Pediatric Occupational Therapy
Working with you and your child to maximize skill gains in a playful engaging environment to achieve goals we collaborate with you to set. Whenever we work with your child, we do our best to do so in a positive, child-affirming manner, honoring their individuality and unique perspective.
Regulation
Many of our clients are referred due to challenges with big behaviors resulting from big emotions. These clients often have no diagnosis, but are struggling with daily life activities and transitions at home and in the community. We use a variety of supports to maximize skill gain in this area, including building executive function skills, providing sensory supports and sensory integrative treatment if indicated, and parent education. Please see our page on Sensory Integration for further information.
Therapeutic Listening
Therapeutic Listening from www.VitalSounds.com is often combined with our work during treatment sessions and suggested as a home program possibility (when appropriate for an individual after they demonstrate feeling a benefit from it in the clinic). Therapeutic Listening is music that has been modulated in various ways to target specific areas of support. We have observed clients listen to certain selections and their body coordination improve, or anxiety decrease, and overall sense of feeling 'put together' improve. Our bodies function well when various rhythms within them are in sync with each other, and the rhythms of the music seem to support this sense of inherent organization.
Reflex Integration
Early developmental reflexes aid in acquiring motor skills when we are young. These reflexes are designed to be limited in time, integrating into our motor patterns such that we develop ease of movement and control of how we move our bodies. At times, for a wide variety of reasons (often unknown), these early reflexes remain active in our motor patterns, and become something an individual has to work against to complete tasks. We have observed these reflexes inhibit overall gross and fine motor coordination, affect reading and writing skills, and overall nervous system state. When developmental reflexes continue to influence us, we often find ourselves feeling increased stress and anxiety, wondering why we have to work harder to do things that it appears others master easily. At Journeys OT, we combine play activities, Musgatova Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration MNRI), Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) and other approaches to support integration of these motor patterns.
Fine Motor Skills
Our therapists utilize a variety of approaches to support fine motor skill development, as well as handwriting skills. This includes hand strengthening as well as separation and refinement of stabilizing and mobility skills within the hand. We provide handwriting support using a variety of curricula, including Handwriting Without Tears, First Strokes, Size Matters, and more. If a craft activity is chosen, it is specifically to support fine motor skill gain or for its sensory qualities. Some children also find crafts a method to support regulation. If you ever have a question regarding why a particular activity is chosen during your child's session, please feel free to ask the therapist so that they can explain their reasoning to you.
Ocular Motor Skills
Individuals struggling with fine motor skill development often have concurrent challenges in ocular-motor skills, which are another aspect of fine motor skills (due to the small muscles that control refined eye movements). Our therapists are trained to make appropriate referrals to Developmental Optometrists as needed, as well as to support underlying vestibular skills as a foundation for controlled eye movements. Once those skills are in place, ocular-motor skills are addressed through age-appropriate play activities and exercises. It is not unusual to see increased confidence as a result of the work we do together.