What is occupational therapy?
Occupational therapy enables people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them to promote health, make lifestyles or environmental changes, and prevent -or live better with- injury, illness, or disability. By looking at the whole picture– a client’s psychological, physical, emotional, and social make-up– occupational therapy assists people to achieve their goals, function at the highest possible level, maintain or rebuild their independence, and participate in the everyday activities of life.
– The American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (2017)
Who can benefit from occupational therapy?
At RL Therapy Group the goal of occupational therapy is to work with your family to create a plan that helps support your toddler or child to become as independent as possible across all settings. Our occupational therapists put your family goals at the forefront to help you identify challenges or barriers in your child’s developmen
Our occupational therapists are skilled in addressing several areas including: Self-care skills, Fine motor skills, Balance & coordination, Feeding Difficulties/Picky Eating, Sensory Processing, Emotion Regulation, and Transitions
Self-Care Delays
This includes tailoring a plan to support teaching your child activities of daily living, such as putting on their shoes to go to the park or learning to brush their teeth. We work with you to figure out a plan that supports your child’s independence!
Feeding difficulties
Feeding therapy can be helpful to address many feeding problems. This includes methods to: Support your child to learn to eat a variety of foods. Address oral-motor delays, such as learning to chew properly and swallow food safely. We work with you and your child to develop a plan based on their unique feeding needs and medical history.
Fine Motor Delays
Therapy will focus on developing the small muscles of the hand to be able to complete daily activities. This includes developing manual dexterity, in hand manipulation, finger isolation, handwriting grasp, tool use (using a fork and knife or using toothbrush), and handwriting skills.
Sensory Processing and Self- Regulation
Therapy includes developing a plan to support your child with processing a variety of sensory stimulation, including auditory, visual, tactile, oral, vestibular, and proprioceptive input. Additionally, we can work on addressing tough behaviors due to difficulty with processing sensory information.