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!
What is an OT?
OTS provide support for
Activities of Daily Living, aka ADLs, are the things you do everyday like getting dressed, going to work, cooking dinner, showering and even sleeping!
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
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.
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.
Oral 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.
Fine Motor Skills
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 interoception:
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. Interoception: 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.
Sensory Processing
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
