What is Occupational Therapy (OT)?
Occupational therapy helps people participate in the things they want and need to dog through the therapeutic use of everyday activities (occupations). There is often a substantial benefit for children with autism to utilize Occupational Therapy to help in their development. Pediatric occupational therapists utilize various strategies to address daily life skills, motor development, adaptive skills, self-regulation and sensory needs,
as well as social participation. Children who have challenges in any of these areas can benefit from Occupational Therapy. JoyBridge Kids utilizes individualized treatment plans to deliver Occupational Therapy in addition to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy. This provides a really valuable complement of transformational services in one place.
Occupational therapy services typically include:
● an individualized evaluation, during which the child’s strengths and challenges
are assessed and the client/family and occupational therapist determine the
child’s goals
● a customized intervention plan to improve the child’s ability to perform
occupations and reach the goals
● ongoing collaboration with the child’s entire therapy team and family to promote
the child’s development, ensure that the goals are being met, and/or make
changes to the intervention plan as needed
Occupational therapy integrates the following areas for growth:
● Basic and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
● Motor proficiency and motor coordination
● Visual-perceptual and visual-spatial skills
● Fine motor skills
● Gross motor skills
● Sensory processing
● Feeding skills
● Executive functioning
● Social skills
● Play skills
● Emotional regulation