Elite Therapy Center Pediatric OT

The occupational therapist addresses the treatment and management of infants, children, and adolescents with a variety of congenital, developmental, neuromuscular, skeletal, or acquired disorders/diseases. Pediatric occupational therapy provides skilled treatment for infants and children who need special help developing or regaining functional skills such as self-care and activity of daily living (ADL) skills, feeding and oral-motor difficulties, play and social skills.

Occupational therapy is also indicated for children having difficulties with upper extremity orthopedic/neurological injury, splinting and positioning needs, home accessibility evaluations, motor planning/ visual motor control, sensory integration dysfunction, school functional assessments including handwriting. The occupational therapist provides individualized assessment and often early detection of physical challenges. Treatments are play-based and are unique to the developmental level of each child. As with most problems in life, the sooner they are detected and addressed, the higher the success rate. This is especially true for children with special needs.

We can help you address a functional difficulty before it causes a reduction in functional abilities, low self-esteem, poor school performance, or strained peer and family relationships. Check to see if your child is hitting motor milestones:

Motor Milestones

Elite Visual and Academic Track

Our specialized OT and ST program is used to assess and treat the ‘underlying causes’ of poor attention, learning difficulties, uncontrolled behavior, and ADHD in the classroom and home. Therapist will evaluate each child for retained primitive reflexes, visual motor and perceptual development and executive functioning skills.

There is so much more to vision than just 20:20 vision or correction with lenses. Did you know there are 17 visual skills required to complete a reading and writing task. According the American Optometry Association, 1-in-4 students have vision problems that are significant enough to impact their learning.

Reflexes (or lack of them) can directly affect a child’s ability to sustain attention, control body movements and succeed in seated work in a busy environment.

80 percent of all learning comes through the visual pathways. Without efficient visual skills a child will show difficulty with reading, writing, attention, organization, math, sports, social skills, attention, coordination and so much more!

Does your child show five or more of these actions?

Reverses letters in words
Messy eating
Poor handwriting
Clumsy
Sits with legs in a ‘W’ shape
Poor attention
Constantly fidgeting
Frequent open-mouth posture when working
Loses place frequently while reading
Difficulty copying from the board
Falls asleep while reading or writing
Is able to read but shows poor comprehension
Is better at oral exams than written tests
Difficulty learning to swim or ride a bike
Excessively tired and/or emotional at the end of the school day

Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory processing refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into responses. For those with Sensory Processing Disorder, sensory information goes into the brain but does not get organized into appropriate responses. Those with SPD perceive and/or respond to sensory information differently than most other people. Unlike people who have impaired sight or hearing, those with Sensory Processing Disorder do detect the sensory information; however, the sensory information gets “mixed up” in their brain and therefore the responses are inappropriate in the context in which they find themselves.

Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD (originally called Sensory Integration Dysfunction) is a neurological disorder in which the sensory information that the individual perceives results in abnormal responses. A more formal definition is: SPD is a neurophysiologic condition in which sensory input either from the environment or from one’s body is poorly detected, modulated, or interpreted and/or to which atypical responses are observed. Pioneering occupational therapist, psychologist, and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., likened SPD to a neurological “traffic jam” that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly.

For more information from SPD: http://www.spdfoundation.net/about-sensory-processing-disorder/symptoms/

Sensory Motor Lab

Elite Therapy Center owner and director of Occupational Therapy, Kari McKown, MOT, OTR, works with schools and other pediatric organizations to help build sensory friendly motor labs. This unique lab is designed to provide a safe and dynamic sensory fulfillment for children in the classroom or learning environment. Each activity area is equipped with sensory items or activities catered to an educator’s specific need. Big or small, the motor lab is used as an additional tool for kids of all ages and abilities.

>> Interested in a motor lab for your classroom? Contact us today!

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