What is occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy (OT) helps enable individuals to engage and participate in daily activities.

For children, this often includes fundamental skills such as dressing, eating, printing and self-regulation. The focus is to maximize your child’s ability to engage in activities either through modifying the task, breaking down the tasks and  teaching learn new skills.

What does an assessment look like?

The therapist starts by understanding how the child functions in their daily activities.  This includes self-care tasks (e.g., eating and dressing), motor skills, and play. The assessment may include:

  • Caregiver interview
  • Direct Observation
  • Standardized Assessment
  • Consultation with other care providers

From there, the therapist will provide recommendations, discuss goals and a treatment plan. The treatment plan can include direct treatment by the therapist, home activities and, in some cases, treatment by another discipline (e.g., behaviour therapy, speech-language pathology).

Occupational therapists can work with a child in the clinic, virtually, in home or when appropriate in school.

Who can benefit from occupational therapy?

Children & youth with the following conditions may benefit from seeing an occupational therapist. However children of all abilities are welcome to access services at CSS.

  • Attention difficulties
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Sensory processing difficulties
  • Global Developmental Delay
  • Learning disabilities
  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Trisomy 21
  • Acquired Brain Injury

Signs that your child might benefit:

  • Delayed fine motor skills – poor printing skills, fatigue with writing, difficulty with fasteners, poor pencil grasp
  • Feeding difficulties – limited food intake, oral motor skills, avoids specific textures of food
  • Sensory processing – avoids certain sounds, textures, extremely sedentary, difficulty with attention, poor body awareness
  • Organization  – keeping track of homework, due dates, schedule for the school day
  • Self care skills – difficulty with dressing, self-feeding, personal hygiene activities

Our team has additional training in the following areas:

  • Neuro-Developmental Treatment (NDT)
  • Oral Placement Therapy and Feeding Techniques (OPT)
  • Handwriting Without Tears
  • Therapeutic Listening
  • Sensory Integration
  • Astronaut Training
  • CO-OP Method
  • SOS Feeding Method
  • DIR Floortime Approach

In this section: