What is an OT?

Occupational therapists facilitate improvements in a person’s life through the use of everyday activities. Another word for every day activities is “occupations,” and a child’s main occupation is play! You can think of an occupation as any meaningful activity that occupies your time. Since your child’s main occupation is play, any impairment in how your child experiences play can cause further delays. It can be a cycle where your child cannot get regulated on their own, or they lack the fine motor or gross motor skills to play in a group of peers their age to engage in meaningful play. That is where an occupational therapist can help!

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

Activities of Daily Living, aka ADLs, are the things you do everyday like getting dressed, going to work, cooking dinner, showering and even sleeping! 

Apraxia/Motor Planning

Apraxia is the medical term for motor planning. Apraxia means your child’s brain has hard time telling the muscles of the body how to complete a task.

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the hand are the skills needed to use your hands with coordination to pick up small items or in handwriting, for example. Children with poor fine motor skills often may have low muscle tone throughout their body including weaker postural muscles and shoulder muscles. Gross motor development is important for the foundation of developing fine motor skills.

Oral Motor Skills

Oral motor skills are important for eating. Mealtime with the family and the occupation of eating are important parts of a child’s daily routine. Typical development of oral motor skills along with integrated sensory input is important to be able to eat normally. 

Sensory Processing

You probably know that you and your child have the following 5 senses:

1. Taste/gustatory  

2. Touch/tactile

3. Sight/visual

4. Smell/olfactory

5. Hearing/auditory

There are 3 other senses that most people don’t know about, vestibular system, proprioception and introception:

1. Vestibular system: located in the inner ear processes how the body moves and head position in space

• When the vestibular system is not working, movement can feel too intense or your child could need more movement to process information and feel normal in the environment.

2. Proprioception: processes where your child’s body is in space

• Proprioception is key in body awareness and if there is dysfunction in this sense your child may demonstrate clumsiness or poor motor planning, constantly seek movement, or have poor postural control.

3.   Introception: tells your body what it is feelings, ie. hunger, thirst, cold, hot etc

The integration of all these senses helps your child navigate the environment successfully. A dysfunction in any of these senses can lead to a delay in growth and development. Occupational therapists can help develop a sensory diet individualized to your child’s needs so they can continue playing and growing. 

Visual Perceptual Skills

Visual perception is how the brain processes what we see, which is vital for typical development preschool and beyond.

Children who have difficulties with visual perception may present with the following:

• Letter reversals: d, b, p, u, n, m and q when writing or reading 

• Poor body awareness / poor motor planning seen as bumping into things

• Have difficulty copying letters, numbers or drawings

• Have difficulty with dressing and fastening clothes with zippers, snaps and buttons

• Have difficulty with cutting along shapes and lines

• Have difficulty following visual directions