Last Updated on August 20, 2024
Occupational therapy is great not just for the diagnosed children, but all children because it helps improve fine motor skills, sensory integration, self care, and social skills. It encourages independence, confidence, and improved social skills through play and sensory experiences.
Whenever we hear the word therapy, we always think there has to be some sort of “diagnosis. Yes of course, occupational therapy works with adults and children with all kinds of conditions and diagnosis, however something most of us don’t realize is that this practice can also benefit “neurotypical” children meaning. children without any diagnosis. Lets get into how OT can help average kids too.
Occupational Therapy is a type of therapy that helps children and adults improve in their cognitive, motor, social, emotional and communication skills. Occupational therapy will work on play, school readiness, school performance, and activities of daily living in the child. The benefit of this is that the child will have more self esteem and confidence in himself.
The OT for normal kids is geared more toward general development, well being, and functional skills. Here are a few ways it can be beneficial:
Fine Motor Skills: Occupational therapists are the ones that work with kids and help them with their fine motor skills, like handwriting, cutting with scissors, tying shoes, using a fork, etc. We can build hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and precision through a number of activities and exercises.
Sensory Integration: A lot of kids, even those not listed as having those problems, can have trouble with sensory processing. Occupational therapists can help children regulate their sensory responses, whether they are sensitive to certain stimuli or seek more sensory input. Some kids don’t like to feel playdoh or kinetic sand or even food with their fingers. Or some kids may have trouble coping with just everyday experiences like going to mall or shopping market or a birthday party. In this way, by supplying a sensory orientated atmosphere and participating in sensory orientated activities, we can assist the child in processing and reacting to sensory information more efficiently.
Some children may over react because of these overwhelming sensory stimuli in their environment and may appear socially inappropriate, they are unable to regulate themselves and may have a meltdown as well. These tapes will allow them to diminish these dislikes and be able to enjoy their experiences in everyday life a lot more and a lot happier.
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- Self-Care Skills: Occupational therapy can assist normal children in developing essential self-care skills, such as dressing, grooming, and feeding themselves independently. But if we divide these tasks into small step and help them along the way, it will help them feel more independent and confident about themselves. Those are skills that will help them for the rest of their lives.
- Social Skills: Occupational therapists can also address social skills, like communication, turn taking, sharing, and problem solving. Children can learn to interact effectively with others and build positive relationships through play-based activities, group interactions, and role-playing scenarios.
Group therapy would be like a birthday party scene, shopping mall, Diwali, playdate, fireless cooking, etc in order to perfect these.
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- Executive Functioning: Occupational therapy can help average kids build those executive functioning skills (organization, time management, planning, problem-solving). By implementing strategies and techniques tailored to their age and abilities, we can help children become more efficient and independent in their daily routines and academic tasks.
Basically, that will keep a child in the classroom focused and paying attention.
- Gross motor skills: Gross motor skills are the use of large muscles for large body movements such as jumping, hopping, stair climbing, running, swimming, cycling, and dancing just to name a few. Kids sometimes have trouble with these things and if they do it can affect how they play with other kids and even how they do in school. Occupational therapists actually work on these skills and enable them to perform it which in turn makes them feel better about themselves and gives them more confidence.
And keep in mind every kid is different and ot intervention is directed towards that child’s specific needs. If you think your average kid would be helped by OT, I would suggest talking to an actual OT, because he/she can look at the child’s strengths and weaknesses.
(This article has been written by Dr. Isha Soni, Senior Occupational Therapist and Centre Head, Lexicon Rainbow Therapy and Child Development Centre, Pune. Dr. Isha Soni has more than ten years of clinical experience as a pediatric occupational therapist. She has extensive experience working with children on the Autism Spectrum, as well as those with ADHD, Down syndrome, global developmental delays, and handwriting difficulties).