Pediatric Occupational Therapy Services
We work with babies, toddlers, children, and adolescents
Occupational therapy (OT) helps children acquire or reacquire the skills needed to perform the activities or “occupations” of daily life. A child’s primary occupation is play. Additional occupations include developmentally appropriate activities such as sitting, stacking blocks, eating a snack, getting dressed, and drawing a picture. Occupational therapists use their background in anatomy and physiology, neurology, psychology, sensory and motor development to determine the underlying difficulties impacting success and independence with activities.
Cheshire Fitness Zone occupational therapists help children develop the necessary skills for the job of living through play. Our therapists focus on creating the ‘just right challenge’ by following the child’s lead to achieve an adaptive response (targeted skill), building a strong foundation for further development. We include parents/guardians in everything including evaluation, treatment planning, and working with their child for optimal outcomes.
Areas Addressed by our Occupational Therapists
Dexterity, strength, grasp, and range of motion. To learn more about developmental stages check out our Family Resources section.
The ability to use both sides of the body at the same time. This impacts activities such as cutting while stabilizing the paper, manipulating clothing fasteners, and opening a container.
The interplay between visual skills, visual perceptual skills and motor skills such as coloring, cutting, and writing.
Processing and interpreting meaning from the visual information that we gain through our eyesight. Visual perception plays an important role in handwriting, mathematics, and reading.
The development of the torso muscles that stabilize, align, and move the trunk of the body. Decreased core strength can cause poor posture impacting fine motor skill development.
Underlying skills necessary for most childhood occupations such as self-feeding, getting dressed, catching a ball, and handwriting.
How a child processes what he/she sees, hears, feels, tastes, etc. and appropriately responds.
The ability to plan and sequence appropriate movements to meet the demands of a novel task. To achieve this, the brain relies on the sensory system and body awareness.
A complex skill that incorporates visual perceptual skills, visual motor skills, bilateral coordination, motor planning, hand strength, core strength and sensory processing skills.
Addressing the underlying skills that may impact independence in this area such as attention, hand strength, dexterity, visual motor skills, sensory processing and motor planning.
Skills such as organization, sequencing, initiation, and attention.
Evaluating a child’s need for specialized equipment such as feeding utensils, splints, bathing equipment, dressing devices, etc.
How do I know if my child needs therapy?
- They avoid fine motor tasks or experience difficulty and frustration when completing them.
- They have difficulty with learning novel tasks such as navigating playground equipment or playing with toys
- They are overly bothered by sensory input such as touch, texture, taste, sound, and movement.
- They demonstrate decreased reactions/limited awareness or seek out excessive touch, sound, taste, and movement experiences
- They have difficulty with handwriting related to visual or motor ability
- They have trouble learning how to use eating utensils
- They consume an extremely limited diet or demonstrate several food aversions
- They have trouble getting clothes and shoes on/off
- They have difficulty sustaining attention to age-appropriate tasks
Take Our Developmental Milestone Quiz!
As parents, we all want to ensure that our children are meeting crucial developmental milestones. Use this tool to see if your child is on the right track.