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Occupational Therapy Frequently Asked Questions:

What does a pediatric occupational therapist do since a child does not have a job?

An individual’s occupations change over time.  An infant’s main endeavor is to develop the ability to regulate their bodies and communicate when they are comfortable or uncomfortable. A pre-schooler works on the tasks of exploring, playing and learning age appropriate motor skills, activities of daily living, and social behaviors.  Once in school, the child develops greater refinements in skill for academic learning and pre-vocational development, including tool use, planning and organizational skills, problem solving, and independent task follow through.  A pediatric occupational therapist will address the foundations and specific skills the individual needs at each stage of development to ensure greater success in the skills of daily living.

Can you explain what activities of daily living are?

Activities of daily living are the basic tasks of every day life such as eating, bathing, dressing, toileting, sleep, leisure skills and moving efficiently through the environment (functional mobility).  An occupational therapist works with the individual to help them become both proficient and independent in age appropriate activities of daily living.

What is visual perception? 

Visual perception is how visual information is interpreted and used by the brain.  It entails the ability to perceive the details, subtleties and spatial aspects of a visual image.  A visual perceptual problem may include difficulty with:

• visual discrimination (consistently recognizing shapes, colors letters or numbers)
• visual memory (remembering a seen image for later use)
• form constancy (recognizing an object regardless of its spatial orientation)
• figure ground (identifying a figure in a complex background, such as hidden pictures)
• spatial relations (perceiving how objects relate in space, such as accurate spacing between letters)
  

How does visual-motor integration relate to handwriting?

Visual motor integration combines the ability to visually perceive a form and reproduce it with a motor response.  For example, the ability to look at a circle drawn on a page and draw that form.  This is an important component in learning to write letters and numbers.  A child needs to be able to perceive the difference between a 5 and a 2 and move the pencil accurately to make the numbers legible and in the correct orientation.

What is the correct terminology to use for a child with sensory difficulties?

The terms used to describe sensory difficulties vary between clinicians and medical professionals.  Since the treatment modality used with these children is called sensory integration intervention, the term sensory integration dysfunction (DSI) is frequently used.  In current research the term sensory processing disorder (SPD) is being clinically identified as specific disorder for inclusion in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, so this term is becoming more widely used among clinicians.

What is Sensory Defensiveness?

Sensory defensiveness is a term used to describe ‘over responsiveness’ to certain sensations such as touch, vision, auditory, movement and smell sensations. When a sensory event occurs our brain quickly decides if that event is important and needs a response.  For example, if your hand closes around a coffee cup that is too hot you will quickly pull away.  Individuals with sensory defensiveness tend to have strong responses like this to events that are not truly threatening.  They may respond more strongly then other children to a variety of typical sensory events such as having their face washed, getting socks on in the morning, the sound of a vacuum cleaner, the smells, tastes or texture of foods or busy situations such as a mall or grocery store.

What is proprioception?

This is our sixth sense that comes from sensory receptors in our muscles and joints. Our muscles provide us with information about what position our body parts are in. For example, without looking at them, you can tell if your elbows or knees are bent or straight. Our muscles and joints also give us information as we move in space, such as walking up a familiar flight of stairs in the dark and knowing just how to lift your leg and where to place your foot.  The proprioceptive sense helps us grade the force of our movements as well.  Your muscles register how heavy the milk carton is and help you pour with the right speed and force so it does not spill all over.  This sense is extremely important for developing body awareness and motor coordination.

Will my child outgrow sensory difficulties without intervention?

Although children may develop strategies to be more successful over time with sensory events, they will not outgrow sensory integration difficulties.  They may become effective in avoiding situations that are overwhelming to them such as stating that they are “too tired” to go play outside or they don’t need to wear a coat because they are not cold.  Other times, children can become somewhat rigid in their interactions with the sensory world, such as eating only a small repertoire of foods or wearing the same clothes almost every day.  With intervention the child’s nervous system can be changed, and the ability to process sensation can be improved. Biological research has shown that with therapy, the interference of sensory processing dysfunction with daily life tasks will be greatly minimized.

What is a sensory diet?

Intervention at South Shore Therapies will also provide the child and family with active and effective strategies to use throughout the week for greater success.  The sensory diet is made up of the sensory based activities and strategies that can be incorporated into daily routines to help the child maintain a better regulated state of arousal and enhance body awareness prior to performing skilled tasks.