Occupational therapy - a treatment that focuses on helping people achieve independence in all areas of their lives - can provide children with various needs with positive, fun activities to improve their cognitive, physical, and motor skills and enhance their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.
Some people may think that occupational therapy is only for adults; children, after all, do not have occupations. But a child's main job is playing and learning, and an occupational therapist can evaluate a child's skills for play activities, school performance, and activities of daily living and compare them to what is developmentally appropriate for an age group.
According to the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), in addition to dealing with an individual's physical well-being, occupational therapy practitioners address psychological, social, and environmental factors that may hinder an individual's functioning in different ways. This unique approach makes occupational therapy a vital part of health care for some children.
So who might use an occupational therapy practitioner? According to AOTA, kids with the following medical problems may benefit from occupational therapy:
One of the activities that occupational therapists can address to meet children's needs is working on fine motor skills so that kids can grasp and release toys and develop good handwriting skills. Occupational therapists also address hand-eye coordination to improve play skills, such as hitting a target, batting a ball, or copying from a blackboard.
An occupational therapist can also: