How Can Occupational Therapy Help My Child?

Occupational therapy can be helpful to all ages. It can help those who struggle with cognitive, physical, or sensory issues. Most people don’t need help in these areas, but when they do the help of an occupational therapist can give them a better quality of life. In this article, we will discuss occupational therapy for kids and ways occupational therapy can help your child.

What is Occupational Therapy for Kids?

Like all other professionals, occupational therapists have different training, education, and experience levels. Pediatric occupational therapists are occupational therapists for kids who create activities for kids who struggle to do things due to a disability, illness, or accident. They can also provide aids and equipment such as slings or splints to help support the child’s body if needed. These devices can help kids with difficult activities like opening a jar, putting their shoes on or taking a bath or shower.

Every kid learns at their own pace. Therefore, treatment could be for a short time or a longer time. It all depends on the progress they are making. Also, as children get older or change schools, sometimes you’ll find that their occupational therapy needs will change. Because of this, they may return to occupational therapy to help them master new or different skills. An occupational therapist can work with the child to figure out new and better ways to cope with problems that may arise in their environment. With time and practice, hard work will pay off.

Children’s Occupational Therapy

Not every child needs occupational therapy. However, some children may struggle to master skills such as motor skills, sensory processing, or visual perceptual skills. Also, if your child has had an injury or has a disability, occupational therapy can help them to better succeed in their lives day-to-day.

Occupational therapists may help children with autism. They can help the child learn how to interact with others. Also, occupational therapists can work with children who are struggling with sensory processing disorders to find ways to interact with their environment in a more comfortable and appropriate way. Let’s look at some signs that may say your child may benefit from occupational therapy.

Difficulty achieving age-appropriate development milestones

Any signs of developmental delays may indicate your child could benefit from occupational therapy. For example, your one-year-old child isn’t crawling yet, or your two-year-old isn’t walking steadily. It’s time to seek out professional help and get a consultation with an occupational therapist.

Issues with fine motor skills

Strength, dexterity, and control of the hand muscles are essential to accomplish tasks. Motor skills are used for all sorts of tasks. Some examples include using utensils, cutting paper with scissors, drawing, or stringing beads. If poor motor skills aren’t addressed before the child goes to school it could make tasks like writing and typing on the computer challenging.

Struggles with gross motor skills

Occupational therapy can help kids who struggle with gross motor skills such as difficulty with their balance, strength, coordination, and endurance. A lack of gross motor skills can lead to struggles with the ability to climb stairs, walk, hop, and play catch, among other activities.

Sensory processing problems

Kids with sensory problems will also benefit from occupational therapy; for example, if your child overreacts to touch, taste, smell, or sound. These are all signs of sensory processing problems. Kids can also experience under-sensitivity to the senses. This may lead to your child seeking out sensations by moving around and touching everything constantly.

Education challenges

Education can be a huge struggle for kids who need occupational therapy for everyday skills. It will eventually become apparent to you and especially the teacher that your child needs more help than you can give them. Struggles in school are sometimes miscategorized as laziness, intentionally disrupting the class, learning disabilities, and mental health concerns. To distinguish whether or not a child is just being disruptive or truly struggling academically you should identify any struggles with math or reading. Children struggling in one or both of these areas could benefit from working with an occupational therapist. Some signs may include lining up numbers, number reversals, handwriting difficulties, or how they hold their pencil.

Interacting with other kids

Playing and interacting with other kids is essential for their development and social skills. How is your child interacting with others? If you’re child struggles with an inability to understand sharing at an age-appropriate time, lacks the desire to spend time with other kids, struggles with independent play without parental involvement, struggles with imaginative play, has repetitive habits like only playing with two or three things every day, or seem to play aimlessly with a lack of purpose. These are all signs in which your child may benefit from working with an occupational therapist. Catching any of these issues early will help your child meet their developmental milestones.

Emotional regulation

We all have “good” days and “bad” days. However, sometimes children may struggle to understand their emotions or why they feel the way they do. They often need support from the adults in their lives to calm them down. Some signs a child struggles with emotional regulation include taking a long time to calm down when they are upset, don’t talk or like talking about their emotions, recognizing other people’s body cues, or do not use terms such as “happy,” “sad”, or “angry” in their daily lives.

Daily living skills

Stop for a minute and think about all the things you do in a day. We do many different tasks throughout the day like eating, dressing, walking, etc. Children initially need help from adults to do and learn these tasks. As kids grow up they should be able to do these daily tasks on their own. As we’ve already mentioned, sometimes children struggle with fine motor and gross motor skills. If these are difficult your child may have trouble dressing. An example is the ability to hold pants and balance to put one leg through. With the help of an occupational therapist, these difficult tasks can become easier which will save time and have a less frustrated kid.

Finally, the success and quality of life of your child should be at the top of your list. If your child does struggle in some of these areas do not be discouraged. Do your child a favor and have them assessed sooner rather than later and get help from an occupational therapist. In the end, your hard work will all be worth it.