A healthcare profession that involves using assessment and intervention for development, recovery, and maintenance of essential daily activities is occupational therapy. Occupational therapy helps people of all age groups in leading their daily lives without the help of others. Within occupational therapy you will find specialists who choose to work with either kids or the elderly people.

The elders may require occupational therapy at times after witnessing a traumatic accident, severe illness, or similar situations. However, in kids the need for occupational therapy can be due to delays in timely development of skills. Injuries or illnesses may also be the reason for using occupational therapy amongst kids as well. Just by going on the internet and searching for occupational therapy pediatric near me you will find all the best occupational therapists.

Advantages of pediatric occupational therapy:

Amongst young individuals, the occupational therapists can be of immense benefits by helping with the following:

  • Occupational therapy works well for improving fine motor skills of the kids. Fine motor skills essentially help the child in performing activities like drawing, writing or buttoning up the shirt. For these activities the child uses small muscles in hands and fingers. If your child is facing any issues with these activities just ensure that you are consulting an occupational therapist.
  • Gross motor skills involves using large muscles in the body for completing tasks like running, walking, etc. Improvement of gross motor skills makes children active and allows them to move in their environment. With better gross motor skills children also take active participation in competition and other activities.
  • Sensory process enhancement also takes place with occupational therapy. Children sometimes face issues with paying attention, and easily distract away from the tasks at hand. The occupational therapists help kids in improving their attention span and becoming calm.
  • The moment a child starts going to school having a good handwriting becomes a concern for every parent. Occupational therapists are also capable of helping your child in improving their handwriting. They help them in holding the pencil in the right manner and guide them with proper paper positioning.
  • Social skills may hamper when a child is witnessing developmental delays. Understanding personal space, maintaining eye contact or taking turns is something they lag behind. The pediatric occupational therapists help in improving social skills of a child by playing games, role-playing, etc. 
  • Self-esteem and confidence is always low for children with developmental delays. By helping children with new skills and daily activities, the pediatric occupational therapists help in improving their confidence and self-esteem.

Process of occupational therapy

So now that you understand the key role as to how occupational therapy works for the betterment of your child, you must also learn the process that occupational therapists use. Mainly the following points will summarize how occupational therapy works:

  • Assessment

To bring a change in the condition of any child, the first step is to keenly observe and assess their behavior. Occupational therapy is all about helping the child become more independent. So to achieve this goal the occupational therapist first has to conduct a complete assessment of the child. Only when they will identify the areas that require work will they be able to move forward with the therapy. 

Therefore, an occupational therapist process is all about initial and repetitive assessments. During the assessment the focus remains on noting behavioral points about how the child functions in a particular environment. It also includes standard procedures, interviews, and consultation with significant people in the life of the child. 

  • Planning

Once the assessment is complete, then starts the planning process. Planning stage of the treatment involves identifying the different ways in which the development of a child may take place. The goal of this stage is to identify short and long term treatment plans. So the planning stage will involve coming up with relevant therapies that will affect the habits, roles, life-style preference and environment of the child. These therapies usually include games, role play or other interactive activities that bring a change in the child’s behavior.

  • Intervention

The intervention stage of the process focuses on the environment of the person. In this stage the therapists come up with unique ways that will help a particular person to adapt in their environment. The aim here is to help the child in improving his or her daily life activities. How they work, live or socialize become the work areas for the therapist. So to accomplish the main goal, therapists provide lessons and equipment that make the child independent in personal care and reduce stress. Usually occupational therapy takes some time but it definitely shows results that one can witness in daily activities.

  • Cooperation

The occupational therapist alone can not bring about all the change. Essentially pediatric occupational therapy believes in teamwork. Accordingly, occupational therapy works in collaboration with friends, family, caregivers and volunteers. Alone an occupational therapist can never show great change in the behavior. A holistic approach of working with the child will make them capable of socializing in different environments. Parents, siblings, relatives, and school teachers play an important role in the cooperation stage of occupational therapy. There is so much personal detail about the child that only close ones can disclose to the therapist. All this information is necessary to reach the ultimate goal.

Bottom line:

To conclude, choosing the right therapist at the right time will definitely bring a lot of improvement in your child’s development. All you need to do is consistently observe the development in your child. Whenever you witness problems with attentiveness, age development delays or similar issues, consult an occupational therapist. The occupational therapist works in collaboration with the child and their friends and family. In this manner your child is getting the necessary care in their comfort zone itself.