Treatment Approaches: What to look out for in your child

COGNITIVE AND PERCEPTUAL THERAPY
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Visual discrimination - finding the similarities & differences
• Visual spatial relationships - being able to identify reversals of objects & symbols
• Visual sequential memory - to recall a shape from 4 choices after 4-5 seconds
• Visual memory - identifying a shape that has been memorized from the previous page
• Visual form constancy - finding the same shape when it is resized or rotated
• Visual figure ground - finding an object within a busy background

What to look out for in your child

• Inattention and distractibility to written and or reading tasks
• Difficulty in letter recognition and letter reproduction
• Reversal of letters such as b for d or p for q
• Difficulty copying from a blackboard or a whiteboard
• Poor orientation of puzzle pieces - "gives up"
• Poor at following instructions Cognitive and Perceptual

SELF CARE
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Orientate clothing, shoes & socks
• Right & left discrimination while dressing
• Back & front discrimination while dressing
• Strategies, techniques & ideas for cues when dressing (visual, physical or verbal)
• Feeding: grasp, bilateral co-ordination (knife & fork), strength, control
• Bathing: includes back care techniques for parents. Sequencing body parts to wash (rhyme)
• Hygiene: toileting, grooming (hair & teeth brushing), nail care

What to look out for in your child

• Dressing: clothes or shoes on backwards
• Dressing: shoes on wrong feet
• Food is pushed off plate
• Messy eaters

SENSORY PROCESSING
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Auditory (sound) processing – responds negatively to unexpected noise, holds hands over ears to protect from noise, cannot work with background noise, and seems oblivious in an active environment.
• Olfactory (smell) processing – avoids smells typical for the child’s age, smells nonfood objects,  seeks out various smells, doesn’t smell strong odors
• Visual (eye) processing – prefers being in the dark, hesitates going up or down stairs, avoids bright lights, stares intensely at objects or people, avoids eye contact
• Tactile (touch) processing – avoids getting messy, touches people or objects to the point of irritating others, is sensitive to certain fabrics, avoids shoes, avoids going barefoot, decreased awareness of pain or temperature
• Oral (mouth) processing – avoids tastes that are typical for the child’s age, seeks out various tastes
• Body position processing – continually seeks all kinds of movement that interferes with daily activities, hangs on people/objects even in familiar situations, seems to tire easily/poor endurance
• Vestibular processing – is anxious when feet leave the ground, avoids climbing/jumping, avoids playgrounds, seeks all kinds of movement that interferes with daily activities, takes excessive risks during play
• Multisensory processing – struggles with modulation (turning up or down the volume of 1 or multiple forms of stimulus)

What to watch for in your child if you suspect sensory integration dysfunction:

• An acute awareness of background noises
• Fascination with lights, fans, water
• Hand flapping/repetitive movements
• Spinning items, taking things apart
• Walking on tip-toe
• Little awareness of pain or temperature
• Coordination problems
• Unusually high or low activity level
• Difficulty with transitions (doesn't "go with the flow")
• Self-Injury or aggression
• Extremes of activity level (either hyperactive or under active).
• Fearful in space (on the swings, seesaw or heights).
• Striking out at someone who accidentally brushes by them.
• Avoidance of physical contact with people and with certain "textures," such as sand, paste and finger paints.
• The child may react strongly to stimuli on face, hands and feet.
• A child may have a very short attention span and become easily distracted.
• A strong dislike of certain grooming activities, such as brushing the teeth, washing the face, having the hair brushed or cut.
• An unusual sensitivity to sounds and smells.
• A child may refuse to wear certain clothes or insist on wearing long sleeves/pants so that the skin is not exposed.
• Frequently adjusts clothing, pushing up sleeves and/or pant legs.

SOCIAL SKILLS
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Co-operative play / sharing skills
• Develop self concept / self esteem
• Attention
• Listening skills
• Following directions

What to look out for in your child

• Withdrawal from social situations
  Lack of group interaction (avoidance)
  Lack of confidence in oneself
  Poor eye contact
  Poor body language

FINE MOTOR
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Finger, hand strength, position & stability
• Pencil grip & control
• Wrist &/or forearm control
• Copying shapes
• Fluency / finger movements
• Spatial organization (space & letter formation)
• Quality of work
• Visual perception skills
• Speed & dexterity
• Tweezers, scissors, finger isolated movements

What to look out for in your child

• No interest in fine motor skills
• Gross pencil grasp
• Poor scissor skills
• Clumsy grasp & release skills
• Difficulty holding small objects, manipulating tools, pencils or scissors
• Unable to complete mazes, dot-to-dots, etc
• Difficulty copying text from whiteboard or blackboard

GROSS MOTOR
Areas a Pediatric Occupational Therapist treats

• Ball skills - throwing & catching, hitting ball
• Balance: Hopping, balancing on one leg, walking on a balance beam, walking heel-toe
• Clumsiness
• Awkward running or jumping
• Co-ordination of body sides: difficulty skipping, doing star jumps
• Difficulty with dancing, Simon Says

What to look out for in your child

• Flinching or other responses when catching a ball
• Fear response to gross motor activities
• Level of avoidance or motivation to gross motor activities
• Unable to hop, skip, jump, run, etc
• Difficulty coordinating body sides