Occupational Therapy

Overview

Occupational therapy (OT) enables people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health, maintain or rebuild their independence, make lifestyle or environmental changes and prevent—or live better with—injury, illness or disability.

For children with developmental delays—or known physical or mental conditions associated with delays—OT can enhance development, minimize the potential for developmental delay and help families meet the special needs of their child from infancy through young adulthood.

Specifically, OT services help improve:

- Motor skills
- Cognitive skills
- Sensory processing
- Communication and play skills

Families improve outcomes for children

Research shows that clear, dependable and rewarding responses from caregivers motivates a child to learn, be happy about accomplishments and take pleasure in play.

OT services are tailored to the child and the child’s family, including parents, siblings and other caregivers—and services adapt as the family’s needs change. OT clinicians work within the child and family situation—at home, nursery school or the playground. They support and encourage the family to spend time working with the child between OT visits.

IDEA and other mandates

Early intervention programs for children ages 0-3 and therapy and support services needed for later life can be funded by federal, state and local dollars. OT can benefit children with many specific conditions (Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder), in addition to children with no clear diagnosis.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates early intervention programs provide services in the natural environment (those typical for a child’s peers without disabilities) and within naturally occurring routines and activities of the family’s day.

Early Intervention & Diagnosis

Early diagnosis and intervention are key to achieving positive outcomes with children as they develop. If a child is eligible for early intervention, a service coordinator can work with a parent to develop an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), with needed services or supports.

OT may be the sole service or one of several services identified as best able to reach the goals the family has for the child.

Once referred, an OT clinician evaluates the child and identifies what parents and caregivers can do throughout the day to improve sensory processing, reinforce fine or gross motor skills or enable new learning.

After assessment, the OT clinician collaborates with the family, psychologists and medical professionals. Together they develop a specialized intervention plan that:

- Identifies and modifies sensory and environmental barriers that limit performance and participation in everyday activities—as well as individual strengths and supports
- Brings in other specialists as needed, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs), physical therapists, teachers and employers
- Teaches and models activities to support sensory, motor and behavioral needs
- Identifies and provides adaptive sensory and motor strategies to facilitate full participation in daily routines and social interactions
- Raises the individual’s self-awareness of how sensory and motor factors affect everyday life and provides ways to counter sensory processing and other challenges

Treatment at CFI

Different occupational therapies (OT) can benefit individuals, especially very young children, with various conditions. At CFI, these include:

Gross Motor Skills Development: For individuals with difficulties in achieving age-appropriate milestones in large muscle movement, such as walking, maintaining balance, coordination, reaching and motor planning

Fine Motor Skills Development: Assistance in developing strength and dexterity in using the hands to reach, grasp and release, along with related perceptual and sensory processing skills

Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT): For individuals with difficulties in processing, integrating and organizing sensory information from the body and environment

Sensory diet: Based on successful SIT under an OT clincian’s guidance, a list of activities or exercises given to the family to do at home. The family gives observational feedback to the clinician to determine if the activities or exercises are regulating the child.

Activities of daily living (ADLs): OT assistance for individuals who have delays, limitations or declines in performing essential and routine tasks, which otherwise could lead to unsafe conditions and poor quality of life

Listening therapies: Music-based, auditory stimulation method to treat individuals with distorted auditory perception or processing problems

Interactive metronome: Training program to improve processing abilities that affect attention, motor planning and sequencing, which in turn helps strengthen motor and cognitive skills

Wilbarger therapeutic protocol (brushing) for sensory integration: Involves brushing the body of individuals who are extremely sensitive to touch, fear or resist being touched, have difficulty transitioning between activities or are lethargic

Handwriting interventions: For young students with difficulty producing legible handwriting, for whatever reason, yielding multiple benefits

Visual motor/visual perceptual training: Developing and coordinating visual and motor systems of children with visual perceptual disorder to reach their potential for learning and daily living

Other Treatments

Therapies for coexisting problems

- In conjunction with OT, cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT) can help alleviate anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and other problems caused by sensory processing disorder.
- Many children with sensory processing disorder may have speech and language disorders or other development delays and need therapy to address their difficulties.
- If a child has another medical condition, then effective treatment for that condition may be important to improving a child’s overall functioning.
- Other recommended treatments depending on diagnosis

OT at Home

There are significant benefits for individuals of any age to get appropriate treatment from an OT clinician. However, these benefits are amplified and extended by an ability to continue skill building and exercises—under the therapist’s guidance—at home, in an environment where the individual is most comfortable. Also see sensory diet.

Medications

Depending on the condition and its severity, several medications are available to work with therapy to relieve symptoms and enhance long-term effectiveness.

CONNECT TO CARE

References

Interactive Metronome

American Occupational Therapy Association

American Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process

Advanced Brain Technologies

National Autism Resources on motor function

NAEYC.com

National Library of Medicine on therapeutic exercise

National Library of Medicine on ADL

National Library of Medicine on visual perceptual intervention

ScienceDirect

Sensory Integration Education