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!