What is Paediatric Occupational Therapy (OT)?
Paediatric OT focuses on helping children develop the skills and strategies they need to participate in everyday life/activities. Including:
- Fine motor skills: Writing, drawing, cutting, buttoning, tying shoelaces, and using utensils.
- Gross motor skills: Running, jumping, climbing, throwing, catching, balance, coordination.
- Sensory processing: How children experience, interpret and respond to sensory information.
- Self-care skills: Dressing, toileting, grooming, sleeping, eating and managing routines.
- Play skills: Imaginative play, social interactions, turn-taking and sharing.
- Social-emotional development: Understanding emotions, building on the capacity to regulate emotions, co-regulation supports, strengthening relationships, and developing social connections.
- Cognitive skills: Attention, memory, problem-solving, planning, organisation and executive function.
While every child develops at their own pace, if you notice any delays, someone mentioned your child having delays or have any questions in the above areas, OT input may be beneficial for your child and family.
When to Consider Paediatric OT:
While every child develops at their own pace, some signs that may indicate a need for OT include:
- Fine motor delays: Difficulty with writing, drawing, cutting, using utensils, buttoning clothes.
- Gross motor delays: Clumsiness, difficulty with running, jumping, climbing, poor balance.
- Sensory processing challenges: Over- or under-sensitivity to touch, sound, light, movement.
- Difficulties with self-care: Challenges with dressing, toileting, grooming, sleeping, feeding or managing routimes.
- Social-emotional difficulties: Difficulty making friends, managing emotions, engaging in social play.
- Academic difficulties: Challenges with handwriting, attention and organisation.
The role of an Occupational Therapist is to analyse activities and tasks that a child is finding challenging and work out which part is difficult and why. From there, we work with the child and their family to develop strategies to support progress with skill development.
Paediatric Occupational Therapists Work Alongside Families, Teachers and Healthcare Services to:
- Enable children to develop confidence and independence to perform life skills.
- Promote development and inspire children to learn and be more meaningfully involved in the world around them.
- Assist children to develop and strengthen their skills that support learning, play and their relationships at home and at school.
Parent Involvement
When a child is having some developmental challenges and needs to work with an Occupational Therapist, their parents enter a world of therapists and services that is new and unfamiliar to most of them. The process of evaluation and development of an intervention plan can be intimidating. It may be tempting for parents to rely on the therapist to “fix” the problem. However, when parents understand their child’s diagnosis and become active participants in the intervention process, there are benefits not just for the child but for the parents, family and therapists.
Given the number of hours per day a child spends with family versus therapist, opportunities for practice are multiplied when parents encourage practice outside of therapy sessions. Extending therapy targets into the child’s home environment promotes learning.
The therapy process affects the entire family, not just the child attending therapy. Parents and other family members who are actively involved in the therapy process are more likely to be comfortable giving valuable feedback to the therapist. Such feedback can help the therapist determine the next steps in the continuing evolution of therapy goals. It may also help the therapist recognize what they do that works well for the child and their family and what they do that is not as effective. We lay the foundations in the clinic room and then regular practice and transfer of skills needs to happens in day to day ‘real’ life. Home practice is the key to success!
— Lize Roos
Children’s Skill Development is Much Like Building a House.
Before erecting the walls and the roof of a house, a solid foundation must first be laid. In the same way a child must first master underlying (hidden) abilities before being able to successfully perform more refined tasks/activities.
Foundation:
The ability to effectively process sensory information (touch, sight, taste, sound and smell) that allows the child to register the world around them, as well as to know how to use their bodies.
Walls:
Physical components such as finger strength, hand dexterity, postural control.
Roof:
Refined skills like bike riding or handwriting, getting dressed, feeding themselves, tying shoelaces, catching a ball, etc.
We are all unique. Each one of us has our own strengths and challenges, our own amazing and creative ways of thinking, and our own personalities. When we look at all the beautiful “houses” in our village, we see that together, we create something magical. Here at Building Blocks Therapy, we are invited to be a part of a family’s journey—your village. This is not a role we take lightly, and we see it as a privilege.