WHAT IS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY?

Your child’s life is made up of occupations, or everyday activities. These occupations include playing, learning, sleeping, interacting with friends, getting dressed, using fine motor and coordinated muscles while eating with utensils, brushing teeth, handwriting and other daily activities. Many of us generally don’t think about a child’s daily occupations until he or she has challenges doing them. Occupational therapy supports children of all ages – newborns to teenagers.

WHEN DOES MY CHILD NEED OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY?

RED FLAG CHECKLIST

Birth to 2 years of age:

• Not looking at caregiver’s face or making eye contact
• Not crawling and going directly from sitting to pulling up/walking
• Crawling in an abnormal pattern (deviating from traditional crawling or “army crawling” patterns)
• Strong hand preference with the exclusion of the other hand
• Not reaching across midline (not reaching across the center of the body)
• Not feeding self (either not finger feeding or not attempting to use spoon/fork)
• Not isolating index finger by 1 year (to either point or grab objects)
• Not displaying “showing/sharing” behaviors, which include the act of looking at a caregiver with an, “Isn’t that neat?” look on the child’s face, even if no words are used
• Poor self-soothing skills

3 to 5 years of age:

• Not engaging in pretend play
• Still using gross grasp (whole-hand grasp for crayon or pencil)
• Either always stationary or never stationary
• Consistently screaming rather than attempting to use words
• Not engaging in play with peers
• Consistently screaming with transitions
• Throwing tantrums significantly more often than peers
• Appearing overly sensitive to grooming tasks

6 to 8 years of age:

• Falling behind peers academically
• Difficulty following the teacher’s directions
• Unable to tie shoes
• Unable to cut food with a knife/fork
• Hyperactivity
• Being labeled a “bad kid” (There are NO BAD KIDS, OT can help determine why the child may be displaying bad behaviors)
• Having difficulty engaging with peers on the playground and/or in extracurricular activities.
• Not having friends
• Immature handwriting skills (examples can include having difficulty remembering how to form letters, difficulty staying on the lines when writing, not always starting all the way to the left and moving to the right when writing sentences, handwriting appears messy or illegible).
• Poor organizational skills – forgets to turn in homework assignments, desk is messy, papers are messy, etc.