Our Occupational therapists provide services for children from birth to early adulthood. Occupational therapy focuses on helping your child to build the necessary skills needed to participate in their occupation – PLAY. Play is an important aspect of your child’s life that promotes language, social, and cognitive skills. Occupational therapy also focuses on developing fine motor, eye-hand coordination, self-help, and sensory processing skills. Along with developing these skills, occupational therapy services can enhance the potential of a child throughout their developmental years and build skills, self-confidence, and self-esteem that lasts a lifetime.
What is Sensory Integration?
There are seven senses that form the foundation of sensory integration, they are: visual, auditory, touch, smell, taste, vestibular (input regarding the position of one’s head in space in pull of gravity), and proprioception (awareness of one’s body and movement in space). The vestibular and proprioceptive systems work very closely together for one’s ability to develop many skills including attention and arousal, balance, and coordination. When speaking of sensory integration, we are speaking of the abilities of a person to take in sensory information from their environment, process that information within their brain, and then respond to that information appropriately. The appropriate response may be a motor output, emotional reaction, or to ignore the information altogether. Although the actual organs of a particular sensory system may be functioning adequately, if there is difficulty with the processing of that information in brain, then the response to the information may be affected. Sensory integration is the foundation that allows for complex learning and behavior.
Which children would benefit from SI or Occupational Therapy?
If after reviewing the signs and symptoms listed, you suspect your child may have a sensory integrative disorder, an evaluation can be conducted at our center by a qualified occupational therapist. Evaluations usually consist of both standardized testing and structured observation of responses to sensory stimulation, posture, balance, coordination, and eye movements. In general, children with developmental delay, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, down’s syndrome, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, spinal cord injury, cerebrovascular accident, traumatic brain injury, autism, pervasive developmental disorder, fine motor delays, sensory integration dysfunction, and handwriting skills benefit from OT and/or SI.
Who will be working with my child
Your child will be seen with one of our highly –qualified occupational therapists who specialize in the pediatric population. Our occupational therapists each have extensive experience in SI treatment for pediatrics, and stay up to date with the latest treatment techniques through continuing education. We will pair your child with the appropriate OT specific to his/her needs.
How do I know if my child needs OT?
Does your child exhibit…
Oversensitivity or undersensitivity to touch, taste, movement, smell or sight?
For example: Your child avoids touch, refuses to wear certain clothing, is a picky eater, covers his/her ears or eyes, or conversely, craves sensations like grabbing others, prefers hot bath water and spice foods, and seems oblivious to sensory cues.
Oversensitivity or undersensitivity to movement sensation?
For example: Your child seeks out movement like swinging, twirling, jumping, or avoids active games.
Unusually high or low activity level?
For example: Your child may be constantly on the go, wearing out everyone around him/her or moves slowly and tires easily, showing little interest in the world.
What diagnoses and treatment do you work with?
Common Diagnosis
• ADD
• ADHD
• Apraxia
• Auditory Processing Disorders
• Autism
• Cerebral Palsy
• Developmental Delay
• Down Syndrome
• Dyslexia
• Neurological Impairments
• Sensory Integration Dysfunction
Specialized Treatments
• Integrated Listening Systems
• Interactive Metronome
• The Listening Program
• Neuronet
• Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention
• Therapeutic Listening Therapy