There are many situations where a child may benefit from occupational therapy, a way to improve their ability to tackle day-to-day tasks. Would a child need occupational therapy even if they don’t have any known limitations or disabilities? The answer is yes! An occupational therapist could be a valuable resource for children who are struggling with or not meeting developmental goals or are struggling with other needs. Here’s what you should know about using occupational therapy and when to do so.
Having Trouble Completing Milestones
One of the most common reasons a child would need occupational therapy has to do with not meeting developmental goals. A developmental delay is any situation in which a child is not developing a core skill at a typical age or during a specific time period. While some children may need more time, noticing these delays and getting help for them right away is a valuable move. It may help them to work through challenges to improve future abilities.
There are many developmental delays that may benefit from occupational therapy. This may include:
- Not playing at the normal age
- Struggling with sitting
- Limitations with crawling
- Inability to walk properly
- Failing to learn at the expected pace or level
If you believe your child may be struggling with developmental delays, a thorough assessment could help to determine if additional therapy and support are beneficial. These situations are very much individualistic, but many children can benefit from occupational therapy like this early on.
Gross Motor Skills
Activities of daily living (ADLs) are all the little things people do throughout the day to take care of themselves. For children, this typically includes playing, leisure activities, and school-related activities, as well as tasks that help them care for themselves and their bodies, like proper hygiene and feeding themselves.
It’s often difficult to know when a child is falling behind in these areas. When should a child feed themselves instead of a parent doing so, for example? As a child becomes more mobile and can use their hands for grasping and holding objects, they begin to develop the foundation of ADLs. Over time, those skills should improve until they are caring for themselves and engaging in their environment on their own.
If a child isn’t able to feed themselves or may be struggling to engage in play in a meaningful way, occupational therapy may be available to offer some help. Problems in these areas are often directly related to the child’s sensory system or fine motor skills.
Occupational therapy can help to improve these skills even at a young age. This could include:
- Learning to dress
- Going to sleep (putting oneself asleep)
- Brushing teeth
- Cleaning up toys
- Potty training
With occupational therapy, it’s possible for children to overcome deficits in these foundation skills, which can directly contribute to their overall wellbeing and development in other areas.
Fine Motor Skills
Not only can the bigger muscle groups in the body struggle, but so can those that are associated with the small, intricate muscles that the body relies on to complete numerous tasks. These are movements that relate to the wrists, fingers, tongue, and toes. Often, a parent may notice that their child always drops things, no matter how small the item is. In many situations, the problems relate to holding, picking up, or otherwise manipulating smaller objects because these take a more refined function of fine motor skills and muscles.
There are numerous examples of what fine motor skill limitations may be, such as:
- Writing – they may struggle to hold a pencil or color with crayons
- Using toys, especially those that require the use of fingers to make the toy function
- Using zippers or tying their shoelaces
- Using a fork or struggling with using a spoon
- Limited ability to write or poor writing skills
Many children struggle with these types of tasks initially as they start to learn them. However, if the child is not developing these skills at the appropriate age level, occupational therapy may be able to help strengthen those skills.
Sensory
Would a child need occupational therapy in situations where their senses are involved? Though some people may not recognize the connection here, occupational therapy can be very helpful to children who are struggling with sensory processing needs.
Children who struggle to use their senses to accomplish tasks may find themselves facing other limitations. If a child is unable to process feelings with their hands, they may struggle with other tasks such as holding a pencil. Sensory processing issues can be difficult to pinpoint without professional assessments, yet they may be helped with occupational therapy.
Some examples of these types of limitations include:
- Reacting in an overly sensitive manner to touch or movement
- Not responding to things like a cut or a bruise
- Emotionally reactive to situations
- A lack of ability to self-calm and soothe
- Frequently distracted by visual and auditory stimuli
- Often bumping into people or moving
- Clumsiness, tripping, loss of balance
Occupational therapy may be beneficial to help children learn to cope with disabilities if they exist and help a child develop the best level of skill possible.
Utilizing Occupational Therapy
When you learn a bit about the developmental or other delays your child may be struggling with, you may wonder what to do about those situations. You can speak to your child’s primary doctor about what you are observing. However, you should not feel you have to wait. You can reach out to an occupational therapist for an assessment. In many of these situations, it is critical to get help as soon as possible so that those skills or abilities can be improved in the most significant way.
Let Rock Valley Physical Therapy Help You
As the largest therapist-led organization in the country, Rock Valley Physical Therapy is ready to help your child to see significant improvement. We have a patient-first goal, which means we listen to your concerns and can help to answer any of the questions you have. We make expertise accessible. Contact us today to learn how we can help you!