Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy supports and promotes the development and engagement of children and their families in everyday routines (occupations). These routines include play, rest, self care, education and social participation. Occupational therapy considers emotional, social, physical, sensory, cognitive, and adaptive behavior challenges that can be impacting a child’s ability to successfully engage in their daily life activities.

We look at the whole child in the following areas: gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, sensory motor and social-emotional skills.  Our clinic uses a developmental play approach in therapy, utilizing children’s natural means of learning and changing to facilitate development of skills.  Therapy is a child-led, movement and sensory rich, play based therapy.  Sessions are goal directed and structured to address the specific needs of each child.  Your evaluating occupational therapist will bring specific knowledge and expertise to help identify contributing factors that are impacting your child’s ability to participate successfully in daily life activities.  They will strive to work in collaboration with you to create an appropriate and relevant intervention plan.

View our  Developmental Motor Milestones Chart.

 

Who can benefit from OT?

Occupational therapists can help if your child exhibits difficulty with:

• Attention
• Emotional regulations
• Following directions
• Playing with toys and/or peers appropriately
• Feeding
• Dressing or other self care tasks
• Balance
• Fine motor skills
• Strength and endurance
• Gross motor skills

Types of Services

Comprehensive Evaluations for Occupational Therapy
During an occupational therapy evaluation, one or more of the following areas of concern may be formally or informally assessed; sensory processing, fine motor and gross motor skills, self-care, visual skills, social skills and cognitive abilities. Evaluations and assessments will provide a baseline of the child’s various skill areas and will allow us to look at the process in which a child completes various tasks asked of them during an evaluation. From an evaluation, we are able to determine recommendations for clinic based therapy or home program suggestions.

1:1 Direct Therapy
An occupational therapist will work with your child individually, targeting his/her specific goals or needs. 1:1 direct occupational therapy consists of goal oriented, play based therapy.

Home or School Consultations
A therapist will come into your home or school and make specific functional recommendations for you and your child based on their natural environment.

Home Programs
Carryover of clinical therapy skills into a child’s natural environment at home is essential for maximizing therapeutic potential. Our staff strives to work collaboratively with all of our families to support home programs that fit with your family’s daily life and schedule to optimize your child’s development.

In-services and Trainings
DTC will provide in-service training and workshops for families and the community as requested.

Speech and OT Co-Treatments
We can provide simultaneous treatment by an occupational therapist and speech therapist, creating the opportunity for the child to be organized and ready for increased speech production and functional communication.

After successfully completing one on one therapy, often times we transition our clients into peer paired groups to further support their skill development in more complex, dynamic and relevant environments.  These groups focus on learning new motor skills, increasing social interaction in natural setting, and improving self esteem and motivation. We use activity as a means to allow children with similar interests to participate in activities of their choice while engaging with others.

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