Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapists are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of
human growth and development with specific emphasis on the social, emotional, and
physiological effects of illness and injury. Services typically include
- Customized treatment programs to improve one's ability to perform daily activities
- Comprehensive home and job site evaluations with adaptation recommendations
- Performance skills assessments and treatment
- Adaptive equipment recommendations and usage training
- Guidance to family members and caregivers
An OT can address many areas, including the following.
- Delays (developmental)
- Attention and focus
- Writing problems
- Self dressing/grooming (Activities of Daily Living)
- Strengthening - general and specific
- Gross motor concerns
- Coordination difficulties
- Sensory motor processing
- Perceptual difficulties
- Oral motor weakness
- Fine motor concerns
Occupational therapy (OT) helps people improve their ability to perform tasks in their daily living and working environments. They work with individuals who have conditions that are mentally, physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabling. They also help to develop, recover, or maintain daily living and work skills. Occupational therapists help clients not only to improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, but also to compensate for permanent loss of function. Their goal is to help clients have independent, productive, and satisfying lives. This can include activities of all types, ranging from:
- Using a computer
- Daily needs such as dressing, cooking, and eating
- Physical exercises may be used to increase strength and dexterity
- Improve visual acuity and the ability to discern patterns
- Short-term memory loss (i.e. make lists to aid recall)
- Coordination problems
- Exercises to improve hand-eye coordination
- Occupational therapists can also use computer programs to help clients improve decision making, abstract-reasoning, problem-solving, and perceptual skills, as well as memory, sequencing, and coordination-all of which are important for independent living
Sensory Integration:
OT's consider an increasingly understood, yet complex system of sensory information. This is an area where the Occupational Therapists at B.R.A.I.N.S. strive to provide evaluation and treatment for children struggling to acclimate to the stimuli within the environment. There are seven senses that form the foundation of sensory integration.
- Visual
- Auditory
- Touch
- Smell
- Taste
- Vestibular (pull of gravity)
- Proprioception (body awareness and movement).
These senses provide information about both our external environment and our internal environment.
Our brain uses this information to form a composite picture of who we are physically, where
we are, and what is going on around us. Sensory integration is the critical function of the
brain that is responsible for producing this composite picture. Sensory integration is the
foundation that allows for complex learning and behavior.
Some warning signs/symptoms can be suggestive of sensory integration concerns:
- Difficulty with writing and other hand skills
- Delays in speech, language, or motor skills
- Social and emotional problems
- Inability to unwind or calm self
- Difficulty with transitions between situations
- Difficulty with self-feeding & dressing skills
- Easily distracted
- Impulsive, lacking in self-control
- Delays in academic achievement
Occupational Therapists can offer a variety of treatment interventions. Some of the more common titles include:
- Developmental screening/testing
- Visual motor testing
- Therapeutic listening
- Oral motor stretching
- Visual perceptual testing
- Sensory integration services
- Craniosacral therapy
- Oral motor strengthening
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