Does your child have difficulties paying attention in school? Avoid loud noises or become distressed in busy environments? Have difficulties regulating their emotions? Or experience challenges when using different types of utensils for eating, drawing, or writing? If any of these sound familiar, occupational therapy may be a beneficial next step.
Let’s explore what occupational therapy is, how it supports childhood development, who thrives with this type of specialized support, when to seek professional guidance, and how the More to Say OT team can empower growth in your child.
What Is Pediatric Occupational Therapy?
Pediatric occupational therapy focuses on improving how children explore, experience, and engage with the world around them. Occupational therapy not only helps children navigate environments, situations, and activities with independence while being regulated, but it also empowers them to participate in playtime with courage and excitement.
When children experience challenges in their daily activities or routines due to medical conditions, traumatic injuries, developmental delays, or environmental factors, occupational therapy is a highly supportive and effective option. As a child works with a skilled pediatric occupational therapist, they gain skills, tools, and strategies to live a happy, fulfilling life.
Occupational therapy can support development in the following areas:
- Executive Function and Life Skills: These thinking abilities help us in everyday tasks, such as regulating feelings, adapting to different settings or situations, developing and completing plans, following directions, and focusing.
- Fine Motor Skills: These tiny, precise muscle movements of the wrists, hands, and fingers help us navigate various activities, such as brushing our teeth, getting dressed, or tying our shoes.
- Gross Motor Skills: These large, expansive muscle movements of the legs, torso, or arms help us perform actions like walking, climbing, or kicking. These movements also relate to infant development in early motor skills such as rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking!
- Visual Perception Skills: These visual processing abilities help us look at details around us and understand what we see, such as looking at letters on a page and identifying which letters we are seeing.
- Visual Motor Integration Skills: These abilities help us respond to things we see in our environment with appropriate actions, such as seeing a ball coming at us and catching it rather than being struck by it or seeing words on a chalkboard in a classroom and being able to copy them onto our paper accurately.
- Sensory Processing and Regulation Skills: Sensory processing relates to the different senses we are experiencing (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, proprioception, vestibular, interoception), how we interpret them, and how we respond to them. For example, when a child steps on a sidewalk with bare feet during a hot summer day, they process this sensory input as “this hurts my feet” and react by jumping somewhere cooler, like the grass or a shaded spot. Afterwards, the child may regulate their reaction by seeking comfort, and may even avoid walking barefoot on hot sidewalks in the future.
How Does Occupational Therapy Support Childhood Development?
To support childhood development that leads to long-term positive impact, an experienced pediatric occupational therapist evaluates each child’s needs, abilities, interests, and other factors to personalize a treatment plan that is followed in our welcoming clinic environment and/or in the comfort of your home via telehealth.
Pediatric occupational therapy is designed to meet children where they are in their development and then lift them to their full potential. Sessions are child-led, play-based, evidence-informed, and age-appropriate to keep a child’s interest, encouraging engagement during activities to ensure they learn and remember essential skills for thriving in life.
When Is Occupational Therapy an Empowering Option for Children?
Pediatric occupational therapists specialize in treating a variety of conditions to help children overcome any challenges they may face and ensure they reach empowering outcomes. Occupational therapy is a great option for children if they are experiencing life impacts related to the following:
- Developmental delays
- Medical conditions
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Sensory processing difficulties
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Down syndrome
- Cerebral palsy
- Traumatic injuries
It is important to note that children do not have to have a diagnosis to participate in occupational therapy at More to Say.
What Are Some Common Signs I Should Watch for?
To stay proactive about your child’s growth, you can watch for these common signs that may suggest your child could benefit from occupational therapy:
- Difficulties with early motor milestone development such as rolling, sitting, crawling, walking
- Struggles with paying attention in school or following instructions
- Encounters difficulties when getting dressed or tying their shoes
- Faces challenges when playing sports or climbing on playground equipment
- Often misses the ball when participating in ball sports, such as tennis or baseball
- Experiences difficulties with self-soothing in new environments, upsetting situations, or other scenarios that leave them feeling uneasy
- Avoids bright lights, loud sounds, or certain food textures
- Seeks sensory experiences, such as unsafe jumping, crashing or craving deep pressure
- Difficulties with utensil use (i.e., fork, spoon, pencil, etc.)
How Does the More to Say Team Approach Occupational Therapy Sessions?
At More to Say Pediatric Development & Therapy, we deliver exceptional care that empowers children to independently explore, experience, and engage with day-to-day life. We believe children deserve every opportunity to succeed in life, and our skilled and compassionate team are responsive to meet each child’s individual needs.
During our therapy sessions, we use child-led, play-based, evidence-informed methods and encourage each family to participate in their child’s sessions in the clinic and carryover learned skills into the home. We practice this individualized and family-centered approach to pediatric therapy because it creates an experience that is effective at fostering a child’s growth across all environments. When a child feels like they are part of a team and like they are learning through play, we can unlock the best results — together.
Talk with a Pediatric Specialist at More to Say
If you have any questions about occupational therapy and how we can form a supportive plan and team to empower your child’s growth, reach out to us at (203) 828-6790 to receive more information or book your free phone consultation today.
