Occupational Therapy Services

Cognitive Processing/Attention: Cognition includes processes such as orientation, attention, perception, problem solving, memory, judgment, language, reasoning, and planning. It is essential for taking in information, synthesizing it, and using it to affect behavior. Therefore, a cognitive challenge will have at least some impact on function.

Sensory Processing/Integration: Occupational Therapy Practitioners have unique training and skills in neuroscience, anatomy, and activity/environmental analysis and use sensory integration–based approaches to identify and treat sensory processing, motor, psychosocial, and occupational performance problems in children with sensory processing problems. They work with caregivers and medical, educational, and mental health professionals to increase awareness of the signs and symptoms of sensory processing–related problems and types of interventions used with children.

Behavior Problems & Self-Esteem: The mental health treatment journey requires a collaborative effort by many people — the individual, his or her caregivers, support providers, doctors, nurses, teachers, aides, counselors, therapists, and social workers. This collaborative process allows everyone to work together to reach a specific goal: improving the individual’s quality and enjoyment of life by identifying appropriate behaviors and skills.

Visual Motor/Perceptual Skills: Visual perceptual skills enable a child to make sense of and interpret what they are seeing. Visual motor skills enable a child to coordinate their eyes and hands to draw, write, and read.

Handwriting Fluency: Handwriting is a complex process of managing written language by coordinating the eyes, arms, hands, pencil grip, letter formation, and body posture. Occupational Therapy Practitioners can evaluate the underlying components that support a student’s handwriting, such as muscle strength, endurance, coordination, and motor control, and can encourage activities at home to support good handwriting skills.

Fine Motor Development: Fine Motor Skills are the skills used when you move your hand to do an activity. They involve the small muscles of the hand, and are necessary for performing many tasks in life such as buttons, handwriting, and scissor skills.

Gross Motor Coordination: When gross motor skills involving the major muscle groups are at issue, the child will struggle with things like balance, coordination, strength and endurance, all of which will have a direct impact on everything from walking and climbing stairs to hopping, jumping and catching and throwing a ball. Throwing and catching balls of various sizes and weights and obstacle courses help with things like balance and coordination, while riding a trike builds strength and endurance. OTs will often work on gross motor skills in tandem with physical therapists, since some of their goals are so much aligned.

Oral Motor Control: Oral motor therapy works on the oral skills necessary for proper speech and feeding development. These skills include: awareness, strength, coordination, movement, and endurance of the lips, cheeks, tongue, and jaw.

Activities of Daily Living: Activities of Daily Living, or ADLs are the tasks that you do every day, such as get dressed, eat food, brush your hair, brush your teeth, clean your house, play with toys, go to work, go to school, etc. Occupational Therapy Practitioners work with the core problems that are keeping someone from doing these activities, and work on ways to make these activities easier for the client to perform.

Academic Achievement: Occupational Therapy Practitioners work to benefit all students to achieve greater success in academic performance and enhance social participation. They can support children in general education, at-risk children, and those identified for special education. Occupational therapy practitioners support educators so that students achieve adequate yearly progress and maintain appropriate school behavior necessary for learning. OT’s often provide educators with classroom modifications to ensure a student’s success.