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Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy focuses on individualized goals of each child. Treatment facilitates development of fine and gross motor skills to improve overall coordination. Strength may be a target area to improve upper extremity as well as trunk and postural stability. Bilateral coordination aims to improve coordinating two sides of the body. Praxis goals help children develop ideas and plans for play as well as improves motor planning abilities during simple and complex tasks. Therapy facilitates reorganization of the central nervous system and improves foundational components responsible for movement, space, body awareness, and coordination.
Specialized Interventions
DIR/Play-based
DIR® (Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based) play-based therapy is an approach in occupational therapy that uses meaningful, interactive play to support a child’s emotional, social, and developmental growth. Rather than focusing only on isolated skills, DIR® therapy emphasizes building strong relationships and following the child’s interests to promote engagement, communication, and learning.
The purpose of DIR® play-based therapy is to help children develop foundational capacities such as attention, emotional regulation, shared engagement, communication, and problem-solving. By meeting each child at their current developmental level and honoring their unique sensory and processing differences, therapists create playful, supportive interactions that encourage growth across all areas of development.
The Wilbarger Deep Pressure and Proprioceptive Technique (DPPT) & Oral Tactile Technique (OTT)
DPPT is helpful for individuals who are sensitive to touch or have tactile defensiveness, and those who have difficulty regulating their arousal level. Kids with tactile defensiveness find normal touch sensations irritating and painful. This technique is utilized to improve ability to transition between various daily activities, Improve ability to pay attention, decrease fear and discomfort of being touched and decrease sensory seeking behaviors.
Astronaut Training
Astronaut Training is a sound activated vestibular-visual protocol. This involves moving, looking and listening activities designed to treat the vestibular, visual and ocular motion systems when vestibular function has been found to be under- or over-responsive to movement. Click here to learn more.
Handwriting Without Tears
Handwriting Without Tears is a developmentally-based handwriting program. Handwriting Without Tears helps children develop their writing skills through explicit, multisensory, play based instruction. Click here to learn more.
Therapeutic Listening
Therapeutic Listening is a treatment protocol that uses modulated music to increase overall body and spatial awareness. It targets the auditory component of sensory integration and can assist in increased postural stability, motor control, spatial-temporal organization, communication, and even modulatory behaviors such as improvement in arousal state, attention, toilet training, sleep/wake cycles, and much more! Click here to learn more. Click here to watch a video explaining Therapeutic Listening!
Reflex Integration
Primitive reflex integration is a therapeutic approach used in occupational therapy to help individuals develop mature movement patterns and improved self-regulation. Primitive reflexes are automatic movements present at birth that support early survival and development. As the nervous system matures, these reflexes are naturally integrated, allowing for higher-level motor control, attention and learning. When reflexes remain active beyond the expected developmental stage, they can interfere with posture, coordination, sensory processing, emotional regulation and daily living skills.
Interactive Metronome
The interactive metronome is a computerized treatment protocol used to increase coordination, motor planning, sequencing, and timing. Functionally, it can produce increases in attention span, language processing, and academics. It works in conjunction with the target areas of sensory integration. Click here to learn more.
Sensory Integration
During sensory-based OT sessions, the therapist and your child interact in a sensory-rich environment with lots of swinging, spinning, tactile, visual, auditory, and taste opportunities that seem to a child more like a giant playground than a therapy center. Sessions are subtly structured so your child is challenged but always successful in completing each activity. Click here to learn more.
Sensory Diets
Sensory Diets are a carefully designed, personalized activity plan that provided the sensory input a person needs to stay focused and organized throughout the day. These are constructed to provide children with the “just right challenge” to help them move forward into a “just right” state of being.