A child’s main occupation is playing and learning. It helps them explore the world around them, learn to interact with it and develop essential life skills that will allow them to connect with others and do things independently.
However, many children who enter an Occupational Therapy (OT) practice often have trouble mastering the skills. They might experience issues with physical (postural, fine or gross motor skills), sensory processing, cognitive and academic skills etc. In these cases, paediatric occupational therapy can make a big difference, as the role of OT therapy is to help children become independent in all areas of life.
Many parents often have a niggle that something is just not right with the development of their child in a certain area, or their child's behavioural reactions, to normal and everyday life experiences. Here are five signs that your child might need occupational therapy:
1. Difficulty achieving age-appropriate developmental milestones:
This means that your child is delayed in developing skills that are common during their current age and don’t perform as other babies do:
The child is not reaching developmental milestones of neck holding, sitting, crawling, and walking on time.
Not learning at an age appropriate level.
Not developing age appropriate play and social skills.
Not pointing or communicating age appropriately.
2. Avoids eye contact and inappropriate Social Interaction
Social interaction behaviours are important skills that help us to bond and build relationships with other people in our life and are also used to understand those around us. Your child may have delayed social skills if they show some of the following traits:
Avoiding to appropriate eye contact while talking.
Difficulty interacting socially with family and peers.
Difficulty interacting engaging and play with peers age appropriately.
Difficulty adapting to new environments and large gatherings.
Delayed communication or language skills.
Can’t cope in the school environment
3. Inadequate or Inappropriate Play Skills:
As discussed above, play is a crucial activity in children, developing age appropriate skills and understanding their place in the world. Through play children develop their bodies, strengthening his/her motor skills, develop their cognitive skills, learn problem solving, and develop social skills.
Your child may be needed to consult an OT if you notice these following things:
Does not explore toys appropriately.
Engages in repetitive play for hours (e.g., lining up toys).
Prefers to play alone rather than with an adult or peer.
Constantly on the go without purposeful play.
Has a short attention span, shifts quickly from one activity to the next.
Has difficulty in joining with peers/siblings when playing.
Does not understand concepts of sharing and turn taking.
4. Sensory Processing Disorders-
Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD is the ability of the nervous system to respond, either psychologically or behaviourally, to sensory stimulation in an adaptive manner.
Sensory information is received through the senses of touch (tactile), sound (auditory), sight (visual), smell (olfactory), taste (gustatory), movement and gravity sense (vestibular) and body position (proprioception). These sensations are processed by the brain and are used to plan and organise movements and behavioural responses, which in turn enables a child to learn, play and interact appropriately.
Some signs of sensory processing disorder include:
Extreme response to or fear of sudden, high-pitched, loud, or metallic noises like blow driers, car hooting other noises that seem unoffensive to others
May notice and/or be distracted by background noises that others don’t seem to hear
Fearful of surprise touch, avoids hugs and cuddling even with familiar adults
Doesn’t enjoy a game of tag and/or is overly fearful of swings and playground equipment
Extremely fearful of climbing or falling, even when there is no real danger i.e. doesn't like his or her feet to be off the ground
Has poor balance, may fall often
A constant need to touch people or textures, even when it’s inappropriate to do so
Doesn’t understand personal space even when same-age peers are old enough to understand it
Often harms other children and/or pets when playing, i.e. doesn't understand his or her own strength
May be very fidgety and unable to sit still, enjoys movement-based play like spinning, jumping, etc.
Seems to be a "thrill seeker" and can be dangerous at times.
If you have noticed the sensory issues and you feel your child’s sensory behaviours are interfering with their ability to focus or complete day-to-day activities, you might need to consult a paediatric occupational therapist. An occupational therapist can help you to identify the sensory issues and suggest strategies which can help the child. A trained occupational therapist can teach your child to meet their sensory needs safely and effectively. An OT will provide a sensory diet. This carefully designed plan is a series of sensory input, which provide the child with organising and calming input so s/he doesn’t have a cumulative effect of sensory build up throughout his day.
5. Delays with gross motor and fine motor skills.
Gross Motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing, walking, running, and sitting upright. It also includes bilateral integration or coordination skills such as ball skills (throwing, catching, kicking), being able to do jumping jacks and all other age appropriate physical skills. A child who has lowered core/body tone and strength, and/or balance may appear clumsy or uncoordinated.
They may also have difficulty with these areas:
Unable to roll, throw, catch or kick ball age appropriately.
Struggles to climb up and down stairs just using their feet to balance.
Coordinating both sides of the body.
Understanding the concept of right and left.
Poor balance and coordination.
Low muscle tone.
Poor endurance, gets tired easily, often is seen to slouch or prop their body over the table (or avoids physical games and activities).
Fine motor skills are skills such as drawing, writing, cutting, holding a small object, picking up a spoon, and tying shoelaces.
The development of these skills depends upon the age appropriate development of physical skills (such as core muscle strength, trunk control and shoulder strength) providing the stable base from which the arm and hand can then move with stability and control.
If your child is struggling with fine motor skills, they may have difficulty with one of these actions:
Not developing a hand dominance at an age-appropriate time.
Unable to use both hands in a coordinated manner.
Difficulty in manipulating toys and puzzles.
Struggles with fine motor grips such as their pencil or writing tool or using scissors.
Poor pencil grip, poor handwriting (letter/number formation).
Messy or disinterest in colouring, drawing, tracing, prewriting shapes.
Not independent in closing zips, fastening buttons, shoelaces.
Avoiding tasks and games that require fine motor skills
If fine motor skill issues aren’t addressed, a child with delays in this area could have a hard time performing essential activities like writing and using computers at school.
The issues described above often affect the academic skills and result in many children having difficulty in coping at school. Functionally these are observed by:
The child may have issues with: handwriting (neatness, formation, reversals), hand-eye coordination (writing on a classroom whiteboard, copying in from the board into their book), lack of organization and planning of their work.
The child slouches or lies over their desk, and can’t seem to prop up or hold their body to perform their classwork.
Difficulty participating and keeping up with their peers on the sports ground, never gets selected to play in the team sports.
Unable to concentrate and focus at school, difficulty following instructions and completing work, poor impulse control, not keeping up with workload or completing their work in time with their peers.
6. Behavioural outbursts:
Have you noticed frequent episodes of hitting, meltdowns, extreme anger or anxiousness? These issues can be addressed by an OT too! Behavioural challenges are often the result of an underlying issues such as sensory overstimulation and the child struggling to re-regulate their systems in the multi-sensory school environments, or when the child has inadequate communication skills (especially in case of younger children or those who have speech or language difficulties).
An occupational therapist can address underlying issues and help your child find positive ways to get their emotional needs met while limiting negative behaviour, and educating their teachers as to how help the child too!
CONCLUSION:
OT can help kids with various needs improve their cognitive, physical, sensory, and motor skills and enhance their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. There are lots of benefits of OT for children. And the sooner a child starts OT, the more effective it tends to be!!
If you feel like your child is having above mentioned issues, feel free to contact me!
Certain information adapted from Kid Sense Website and the The Out-of-Sync Child (Carol Stock Kranowitz) checklist.
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