What does OT address?
Pediatric occupational therapy can look different from provider to provider. Still, it is important to know that all therapists' goals should ultimately be to improve your child’s independence and confidence so that they can participate in all the activities that they want to and that may be expected of them.
Pediatric OT can help children with the following skill areas:
Fine Motor
Handwriting
Manipulating items (buttons, scissors, etc.)
Typing
Strengthening & endurance (as needed for age-appropriate school activities, play, and self-care tasks)
Visual Motor:
Visual perception
Motor control
Eye-hand coordination
Daily Living Skills:
Potty training
Self-feeding
Dressing independence
Sleep routines
Grooming (brushing teeth, bathing, brushing hair, clipping nails, etc.)
Executive Functioning:
Emotional regulation
Attention
Planning
Social & play skills
Working memory
Impulse control
Sensory Integration:
Tactile/touch aversion (often occurs in relation to clothing, food, etc.)
Taste & smell differences
Auditory & visual sensitivities
Vestibular (movement sense)
Proprioception (body awareness)
Interoception (internal sensations such as hunger)
Modulation (under & over-responsivity, sensory seeking)
Gross Motor:
Balance
Trunk stability & strength
Motor planning
Crossing midline
The integration of retained primitive reflexes
While there has always been some stigma around a child receiving services, everyone could benefit in some way or another from having OT services as a child (this, coming from a now adult OT who didn’t receive services and cannot write for prolonged periods because of a poor pencil grasp). All this to say that going to OT does NOT mean something is wrong, but rather - these services are here to support child development and allow children to do all of the things that they want and need to do!
