Occupational Therapist
How an Occupational Therapist Can Support Your Child’s Development
An occupational therapist can support your child’s functional skill development so that they can perform tasks independently. Our professional and skilled therapists have extensive experience working with children who have suffered trauma, have complex needs, developmental delays, or disabilities. Whether your child has issues with gross or fine motor skills, sensory issues, visual-perceptual skill or other abilities, our therapists tailor a programme to suit your child’s requirements.
Signs You Should Invest in Occupational Therapy For Kids
Consider these signs that your child may benefit from seeing a kids’ occupational therapist.
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Your child has difficulty achieving developmental milestones: Occupational therapy can benefit children who display signs of developmental delays. For example, if your one-year-old hasn’t started crawling or you notice that your toddler seems unsteady when they walk. If you have any concerns about developmental delays, you can bring your child in for an assessment with our friendly therapists.
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You have concerns about your child’s fine motor skills: Some children can have difficulty with tasks that require strength, control and dexterity of the small hand muscles. With early intervention and support from our therapists, children can strengthen these fine motor skills so that they can complete activities such as drawing, string beads, use scissors and utensils, and other tasks, independently.
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Your child displays sensory processing issues: Children with sensory processing problems can overreact to taste, touch, sounds, and smells, or they can have an under-sensitivity to sensations. In either case, the child processes sensory information differently from other people, which our child occupational therapist can help your child and family to understand and manage.
Occupational therapy can help your child to have better self and body awareness and enhance their sense of accomplishment and self-esteem.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy for Children
A wide range of children with disabilities and disorders can benefit from occupational therapy and support a child in leading an independent life.
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Children with cerebral palsy: Children with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or another condition in which a child requires a wheelchair can find valuable support in seeing an occupational therapist. For example, your child can learn to use their wheelchair properly and navigate obstacles.
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Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: If your child has difficulty communicating with other people, limited play, or displays less interest in activities may benefit from occupational therapy. After a comprehensive assessment, our therapist will tailor a programme to improve your child’s interaction, communication, coordination and awareness of their environment.
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Children who have issues with fine and gross motor skills: Gross motor skills are those which require the entire body to move, while fine motor skills are small, more complex movements. You need both these skills for everyday activities such as standing, walking, sitting, writing, eating and more. Our occupational therapists can help improve any issues with fine or gross motor skills so that your child can carry out tasks appropriately and confidently.
Tips for Our Geelong Occupational Therapy
Consider our tips to get more value out of your occupational therapy sessions.
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Be prepared to answer questions about your child’s development and abilities: An occupational therapist will ask you a wide range of questions about your child and their struggles. This information helps the therapist gain a better understanding of your child’s difficulties so that they can put together a personalised programme. Parents need to have input into the therapy program so you should also think about what your expectations and goals are for your child and share this with the therapist.
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Dress your child in comfortable clothing: Your child’s therapy sessions may include a wide selection of activities such as playing on slides, scooters, and more, so you want to ensure that they have comfortable clothing that makes it easy for them to move around. You may also want to avoid giving your child a big meal before the session if you know there will be a lot of playing, jumping and running.
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Take notes: The occupational therapist may have a few suggestions of activities you can do at home with your child. By writing down these suggestions, you won’t miss any details or forget what you should do. You can also ask the therapist questions for clarification, for example, “why are they performing a task a certain way?”. This explanation can help you to have a better understanding of your child’s needs and benefit more from therapy sessions.
Why Trust Dot to Dot Early Intervention Regarding Occupational Therapy in Geelong?
We provide professional and friendly occupational therapy tailored to your child’s requirements. Our qualified and highly trained child therapists have extensive experience working with different disabilities, disorders and trauma and use best practice therapy when creating custom therapy programmes. We can help your child with a wide range of issues such as learning to express themselves, understanding others, eating various foods, playing with other children, participating in everyday activities, and more. Our early intervention clinic offers a range of services, including speech therapy, music groups, parent training programmes and comprehensive assessments for children up to the age of seven. Contact us to discuss your concerns or to book an assessment for your child with our occupational therapist.