A pediatric Occupational Therapist (OT) is a healthcare professional dedicated to helping children develop and maximize skills necessary to succeed in school, home, and the community.
An Occupational Therapist works with children experiencing difficulty with fine motor skills due to lack of strength and/or coordination, affecting writing, using scissors, using utensils for self-feeding, painting, stringing beads, buttoning shirts and zipping up jackets. The Occupational Therapist also addresses sensory processing disorders, which may cause difficulty processing information received and responding to it appropriately. This often causes impairment in daily tasks, resulting in a child who is a picky eater, with only a few selection of preferred foods that he/she will eat and is unwilling to try new ones. It may also cause anxiety, behavior problems, aggression, deficiency in motor skills and many other areas of a child’ s life, if not treated effectively. Occupational Therapists provide therapy for the following:
- ADD/ADHD
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Sensory Processing Disorder
- Developmental delays
- Delayed motor skills affecting activities
of daily living, school, participation in sports - Visual motor skills
- Handwriting skills
- Developmental coordination disorders
