Occupational therapy for children often known as pediatric occupational therapy helps kids who are struggling with achieving age-appropriate developmental milestones. Occupational therapy helps people during all stages of life including when they are an infant. The process of Occupational Therapy helps people to develop, recover, and improve from any kinds of impairments or disabilities.
We need to have a close eye on our kids to identify whether they are struggling with any of the basic life skills. Everyone has an occupation during all stages of life and when it comes to children, their occupation is to play, explore their environment, and have a good social interaction. The primary occupation of a child is considered to be playing. Kids develop most of their fine and gross motor skills and other cognitive skills through playing and interacting with their everyday environment.
Fine motor skills involve grabbing, holding, and releasing objects like toys and balls which often require coordinating movements of hands and fingers with eyes, which is known as hand-eye coordination. Gross motor skills refer to a movement that includes walking, jumping, kicking, climbing stairs, and more.
Some children may fail to develop essential life skills due to their physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments. They often experience difficulties with their fine or gross motor skills, sensory processing, visual perceptual skills, and other similar abilities. Occupational therapy for kids can bring a huge difference in these types of cases and improve functional independence in their daily life.
When Do You Need Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy can do wonders for children having cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, kids with developmental delay, Autism, ADHD, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and sensory processing disorders.
Along with these issues, occupational therapists provide treatment for children having neurological disorders, orthopaedic difficulties, social problems, and genetic issues. Your child might need the help of an OT if they have complications in the following areas of development:
Basic Developmental Delays.
Basic developmental delays can affect a child’s intellectual functioning which will result in learning difficulties. We must recognize the problems faced by our children and help them.
Sensory Processing Difficulties
It refers to a group of symptoms and related behaviors that happens when someone has difficulty grabbing information and responding appropriately to it. It can be related to hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste, or internal sensations like pain and movement sensation.
Problems With Fine and Gross Motor Skills
Children with neurological problems or developmental delays may have problems with developing fine motor skills. The delay in gross motor skill development can be a sign of dyspraxia. OT can be helpful in these cases as it focuses on motor planning, balance coordination, and self-regulation skills.
Visual Processing
Children with visual processing difficulties struggle with the brain processing their visual information. Trouble drawing or copying, and the inability to detect differences in letters, shapes, and sizes are some of the symptoms showing your kid has visual processing disorders.
Social Interaction Skills
It’s difficult to watch our children struggle with basic interaction skills. Occupational Therapy will help them to learn excellent social interaction skills and positive behavior by enabling them to manage disappointment, frustration, and anger.
Learning Difficulties
If your child is struggling with his or her learning it can be due to any of the above-mentioned reasons. They are kids and probably don’t understand what’s happening with them and how to seek help. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to take care of these struggles faced by your sweethearts.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy is a highly structured, goal-oriented, and personally tailored program that aims at meeting each patient’s needs. The following are a few benefits of OT for kids:
- Allows them to enjoy their childhood, let them engage in play and other fun activities
- Helps them to develop the skills to adapt to changes
- Helps them with their sensory processing
- Helps them develop better focus in their day-to-day life.
- Help them do their daily tasks on their own without depending on others.
- Helps them to have a normal social life.
We hope now you got an idea about how occupational therapy for children works. Don’t hesitate to contact Entrust Care if your precious little ones are struggling with any of the above-mentioned difficulties.