SERVICES
What Is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do throughout their day through therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Occupational therapy practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health and prevent – or live better with – injury, illness, or disability. Common occupational therapy interventions include helping children with disabilities, or different need, participate fully in school and social situations, helping people recovering from injury regain skills, and providing supports for older adults experiencing physical and cognitive changes. Occupational therapy practitioners have a holistic perspective, in which the focus is on adapting the environment and/or task to fit the person. The person is an integral part of the therapy team. Occupational therapy is an evidence-based practice deeply rooted in science.
Our occupational therapy services typically include:
- an individualized evaluation lasting approximately an hour, during which the client/family/caregiver and occupational therapist complete assessment to determine skill level and personal goals for treatment if recommended.
- customized intervention plan based on information retrieved from the initial evaluation will be drafted to assist in improving the person’s ability to perform daily activities and reach the goals.
- sessions are one hour long, once a week, addressing goals through therapeutic activity, which for a child is play, and education with our occupational therapist or occupational therapy assistant.
- an outcomes evaluation, or re-evaluation, are done after initial recommend numbers of sessions to ensure that the goals are being met and/or make changes to the intervention plan to ensure client is meeting development milestones or family concerns/goals.
Activities of Daily Living/Self-Help and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
Activities of daily living or self-help skills are defined as bathing/showering, dressing, feeding/eating, toileting, functional mobility, and personal hygiene/grooming, which are all essential skills for day to day life.
Instrumental activities of daily living are activities that support daily life such as, care of others or pets, communication, community mobility/driving, meal preparation, cleaning, and safety awareness.
These are skills that are important during day to day life and when there is difficulty in one or more of these skills or a component of these skills it can lead to decreased independence.
Attention
Attention is the ability to maintain focus on and respond to stimuli from within the environment. This is all happening from the neural networks within the brain.
Attention is required for learning and acquiring information which is necessary for multiple aspects for day to day activities. Difficulty with attention can lead to trouble in the classroom, behaviors, challenges learning new skills, and decreased participation in daily routines.
Environmental Adaptations
Environmental adaptations are when changes to the environment are being made to the form, function, and/or behavior which help an individual adjust and become more successful in the environment.
Environmental adaptations are required to manipulate the environment and participate in day to day activities. When there is difficulty with environmental adaptations it can lead to decreased independence and participation in daily activities that are meaningful to the individual.
Executive Functioning/Learning
Executive functioning involves planning, decision making, problem solving, sequencing, organization, flexibility, and inhibitory control; which are often supported by the use of language, judgment, abstract thought, logic, and reasoning. Executive functioning is associated with neural networks within the frontal lobe, particularly the prefrontal cortex.
These are skills that are important to learning and participating in multiple aspects of daily life. Lack of executive functioning skills can hinder learning of new skills, higher level daily aspects, and independence.
Fine Motor
Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles in movements – usually involving the synchronization of hands and fingers.
These skills are important in learning and in life. Lack of fine motor skills leads to difficulty with handwriting, self-help skills, crafts, paper-pencil tasks, and other daily activities.
Gross Motor, Motor Planning, Strength, & Balance
Gross motor skills are those that require whole body movements which involve the core stabilizing muscles of the body to perform everyday tasks.
Strength and balance work together to make it easier to do gross motor movements and help to prevent falls. To many of us, the ability to complete motor skills seems automatic but to some it can be classified as dyspraxia and requires assistance to create a motor plan.
Motor planning and sequencing first involves generating an idea of what you need to do (ideation), figuring out how you are going to do it (motor plan), and then carrying out what you intended to do (execution).
Children with poor gross motor, motor planning, strength, coordination, and balance skills may have to think harder to complete new physical tasks due to poorly integrated information from the sensory systems which can be seen as delays/difficulties with developmental milestones, difficulty keeping up with same aged peers, might be considered as clumsy, or trouble planning out motor movements.
Kinesio Taping
Kinesio Taping is a technique used to help develop motor skills. It may be an option before trying splinting or other more invasive methods of muscle tone management. To keep people comfortable and optimally functioning and minimize pain, Kinesio Taping techniques are constantly refined and advanced.
Handwriting
Handwriting is an important aspect of childhood, both during school life and at home, as it helps to display their cognitive ability. Factors that are considered when talking about handwriting include hand strength and grasp analysis, postural stability and stamina, figure-ground discrimination, visual perception, pattern formation, and the understanding of the importance of spacing, alignment, letter size and shape.
Poor handwriting can lead to an inaccurate representation of your child’s ability understanding a concept because of their difficulty communicating through writing which is mostly done during assignments in school which can cause frustration. If a child has difficulty with handwriting there may also be other underlying consideration to the struggles.
Neuro Re-Education
Neuro Re-Education uses techniques in order to re-train the brain, muscles, and nerves in order to allow them to communicate with each other and restore normal functioning of the muscles and nerves as well as overall nervous system. This can also be done when individuals have had difficulty in developmental milestones due to their nervous system not being typically developed.
Neuro Re-Education can improve overall movement, balance, coordination, sensation, and proprioception which are all important aspects that are required to participate in daily life.
Interactive Metronome
The Interactive Metronome® (IM) is a computer-based training program that has been shown to improve attention, coordination, motor planning, sequencing and timing for individuals with sensory processing difficulties. People who may benefit from use of the IM include people with sensory processing disorders, attention deficit disorders, motor planning problems, poor coordination, gross and fine-motor concerns, as well as learning and language disorders. IM can also be used to improve academic performance and a wide range of cognitive difficulties. More information can be found at interactivemetronome.com.
Play & Social Skills
Play skills require planning, sequencing, and problem solving with the ability to imagine, explore, and make decisions. Social skills require interacting and communicating with others, whether that be during play.
These skills are important aspects of a child’s development and interaction with others. When children show difficulty in these areas they lack the ability to play at age appropriate skills and interact with others in an appropriate manner as well as can demonstrate increased frustration or lack of interest.
Picky Eaters & Feeding/Oral Motor Challenges
Picky eating and/or feeding challenges can occur for a variety of reasons: food texture sensitivity, tactile and/or olfactory sensitivities, low jaw strength, limited oral awareness, poor tongue control, low muscle tone, inefficient lip closure, restricted tongue range of motion, poor interoception of recognizing hunger signals, etc. Its impact can spread beyond feeding activities and affect dental visits and toothbrushing along with interactions with family during meal time.
Reflex Integration
Primitive reflexes that have specific purposes to help protect or assist infants with functions during birth and early infant development. These reflexes become less adaptive within those early infant years and should integrate before toddlerhood.
However, if these reflexes do not properly integrate for a variety of reasons, it can then cause negative symptoms during a person’s daily activities such as hyper-reactivity, postural struggles, illegible handwriting, poor hand-eye coordination, decreased attention, etc.
Rhythmic Movement
Rhythmic Movement Training (RMT) is a motor training program developed on the basis of the spontaneous rhythmic movements that infants normally do. RMT looks at the integration of primitive reflexes, using reflex strategies to further support neurological development. RMT helps the brain to make new connections which are needed for further developmental growth to improve attention, emotional and self-regulation. More information can be found at rhythmicmovement.com.
Sensory Processing
Sensory processing disorder or SPD happens because the brain has trouble organizing information from the senses. Familiar senses are touch, smell, hearing, vision and taste. Other less familiar senses that are extremely important include vestibular, proprioception, and interoception.
If a child is struggling at home or in school because of sensory processing difficulties, strategies are developed to better understand your child. Having a clear picture of how one senses the world will aid in modifying or adapting one’s surroundings while also developing accommodation skills.
Therapeutic Listening
Therapeutic Listening is comprehensive, multi-faceted sound based intervention that works to enhance development and sensory integration. The auditory system is used to neurologically connect to all levels of brain functions in order impact physiology and behavior. The music used in Therapeutic Listening gives the individual a unique but highly individualized sensory information. The music is modified to capture certain aspects desired by therapist during session either attention, activation of motor movements, or synchronizing, along with self-organizations capacities within the nervous system. This approach is used in additions to other sensory integration treatments and interventions to enhance overall benefits. More information can be found at vitallinks.com/therapeutic-listening.
Social & Emotional Regulation
Social emotional regulation is one’s ability to utilize control over their own emotional state by being able to re-think situations in order find a sense of calming in a variety of different social scenarios.
The skills utilized in social emotional regulations are important aspects of everyday life when interacting with parents, peers, teachers, and other individuals in one’s life. If a child is struggling in the area of social emotional regulation it can often look like outbursts, difficulties controlling emotions, aggressive behaviors, inability to manage emotions, difficulty managing change, etc. which can hinder interactions with others in their daily lives.
Spasticity Management
Spasticity is a symptom and characteristic of certain neurological conditions that causes certain muscles to contract all at once which is caused by an imbalance of signals from the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to the muscles. Muscles stiffen or tighten, preventing normal fluid movement making muscles remain contracted and resist being stretched.
Spasticity management within occupational therapy focuses more on upper extremity stretching, strengthening, and training to perform daily activities. Spasticity can interfere with many aspects of daily activity which can require adaptations.
Therapeutic Positioning & Wheelchair Management
Positioning is one of the first learned and most important aspects of our daily lives. When the skeletal systems in aligned and children are positioned symmetrically, each side of the body develops equal and adequate muscle strength for postural stability.
Lack of proper positioning leads to decreased comfort, increased fatigue, and can increase difficulty when completing daily tasks such as dressing, feeding, and playing. Proper positioning is necessary while standing, seated at a table or desk, or in a wheelchair.
Wheelchair management focuses on proper positioning, sizing, and safety adaptations in order to be more successful with community mobility and participation in activity of daily living and leisure time.
Visual Skills
- Visual motor skills – problems present when there are challenges in coordinating visual perception, what is being seen, with motor skills such as gross or fine motor skills. Difficulties can be seen in task that mostly involve hand eye coordination such as writing, drawing, or catching a ball.
- Visual perception – problems present when a child is unable to process or make sense of the visual information that is taken in by the eye. Trouble with letter reversal, reading comprehension, handwriting, and more. Skills that are also hindered are form discrimination, spatial relations, object recognition, figure ground, visual closure, form constancy, visual memory, and whole/part relationships.
- Visual scanning – problems present when eyes do not move independently from head or unable to smoothly track in all directions for several repetitions without fatigue. This will cause difficulty with many daily activities including reading, handwriting, drawing, driving, sports, etc.
- Visual attention – problems present when one is unable to sustain visual focus on a target for a specific length of time. Signs of low visual attention may include fatiguing quickly, rubbing the eyes, excessive blinking, quickly shifting between activities, headaches, frequent head/ eye movements away from a task/ person, poor balance, distractibility, and/ or an impaired performance in tasks requiring visual focus such as writing, art, self-help tasks, reading, etc.
- Visual discrimination – problems present when one is not able to see the difference between two different objects (b vs d or p vs q).
- Visual figure-ground discrimination – problems present when one is not able to pull out a shape from its background.
- Visual sequencing – problems present when one is not able to tell the order of symbols, words or images.
- Visual-motor processing – problems present when one is not able to use feedback from the eyes to coordinate the movement of other parts of the body.
- Long- or short-term visual memory – problems present when one is not able to recall what they’ve seen.
- Visual-spatial – problems present when one is not able to tell where objects are in space. That includes how far things are from them and from each other.
- Visual closure – problems present when one is not able to identify an object when only parts are visible.
- Letter and symbol reversal – problems present when one is switching letters or numbers when writing or substituting letters while reading. They also have trouble with letter formation that affects reading, writing and math skills.
