Occupational Therapy Services
Activities of Daily Living
We support children in developing skills needed to perform developmentally appropriate self-care activities. These activities may include grooming, toileting, hygiene, dressing and more.
Sensory Integration
Sensory processing and integration lays the foundation of a child’s nervous system and informs their ability to organize sensations from the world and their body. Delays and differences in processing sensory information can impact a child’s ability to participation in daily routines. OTs use sensory integration techniques during challenging and engaging activities that require the “just right” amount of effort in order to help children develop more efficient sensory processing and self-regulation skills. This allows them to adapt to engage in different environments successfully.
Visual Motor Skills
We support children in developing visual motor integration skills. This is a complex skill set which allows children to combine visual perception and motor control needed for activities such as hand-eye coordination in ball handling tasks, handwriting, cutting and buttoning or zipping.
Play/Social Skills
Play and interacting with peers are two major occupations in the life of a child. We help children develop social skills through opportunities that provide joint attention, cooperation, turn-taking and negotiation. If appropriate, siblings can join therapy sessions to further support skill development. Additionally, children may struggle to develop play skills and need support for motor planning, expanding play and coming up with new ideas in addition to the motor skills required for the play action.
Gross Motor Development and Coordination
OTs support development and quality gross motor control of the large muscle groups in the body and those related to posture which provides the foundation to all other aspects of development. OT provides individualized and developmentally appropriate challenges to help children develop these motor skills including strength, coordination and balance. This can also include infants and toddlers who are showing delays in gaining skills within developmentally appropriate time frames and/or those who demonstrate delays in quality of motor movements.
Fine Motor Development and Coordination
OTs also support development and quality fine motor control of the small or detailed movements in the wrist, hand and fingers to support their participation in age-appropriate activities including school-related activities, play and self-care tasks. We look at how children isolate movements and use both arms together or in a coordinated manner to complete tasks successfully using a variety of engaging activities and games.
Social Emotional Skills
OTs work closely with children and their families to develop co-regulation skills. We help children explore their emotions and develop emotional regulation strategies. We also help children develop self-confidence for completing activities that may be challenging due to underlying skill deficits across their daily routines.
Executive Function Skills
We support children in developing skills needed to perform developmentally appropriate self-care activities. These activities may include grooming, toileting, hygiene, dressing and more.