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If your child exhibits one or more of the following ‘red flags,' it is highly recommended that your child receive a comprehensive occupational therapy evaluation by a licensed occupational therapist, preferably one that is Sensory Integration certified.
Sensory Integration therapy is a specific and individualized treatment program for children with sensory processing disorders. Everyday, we gain sensory experiences through touch, movement, body awareness, sight, sound, and the pull of gravity. Sensory integration is the brain’s ability to organize and interpret sensory information we receive to use it in a meaningful way. This provides the foundation for later, more complex, learning and behavior.
“Fine motor” refers to the movements we make with the small muscles of the hands. Children start to use their hands right at birth to explore their own bodies and the world around them. Their fine motor skills develop as their whole body starts to move and become more stable. They also learn to do more things with their hands as their cognitive and social/emotional skills improve.
OT 4 Kid’s occupational therapists are trained to assess your childs fine motor skills compared to where they should be based on their peers. A child’s handwriting assessment is comprehensive; it includes identifying his current level of functioning in the areas of visual skills, ocular motor skills, body awareness, fine motor planning, shoulder stability, and hand and finger strength. To do this, our therapists will discuss the child’s performance with the parents and teachers, perform standardized assessments, obtain a handwriting sample and observe the child’s fine and gross motor movement patterns. This handwriting assessment allows the therapist to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses in these skills areas and reveal the source of his difficulty with handwriting.
Following the handwriting assessment, the therapist will develop goals based on the child’s performance and design a treatment program that concentrates on improving these foundational skills. Treatment for handwriting difficulty may include the Handwriting Without Tears ® program, sensorimotor strategies, strengthening the intrinsic muscles of the hand, compensatory strategies such as pencil grips or writing paper with visual cues, and ergonomic strategies such as a slant board or the child’s positioning at the desk.
“Fine motor” refers to the movements we make with the small muscles of the hands. Children start to use their hands right at birth to explore their own bodies and the world around them. Their fine motor skills develop as their whole body starts to move and become more stable. They also learn to do more things with their hands as their cognitive and social/emotional skills improve.
“OT 4 Kid’s occupational therapists are trained to assess your childs fine motor skills compared to where they should be based on their peers. A child’s handwriting assessment is comprehensive; it includes identifying his current level of functioning in the areas of visual skills, ocular motor skills, body awareness, fine motor planning, shoulder stability, and hand and finger strength. To do this, our therapists will discuss the child’s performance with the parents and teachers, perform standardized assessments, obtain a handwriting sample and observe the child’s fine and gross motor movement patterns. This handwriting assessment allows the therapist to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses in these skills areas and reveal the source of his difficulty with handwriting.
Following the handwriting assessment, the therapist will develop goals based on the child’s performance and design a treatment program that concentrates on improving these foundational skills. Treatment for handwriting difficulty may include the Handwriting Without Tears ® program, sensorimotor strategies, strengthening the intrinsic muscles of the hand, compensatory strategies such as pencil grips or writing paper with visual cues, and ergonomic strategies such as a slant board or the child’s positioning at the desk.
Gross Motor Skills are skills that develop through using the large muscles of the body in a coordinated and controlled way. We receive sensory information from our bodies and the environment through our sensory systems (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, and proprioception). This sensory information then needs to be organized and processed to be able to produce an appropriate motor or movement response for success in daily tasks at home or at school. Gross motor skills develop through practice and repetition, which is why a baby takes weeks to perfect the art of rolling, sitting or crawling.
Occupational therapists can help the child engage in individualized and organized sensory experiences (jumping, climbing, pushing, and pulling) to address skills such as bilateral integration and coordination, midline crossing, and postural control to strengthen his/her ability to participate in sensorimotor activities.
There are multiple programs and treatments to help boost Gross Motor functions. At OT 4 Kids, one program utilized focuses on a series of approximately 300 exercises that combines the use of racquetballs, sand-filled beanbags and a balance board. This kind of treatment requires the student to integrate the vestibular, auditory, and visual systems, in conjunction with their proprioceptive system all simultaneously, thus improving focused and joint attention, balance, crossing midline, visual scanning, bilateral integration, timing and sequencing, sequential memory, modulation of force, strength, endurance, gross, fine and visual motor coordination, impulse control, communication and social skills.
Gross Motor Skills are skills that develop through using the large muscles of the body in a coordinated and controlled way. We receive sensory information from our bodies and the environment through our sensory systems (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, and proprioception). This sensory information then needs to be organized and processed to be able to produce an appropriate motor or movement response for success in daily tasks at home or at school. Gross motor skills develop through practice and repetition, which is why a baby takes weeks to perfect the art of rolling, sitting or crawling.
There are multiple programs and treatments to help boost Gross Motor functions. At OT 4 Kids, one program utilized focuses on a series of approximately 300 exercises that combines the use of racquetballs, sand-filled beanbags and a balance board. This kind of treatment requires the student to integrate the vestibular, auditory, and visual systems, in conjunction with their proprioceptive system all simultaneously, thus improving focused and joint attention, balance, crossing midline, visual scanning, bilateral integration, timing and sequencing, sequential memory, modulation of force, strength, endurance, gross, fine and visual motor coordination, impulse control, communication and social skills.
Activities of Daily Living (ADL’s) – These include basic self-care activities such as feeding, grooming, toileting, dressing, and general hygiene. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL’s) – These include more complex skills that are needed to be successful to live independently. Examples include: chores around the house, preparing meals, using the phone, using public transportation, homework completion skills, etc.
Occupational therapists are trained to assist children in developing the necessary skills to complete activities that support their daily functioning and participation. Depending on a child’s particular diagnosis or functional deficits, a variety of interventions might be used to support their performance and participation in daily activities. Typically, teaching these skills will require more than just stating the steps of what needs to be done; repeated modeling, use of visuals to promote memory and sequencing, and other compensatory methods (e.g. adaptive equipment, modifying the task) may all be utilized to ensure children can perform daily tasks to the best of their abilities.
“Fine motor” refers to the movements we make with the small muscles of the hands. Children start to use their hands right at birth to explore their own bodies and the world around them. Their fine motor skills develop as their whole body starts to move and become more stable. They also learn to do more things with their hands as their cognitive and social/emotional skills improve.
“OT 4 Kid’s occupational therapists are trained to assess your childs fine motor skills compared to where they should be based on their peers. A child’s handwriting assessment is comprehensive; it includes identifying his current level of functioning in the areas of visual skills, ocular motor skills, body awareness, fine motor planning, shoulder stability, and hand and finger strength. To do this, our therapists will discuss the child’s performance with the parents and teachers, perform standardized assessments, obtain a handwriting sample and observe the child’s fine and gross motor movement patterns. This handwriting assessment allows the therapist to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses in these skills areas and reveal the source of his difficulty with handwriting.
Following the handwriting assessment, the therapist will develop goals based on the child’s performance and design a treatment program that concentrates on improving these foundational skills. Treatment for handwriting difficulty may include the Handwriting Without Tears ® program, sensorimotor strategies, strengthening the intrinsic muscles of the hand, compensatory strategies such as pencil grips or writing paper with visual cues, and ergonomic strategies such as a slant board or the child’s positioning at the desk.
Ocular motor (oculomotor) control and visual perception are foundational skills necessary for a variety of daily activities, including, but not limited to reading, writing, catching, throwing, organization, and safety when navigating environments. Occupational therapists are trained to identify and treat difficulties related to visual perception and ocular motor control in order to facilitate participation and engagement in meaningful activities.
Ocular motor muscles, much like the small muscles in our hands and fingers, work together to control eye movements and facilitate eye teaming (the ability of our eyes to work together in a coordinated fashion). Our eyes must work together to complete smooth tracking movements (such as tracking words across a page as you read) and convergence/divergence movements (such as used when looking up and back down to copy information from the board). Impairments in ocular motor control (often stemming from muscle weakness, vestibular processing challenges, or injury or dysfunction within the central nervous system) can directly influence a child’s ability to accurately perceive and receive visual information.
Visual perception describes the ability to perceive and interpret visual information. Visual perception includes many components, including visual discrimination, visual-spatial awareness, figure-ground perception, form constancy, and visual memory, to name a few. Challenges in this area are often associated with learning difficulties in reading, writing, math, and spelling. Other daily activities, such as grooming and dressing, play activities, and athletic performance, are also frequently affected. Visual perception and ocular motor skills are evaluated through standardized assessments and various clinical observations. Following evaluation, a specific treatment plan is created to address a child’s unique needs. Ocular motor control and visual perception skills can be addressed through a variety of therapeutic interventions.
Ocular motor (oculomotor) control and visual perception are foundational skills necessary for a variety of daily activities, including, but not limited to reading, writing, catching, throwing, organization, and safety when navigating environments. Occupational therapists are trained to identify and treat difficulties related to visual perception and ocular motor control in order to facilitate participation and engagement in meaningful activities.
Ocular motor muscles, much like the small muscles in our hands and fingers, work together to control eye movements and facilitate eye teaming (the ability of our eyes to work together in a coordinated fashion). Our eyes must work together to complete smooth tracking movements (such as tracking words across a page as you read) and convergence/divergence movements (such as used when looking up and back down to copy information from the board). Impairments in ocular motor control (often stemming from muscle weakness, vestibular processing challenges, or injury or dysfunction within the central nervous system) can directly influence a child’s ability to accurately perceive and receive visual information.
Visual perception describes the ability to perceive and interpret visual information. Visual perception includes many components, including visual discrimination, visual-spatial awareness, figure-ground perception, form constancy, and visual memory, to name a few. Challenges in this area are often associated with learning difficulties in reading, writing, math, and spelling. Other daily activities, such as grooming and dressing, play activities, and athletic performance, are also frequently affected. Visual perception and ocular motor skills are evaluated through standardized assessments and various clinical observations. Following evaluation, a specific treatment plan is created to address a child’s unique needs. Ocular motor control and visual perception skills can be addressed through a variety of therapeutic interventions.
Executive functions are the decision-making processes that include planning, organizing, sequencing, strategizing, and response inhibition, sustained attention, time management, flexibility and remembering details. Executive functions are required at the onset of a task or when a novel task is presented. They are needed to organize one’s thoughts and actions in order to create a plan and execute the plan. In addition, executive functions help with self-regulation, which is the ability to monitor one’s behaviors. Improving self-regulatory processes will increase executive control, which together, are central to cognitive, linguistic, behavioral, and affective control—all of which are fundamental to learning and success in school.
AMPS (Attention, Memory, & Processing) is a cognitive processing skills program that uses whole-brain learning exercises designed to improve mental processing speed, working memory, attention, sequential processing, spatial orientation, visual and auditory memory, phonological awareness, motor planning, reasoning, and problem solving. AMPS works on the underlying foundational skills needed for learning and is especially beneficial for students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, Gifted (2-E), Autism Spectrum, PDD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Non-Verbal learning disorder, etc. AMPS develops new, more efficient neuro-pathways in the brain, thus frequency and repetition is critical to success.
With AMPS you can expect to see improvements in the following areas:
Executive functions are the decision-making processes that include planning, organizing, sequencing, strategizing, and response inhibition, sustained attention, time management, flexibility and remembering details. Executive functions are required at the onset of a task or when a novel task is presented. They are needed to organize one’s thoughts and actions in order to create a plan and execute the plan. In addition, executive functions help with self-regulation, which is the ability to monitor one’s behaviors. Improving self-regulatory processes will increase executive control, which together, are central to cognitive, linguistic, behavioral, and affective control—all of which are fundamental to learning and success in school.
AMPS (Attention, Memory, & Processing) is a cognitive processing skills program that uses whole-brain learning exercises designed to improve mental processing speed, working memory, attention, sequential processing, spatial orientation, visual and auditory memory, phonological awareness, motor planning, reasoning, and problem solving. AMPS works on the underlying foundational skills needed for learning and is especially beneficial for students diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, Gifted (2-E), Autism Spectrum, PDD, Auditory Processing Disorder, Non-Verbal learning disorder, etc. AMPS develops new, more efficient neuro-pathways in the brain, thus frequency and repetition is critical to success.
With AMPS you can expect to see improvements in the following areas:
Oral-motor skills refer to the movement of the muscles of the face. This includes muscle tone, muscle strength, range of motion, speed, coordination, and dissociation. Clinical experience suggests that the acquisition and maturation of oral-motor movements underlies sound production and feeding skills (e.g., sucking, biting, and chewing). Feeding issues in children are often secondary to early medical issues, unidentified muscle weakness or motor planning, or underlying sensory processing deficits. The longer children's feeding deficits persist without intervention, the more likely that behaviors and habits will set in, causing further complications.
At OT 4 Kids we use a variety of developmental and muscle-based oral motor, feeding, and swallowing techniques. This allows the child the opportunities to build strength and coordination of their oral motor structures, while interacting with food in a playful manner. This approach not only increases their comfort and willingness to explore and manage more foods, but also increases their sensory tolerance. Some of our techniques derive from the following: Beckman Oral Motor Program, The S.O.S. Approach to Feeding Model, Baby Led Weaning Techniques, The Get Permission Approach, and Swallowing Assessment and Intervention.
Oral-motor skills refer to the movement of the muscles of the face. This includes muscle tone, muscle strength, range of motion, speed, coordination, and dissociation. Clinical experience suggests that the acquisition and maturation of oral-motor movements underlies sound production and feeding skills (e.g., sucking, biting, and chewing). Feeding issues in children are often secondary to early medical issues, unidentified muscle weakness or motor planning, or underlying sensory processing deficits. The longer children's feeding deficits persist without intervention, the more likely that behaviors and habits will set in, causing further complications.
At OT 4 Kids we use a variety of developmental and muscle-based oral motor, feeding, and swallowing techniques. This allows the child the opportunities to build strength and coordination of their oral motor structures, while interacting with food in a playful manner. This approach not only increases their comfort and willingness to explore and manage more foods, but also increases their sensory tolerance. Some of our techniques derive from the following: Beckman Oral Motor Program, The S.O.S. Approach to Feeding Model, Baby Led Weaning Techniques, The Get Permission Approach, and Swallowing Assessment and Intervention.
Physical Therapy addresses limitations in children including postural and mobility dysfunctions. Therapeutic motor activities are used to help children access all environments efficiently and safely, and help children maximize their physical abilities and minimize the physical limitations that accompany developmental issues. The team uses experience and extensive training in pediatric health, including anatomy, physiology, psychology and child development to assist children in reaching their highest level of potential. With physical therapy, kids build strength and improve motor function, balance and coordination in fun, creative ways.
Our therapists are specialists in the evaluation and treatment of children 0-18 years of age, with torticollis, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, prematurity, muscular dystrophy, motor problems associated with autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, and other genetic disorders.
Physical Therapy addresses limitations in children including postural and mobility dysfunctions. Therapeutic motor activities are used to help children access all environments efficiently and safely, and help children maximize their physical abilities and minimize the physical limitations that accompany developmental issues. The team uses experience and extensive training in pediatric health, including anatomy, physiology, psychology and child development to assist children in reaching their highest level of potential. With physical therapy, kids build strength and improve motor function, balance and coordination in fun, creative ways.
Our therapists are specialists in the evaluation and treatment of children 0-18 years of age, with torticollis, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, prematurity, muscular dystrophy, motor problems associated with autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, and other genetic disorders.
CHALLENEGES RELATED TO SOCIAL SKILLS: