey
- Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA/stroke/hemiplegia)
- Developmental Delay
- Down Syndrome
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Prematurity
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Torticollis
Great videos that explain sensory integration difficulties and how occupational therapy helps: