Occupational Therapy

What is occupational therapy (OT)? You may have heard of OT as helping someone get back to their occupation or job. We believe that kids job is to learn and play…and to learn THROUGH play. Our occupational therapists help kids to be able to do their very important job of learning and playing! 

What does in-home OT look like?

In home Occupational therapy helps kids with so many real life activities, we need our body to be regulated and integrated in a way that allows our brain to relax, play, and learn new things! In-home OT integrates family goals and priorities with therapist expertise and experience to help improve kids quality of life! Therapy sessions often look a lot like real life, practicing our everyday activities, playing with others, and learning how to engage more fully with the world around us and those we love! 

What Are The Benefits of OT In The Home?

There are so many benefits to occupational therapy in a child’s natural environment. Many of our families and kiddos struggle to implement recommendations provided by occupational therapists in a clinical setting because when they go home they don’t have all the amazing equipment that their clinics/schools have (swings, climbing walls, gyms, etc.). But we love UTILIZING the home environment and what the kids already have around them.

Some of the benefits include: 

Implementing real life sensory experiences (hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, and experiencing our own home!) 

Practicing self-cares in their own environment (hair/teeth brushing, toileting, dressing, etc.) 

Meeting our sensory needs with everyday items (laundry baskets, chores, backyard swing sets, etc.) 

Eating at our own table 

What does sensory OT mean?

Our sensory systems help us experience the world around us through our senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound), and it can be a scary place out there if your nervous system doesn’t know how to handle all that stimulus! Sensory Occupational Therapy teaches kids how to understand all this input and process it in a way that allows our bodies and brains to keep on learning and playing. Sensory OT can address challenges with touch like getting our hands dirty, sound like being totally freaked out by the sound of a public restroom, or even taste like learning about purees that are squishy like yogurt. Sensory OT is truly at the heart of ALL OT provided at Family Chatterbox

How Do I Know If My Child Could Benefit From OT?

Occupational therapy has a HUGE scope of practice and can help kids with a variety of different activities, from fine motor skills to activities of daily living, and sensory integration! Your child may benefit from an in-home occupational therapy evaluation if you have concerns about your child’s ability to integrate sensory information (noises, feelings, tastes, etc.), challenges with fine motor tasks (like cutting, coloring, tying shoes, fastening buttons, etc), or trouble controlling their body so they can learn (limited attention, difficulty attending to tasks and limited appropriate play).   


OT can help with the following:  

Emotional Regulation

Sensory Integration

Feeding

Toileting

Fine Motor Skills (Using a scissors, pencil grasp)

Attention

Dressing

Play Skills

Activities of Daily Living

Body Awareness (For sense of hunger, thirst, going potty)