What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy can benefit children with learning and behavioral disorders, developmental delays, visual and hearing impairments, emotional disturbances or physical disabilities.  They may learn to function more freely in a developmental or sensory integration program.  Some conditions, such as emotional disturbances, can be controlled or improved by the use of therapy.  The purpose of therapy is to help strengthen the coordination between brain and body to gain and/or enhance function in daily living.

What is Physical Therapy?

Paediatric physical therapy assists in early detection of health problems and uses a wide variety of modalities to treat disorders in the paediatric population. These therapists are specialized in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of infants, children, and adolescents with a variety of congenital, developmental, neuromuscular, skeletal, or acquired disorders/diseases. Treatments focus on improving gross and fine motor skills, balance and coordination, strength and endurance as well as cognitive and sensory processing/integration. Children with developmental delays, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, and torticollis are a few of the patients treated by paediatric physical therapists.

Why do I need a Paediatric Physical or Occupational Therapist?

Paediatric Physical and Occupational Therapists are rehabilitation professionals who are trained in all stages of child development; they are highly qualified to address the special needs of children from birth through adolescence. Working with children every day, PT's and OT's are experts when it comes to motivating and challenging your child to improve his/her functional abilities. As your child progresses, your therapist will also teach you, as a parent, what to expect and how you can help your child at home.

What is Speech and Language Therapy?

Speech and Language Therapists assist children who have the following types of problems:

• difficulty producing and using speech
• difficulty understanding language
• difficulty using language
• difficulty with feeding, chewing or swallowing
• a stammer/stutter
• a voice regulation problem

Speech and language therapy involves treatment for children with speech and/or language disorders. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds, whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas.

Speech Disorders and Language Disorders

Speech disorders include the following problems, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA):

• Articulation disorders include difficulties producing sounds in syllables or saying words incorrectly to the point that other people can't understand what's being said.
• Fluency disorders include problems such as stuttering, the condition in which the flow of speech is interrupted by abnormal stoppages, repetitions (st-st-stuttering), or prolonging sounds and syllables (ssssstuttering).
• Resonance or voice disorders include problems with the pitch, volume, or quality of the voice that distract listeners from what's being said. These types of disorders may also cause pain or discomfort for the child when speaking.
• Dysphagia/oral feeding disorders, including difficulties with eating and swallowing.

Language disorders can be either receptive or expressive:

• Receptive disorders refer to difficulties understanding or processing language.
• Expressive disorders include difficulty putting words together, limited vocabulary, or inability to use language in a socially appropriate way.

Speech and language experts agree that parental involvement is crucial to the success of a child's progress in speech or language therapy.
Parents are an extremely important part of their child's therapy program, and help determine whether it is a success. Kids who complete the program quickest and with the most lasting results are those whose parents have been involved.

What is Sensory Integration?

The sensory integration approach is based on the research and writings of many therapists and physicians.  A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., as OT, was a leading contributor to this way of looking at how children develop and interact with their environment.  She formulated on of the main theories of sensory integrations, and created testing procedures and treatment techniques based upon sensory integration theory.  Her methods have been widely used for over thirty years.

“Sensory” pertains to our senses: hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste, and perception of motion, movement and gravity.  “Integration” is the process of unifying, or allowing the brain to use the information that the senses take in.  Sensory integration is used for all activities, but OT’s are especially concerned about organization of sensory information for use in the classroom, on the playground, for activities of daily living, and lastly, relationships and interactions with others.

The programs are based on understanding how people deal with life’s sensations.  Specifically, Occupational Therapists look and test for how an individual perceives or organizes sensations from life and body experiences.  The testing focuses on seeing if the child’s internal sensory systems are working together properly.

Treatment is more effective if it is similar to normal client activities and desires.  Since a child’s normal activity is to play, OT’s treat with an individualized program presented as directed play.  Through play, children learn about themselves and the world around them.  When all that they see, hear and feel makes sense to them, a process of sensory integration occurs.  Sensory integration provides a crucial foundation for developing good physical, academic and social skills.

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