Every person engages in “occupations”- the activities that are meaningful to them & are expected of them daily. For children, those occupations include playing, motor development, learning, social interaction and self-care.
There are many factors that can interfere with a child’s ability to perform optimally, including:
Visual deficits
Motor coordination difficulties
Muscle weakness
Low tone
Poor sensory processing
It is an OT’s job to identify what systems are compromising function and how to correct or compensate for the deficits.
Our knowledge of anatomy & physiology, neurology, and sensorimotor development as well as our training in activity analysis, enables us to break down an activity in order to identify areas of weakness.
We work from a child’s strengths rather than highlighting their weaknesses.
For example, if a child has difficulty with handwriting it could be as a result of decreased core strength, muscle weakness in the shoulder, hand or wrist, a visual perceptual deficit, limited attention, poor sensory processing or decreased finger dexterity. An OT will look at all these factors to determine what system or systems are interfering with the child’s ability to write and will recommend an appropriate course of treatment.
Our treatment techniques include:
TMI-Reflex Integration
Sensory Integration
The Alert Program
S’cool Moves
Therapeutic Yoga
Executive Function Training
DIR Floortime
Core Strengthening
Visual-perceptual exercises
Brain Gym
Handwriting Without Tears
Therapeutic Listening
Gross & Fine motor coordination activities