Occupational Therapy
A child's development can sometimes be affected by underlying issues creating challenges in obtaining age appropriate skills. These issues can include:
Fine Motor Weakness
Fine motor weakness relates to the small muscles of the hands which are important in most childhood activities.
Fine motor strength and dexterity enables such functions as eating, grasping toys, writing, and fastening clothing.
Our hands allow us to interact with our world. Children who have fine motor issues have less opportunity to take in information from the environment and gain experience which leads to learning.
Sensory Integration Disorders
Sensory Integration refers to how people process the information provided by the senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, auditory, vestibular, and proprioception) in order to gain a complete understanding of what is happening around them. Our senses work together to give us a reliable picture of the world so we can respond in an adaptive manor.
For some children sensory integration is not efficient. Children with sensory integration disfunction have difficulty figuring out what is going on both inside their bodies and in the world around them. The information they receive from their senses is not necessarily accurate. As a result, a child may avoid confusing or distressing sensations or seek out more of the sensation to get information they need. For example, a child who has difficulty integrating tactile information may avoid experiences such as getting his/her messy with paint, sand, or glue, while another child may crave touch and actively seek it out.
Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body that enable functional skills such as walking, kicking, sitting upright, lifting and throwing a ball. A person’s gross motor skills are affected by muscle tone and strength as well as sensory integration. Gross motor skills are important for maintaining balance, coordination, jumping and reaching. Children with poor gross motor function may have difficulty with writing, sitting up, and posture for classroom activities. Sensory integration deficits can also contribute to impaired gross motor skills.
Occular Motor Issues
Vision is one of our most influential senses. Visual-perception is responsible for functional vision including the extraction, organization, and interpretation of visual input.
Visual perceptual deficits can lead to difficulties with eating, dressing, reading, writing, and many more activities necessary for functional independence.
Ocular motor therapy addresses these issues by focusing on finding and tracking objects, sustaining eye contact, and eye hand/eye foot coordination.
Autistic Spectrum Disorders
Many children with autism also have sensory processing disorder. They may be over or under-reactive to light, noise, touch, taste, smell, or movement. For some children, these differences are overwhelming and make it difficult to engage in everyday activities. These differences may be treatable with sensory integration therapy. Sensory integration involves specific activities which help the child regulate his or her sensory responses. The outcome can include better focus, improved behavior, and decreased anxiety.
