Early years are the most extraordinary period of growth and development in a child’s lifetime. If the child’s developmental problems are not detected in time, they can cause challenges over time. One out of 8 children is dealing with some developmental delay, often because of birth complications, genetic conditions, environmental factors, or medical challenges.
What is Occupational Therapy for Children?
Occupational therapy is a branch of health care which help people of devlopment cognitike, sensory, and physical skills that are needed to manage everyday activities. For children, it can even start from holding a crayon or just babbling their first word, because it covers walking, talking, or even socialising independently. For babies, their occupation is just to play, learn, self-care, and social participation, because these are the beginning of building a confident person. Through stories, games, or even activities, pediatric occupational therapists try to develop skills in children.
Also, parents get confused when they hear about occupational therapy. It is not related to the occupation; instead, it is related to the skills that are required to complete daily activities, or you can say, it covers their needs, wants, and expectations to fulfil the tasks.
What Does a Pediatric Occupational Therapist Do?
- Fine Motor skills- the movement of our fingers and hands does so much work, and skills are based on building strength, dexterity, muscle strength, awareness, planning, and coordination to perform even the smallest movement, such as writing, holding something, or dressing. This includes using scissors, typing on a keyboard, fastening a button, tying shoes, eating with utensils, playing games, holding a pencil, and writing or drawing something.
- Gross Motor Coordination- under this treatment, whole body movements are covered, which include jumping, running, and playing using play-based therapeutic activities. Core postural strength, bilateral coordination, praxis (teaching the child’s brain and body to coordinate), balance, and body awareness are the issues that are addressed.
- Daily living skills (ADLs)- this includes practical, everyday self-care tasks that parents might not realise are actually crucial for children. The core focus area of activities of daily living is self-care, feeding, toileting, sleep hygiene, and dressing.
- Handwriting skills- as the name suggests, using therapy, the therapist helps children work on forming letters properly, the pressure they need to put on the pencil, sitting posture, writing speed, and hand strength.
- Visual-motor integration- this is the coordination between what a child sees and how their hands respond to it. It is more of hand-eye coordination, and this includes activities like catching a ball, reading and writing, solving a puzzle, and visual tracking.
How Does occupational therapy help children with sensory issues?
Sensory issues start in a child when their brain has trouble receiving, organising, or even responding to the information. And such a child becomes more hypersensitive (overwhelmed by information) or hyposensitive (requiring more and more information). Around 5% to 165 of children in India are dealing with sensory issues. The brain usually organises information through touch, sound, sight, movement, or body awareness.
Hypersensitive children become over-responsive and can be distress over discomfort with bright lights, loud sounds, being made to wear specific clothes, being told to do something which they already resist, or even specific food. On the other hand, hyposensitive children become under-responsive, like they are unable to notice pain like other children do, and they constantly seek movement, spin repeatedly, or crash into things.
Occupational therapists help children through sensory integration therapy. This includes-
- Vestibular activities- exercises like spinning, moving, or swinging on unstable surfaces to let the brain process balance and movement.
- Proprioceptive input- pulling, pushing, and carrying are exercises that are included.
- Tactile experience- sensation are a pain of pain and different textures like water, sand, and dough, are used to help children tolerate sensations.
What conditions can benefit from pediatric occupational therapy?
Pediatric occupational therapy helps children to ensure that they can live their lives independently.
- Autism spectrum disorder- occupational therapy is one of the most important therapies that helps in treating many autistic children by enabling them in sensory integration, developing a routine for them, making them learn self-care techniques independently, developing play skills to have proper interaction in social situations, and fine motor coordination.
- ADHD- for children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, occupational therapy will be helpful for strategies in terms of focusing and controlling impulses, organising skills for both home and school, participating actively in classroom activities, and emotional control in frustrated and pressurised situations.
- Developmental Delay- in this case, where the child has developmental delay for various developmental milestones, then through occupational therapy, they can catch up with developmental milestones, play skills, become independent in doing things, and motor coordination.
- Cerebral Palsy- if there are some cases of cerebral palsy in children, then occupational therapy would be focused on muscle coordination, adapted devices to perform activities easily, hand functions, and independent self-care.
- Developmental coordination disorder- it is a disorder that affects a child’s ability to learn coordinated movements to accomplish everyday tasks. Tasks include problems in writing, cutting with scissors, tying shoelaces, throwing and catching a ball, and playing sports games. Through occupational therapy, a child acquires improved coordination, balance, and confidence while performing everyday activities.
- Premature infants- such infants could have developmental problems, motor problems, and sensory problems because of immature nervous systems. Through occupational therapy, a child will receive treatment for sensory modulation, muscle tone, feeding, fine motor problems, and play at an appropriate age.
- Genetic syndromes/disorders- genetic syndromes and disorders affect the physical, cognitive, sensory, and motor development of a child. Occupational therapy can assist in all the mentioned areas such as fine motor skills, independent living skills, sensory integration, and communication in the environment including school, home, and community.
- Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)- Specific Learning Disorders are those disorders where learning is difficult, including reading, writing, spelling, and math in childhood. The areas addressed in occupational therapy include handwriting, visual perception, fine motor coordination, and attention problems.
Signs your child may need occupational therapy
Fine motor:
- Unable to hold pencil grip
- Difficulty colouring within the lines or holding crayons comfortably
- Struggles to use scissors
- Difficulty to climb stairswithout a rail past the age of three
- Inability to coordinate both sides of the body
Visual processing:
- Difficulty in understanding the concept of time
- Reading comprehension is below average
- Frequently forgetting letters or numbers
Daily living:
- Unable to dress up independently
- Extreme food pickiness
- Ongoing feeding challenges
- Poor hygiene skills for their age
Social/ Play skills:
- Short attention span
- Participating in repetitive play for a longer period
- Relying on an adult for most of the things
- Refusing to play with siblings or peers
- Difficulty in joining in or keeping up with other children
- Delayed speech and language skills
- Exclusively focusing on one point
- Unable to adapt to an unfamiliar environment
Sensory:
- Exclusive drooling
- Instead of using molar, chewing food from the front of the mouth
- Inability to drink from a straw
- Spilling more food or drink while chewing or drinking or even breastfeeding
What happens during occupational therapy evaluation?
- The evaluation of occupational therapy (OT) begins with a thorough conversation with parents, covering the developmental history, current concerns, and all the challenges that are noticed at school as well as at home.
- Pediatritian conduct a test to assess the current condition of skills like fine motor, gross motor, and sensory processing. This helps in understanding the condition of the child properly, so that further process can be planned.
- The next step is to review the test results and create a customised treatment roadmap based on the specific goals.
How parents can implement occupational therapy at home
1. Don’t skip your exercise regimen at home
In most cases, an occupational therapist recommends that parents practice some exercises and sensory strategies at home. These half- to one-hour sessions can help your child to improve much faster.
2. Turn daily activities into exercise practice
Let them put on their own shirt, get their own water, zip up their backpack, and eat their food, although it will take them more time to do these things. Practical training works much better for skill development than simple exercises. Brushing teeth, combing his hair, tying shoes- these exercises might look normal, but they will only help them to gain confidence. Let them struggle a little, as it is the best way to improve their skills during OT therapy.
3. Make a sensory diet at home
If an occupational therapist recommends sensory exercises like swinging, deep pressure, jumping, and chewing, then apply a little bit of it in daily life, before studying, before a meal, before bed, and not only during a session.
4. Maintain a consistent routine and schedule
Children with sensory and attention problems always need a consistent routine. A visual schedule for mornings and evenings will be very helpful.
5. Improve fine motor skills through play, not worksheets
First thing, keep them away from phones or TV, and let them indulge in physical activities, such as dough making, bead threading, tearing paper, playing with tongs and tweezers, building with tiny blocks; these will build up muscles needed for writing.
6. Tolerate messy feeding, issues with texture, or tantrums
These are not misbehaving; they may be sensory issues. Do follow the instructions of your OT and do not push your child too fast during exposures. Pushing your child can make things worse, and it will increase the time to treat them.
7. Discuss your observations with your Pediatric Occupational Therapist
Let them know what works and does not work at home/school. The therapy will become much more effective if it turns into a conversation.
8. Reward the effort, not just the success
Your child is also dealing with challenges, and they are trying hard too. So, give them a little reward or praise them for their efforts. It will inspire them to put more effort into gaining your attention.
9. Engage siblings and other relatives in therapy
Make the OT-recommended exercises into games which include your whole family (running obstacle courses, cooking together, doing laundry).
10. Be consistent
Consistency is the key to everything, even in your child’s progress. The more you engage them in activities, the more it will become their habit and learn faster.
Conclusion
Pediatric occupational therapy is all about showing the child how to do some activities that can make him more independent, like handling a pencil, dressing himself up, playing with other kids, and feeling comfortable in his surroundings. Each child has to have their own treatment due to the uniqueness of their problems.
Intervention at an early stage always results in good outcomes; thus, if your child shows symptoms described in this guide, it is better to address a specialist right away.
If you want to be tested by our expert pediatric occupational therapists and child psychologists, then the place to come to is the Cradle Children Hospital, Jaipur. Make an appointment now and start building up your confidence and independence.
FAQ’s
Is it only for autistic children?
Not necessarily. Even though occupational therapy is used primarily for the treatment of children with autism, this therapy can be applied to kids with ADHD, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, sensory processing disorder, and others with no specific diagnoses who need help in certain skills, such as handwriting and coordination.
When can a child begin OT treatment?
When it is needed, although usually it begins when the problems appear – in toddlerhood or in early school years.
How long will the treatment take?
It depends on the individual needs of a child and her/his goals. Sometimes the treatment is short and lasts only several months, but sometimes it takes more time.
Will OT improve handwriting?
Of course, it will. Handwriting is one of the most common disorders treated among kids using OT.
Is it possible that Occupational Therapy can help sensory-challenged children?
Certainly, there is a certain type of occupational therapy that aims at problems with sensory integration and is known as sensory integration therapy. This kind of therapy is often applied in pediatric occupational therapy. The purpose of sensory integration therapy is to help the over-responsive or under-responsive child be calm during activities.
