Occupational Therapy: Building a Strong Foundation for Success in Daily Activities and Beyond

Occupational Therapy: Building a Strong Foundation for Success in Daily Activities and Beyond

Occupational Therapist making life fit for living. OT can help you perform any task at school, work, at home, play, sports, or stay active.

Pediatric OTs look at how you do any kind of activity or task. Then come up with a plan to improve the way
you do it to make it easier or less painful. They use a variety of techniques and tools, such as sensory
integration therapy, play-based therapy, fine motor skill development, and adaptive equipment to help
children achieve their goals.

OTs skills or aspects that allow the child to perform these “jobs”:
• Motor Development and Motor Planning
• Feeding and Oral Motor skills
• Cognitive Development
• Visual Processing skills
• Sensory processing
• Self-regulation
• Social and emotional skills
• Emotional-regulation
• Social participation
• Executive functioning skills- organization, attention, working memory, planning, prioritization,
impulse control, and other skills
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Safety in the home and community
• Balance and coordination

Occupational therapy helps kids play, improves their school performance, and aids their daily activities. It also boosts their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.

With OT, kids can:

• Develop fine motor skills so they can grasp and release toys and develop good handwriting or
computer skills.
• Improve eye–hand coordination so they can play and do needed school skills such as bat a ball and
copy from a blackboard.
• Learn basic life skills such as bathing, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and self-feeding.
• Learn positive behaviors and social skills by practicing how they manage frustration and anger.
• improve attention and social skills to allow the development of interpersonal relationships.

Occupational therapists always strive to be evidence-based and client-centered in their practice. This means
that whatever assessments and treatments they use with your child are backed by research and experience
(evidence-based) and are specifically geared toward your child’s interests and needs.