Guest Post by: Caryl Anne Crowne
9 Benefits Your Child Will Receive from
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy
is a huge field that is gaining popularity. More educators, professionals and
doctors are seeing how this simple intervention can help children in a myriad
of ways. Since occupational therapy covers such a wide range of issues, it can
be difficult to understand. The most basic goal of occupational therapy is to
help children and adults learn the skills they need to accomplish tasks used in
everyday life. Here are nine specific benefits your child may reap from
occupational therapy.
1. Increased fine motor skills
One of the biggest goals in occupational therapy is to address difficulties
that a child is experiencing in tasks that involve fine motor skills such as
cutting with scissors, drawing, writing or tying a shoe. If a child struggles
with holding a pencil, they will find it difficult to write which will, in
turn, affect their academic progress. In fact, a study found that the strongest predictor of a
special education referral was a lack of fine motor skills. Occupational
therapists can help children practice these important skills to help them
succeed in the classroom and beyond.
2. Gross Motor Skills Development
In addition to an
increase in fine motor skills levels, occupational therapy can help children
develop gross motor skills. Gross motor skills involve movement in the muscles
of arms, legs and other body parts. Some examples of activities could be
running, walking, riding a bike etc. Depending on the age of the child there
are certain levels of gross motor skills activities that should be natural to
daily accomplish. An occupational therapist can help your child practice these
skills and implement them into daily life.
3. Screening for assistive devices
An increase in awareness of special needs has resulted in more devices being
created that assist children and adults in various ways with everyday routine
activities. An occupational therapist can help assess your child's need for
devices such as wheelchairs, communication aids, sensory aids, dressing
devices, splints or even items as simple as a pencil grip. You might be
surprised at what a huge difference a small device can make in your child's
life.
4. Better sensory integration
Children who have even mild sensory issues can benefit from working with a
professional towards greater sensory integration. Encouraging studies have shown that occupational therapy
with an emphasis on sensory integration can help children with autism engage in
age-appropriate activities. At times some children display sensory seeking
behaviors such as repeatedly bumping into others or compulsively chewing
non-food items while others are sensory avoidant and may have a difficult time
with loud noises, public places or stimulating activities like
toothbrushing.
5. Help with hand-eye coordination difficulties
Some children may have trouble with activities that require motor planning
skills such as catching or throwing a ball or copying from a blackboard. These
difficulties can be tricky to identify, as a child may seem to have the
necessary skills to accomplish all parts of the task but remains unable to put
them all together. Occupational therapy can help correctly identify and
overcome these problems.
6. Better behavior
An occupational therapist's goal is to help their client interact more freely
in the everyday activities of their life. If certain behavioral challenges are
preventing a child from interactions in school or the home, therapists can help
address those issues. Some common behavioral problems that occupational therapy
can assist with are difficulty waiting, acting out or random violent outbursts
towards others when angry, self-harming and difficulty with transitions.
7. Assistance with social skills
Meeting new people or knowing how to act in certain social contexts can be
difficult for all of us at times, but some children find social interaction
particularly challenging. Occupational therapy can give them the tools they
need to form rewarding social relationships like introducing themselves, taking
turns, back and forth conversation, giving attention when necessary and avoiding
socially inappropriate behaviors.
8. Independence
With the help of a qualified therapist, children can achieve a myriad of goals
in occupational therapy such as dressing themselves, writing, eating with
utensils and much more. Helping them to gain skills in these tasks means that
they will need less assistance or supervision from parents a regular basis and
will gain a sense of independence which has positive outcomes for both the
child and the caregivers.
9. Self-confidence
As occupational therapy helps your child overcome more of their difficulties,
they will gain greater confidence in their abilities and ultimately in their
self. This self-confidence can help them to readily take on new challenges in
the future. Occupational therapy is truly about so much more than helping a
child learn how to get dressed or say hi to a friend. It's a functional
intervention to help your child live their life more fully and believe in their
abilities.
Author Bio:
Caryl Anne Crowne is a media specialist and
contributing author for the Aveanna
Healthcare Blog. She regularly produces
content for a variety of healthcare blogs covering topics such as caregiving, occupational
therapy, geriatric and pediatric therapy as well as general medical solutions.
