OT can help children develop and improve:

• Gross motor skills, balance, and coordination
• Postural control and ability to sit/ stand upright
• Fine motor and handwriting skills
• Basic and sustained attention to task
• Executive functioning skills
• Sensory processing skills, self-regulation, and related behaviors

• Visual motor and visual perceptual/ spatial skills
• Self-feeding and oral motor skills
• Self-care and adaptive skills
• Functional play-skills and social participation
• Social-emotional and coping skills
• Motor planning and sequencing

How do I know if my child needs OT?

Does your child experience difficulty in any of the following areas?

• Your child has difficulty participating in fine motor and table-top activities (child avoids or has difficulty with coloring/drawing/handwriting/scissor use)
• Difficulty participating in developmentally-appropriate play activities. For example, your child prefers to observe peers on the playground rather than participate in the activities themselves
• Difficulties with behaviors, self-regulation, and coping skills (tantrums often, is not easy to console or comfort.)
• Difficulty with transitions and flexibility (your child is unable to deal with unexpected changes in routine)
• Difficulty with self-care activities and age-appropriate independence (dressing, toilet training/ hygiene, feeding & utensil use)
• Difficulty with visual attention and spatial/ environmental awareness (does not look where they are going, does not look at the task in front of them, displays poor or unstained eye contact with others)
• Difficulty with sensory processing and modulation (difficulty staying organized in a loud or multi-sensory environment, demonstrates increased arousal/ excitement in different environments/ behaviors do not match environment)
• Difficulty with tactile tolerance/ tactile defensiveness (avoids sticky/wet textures, does not tolerate clothing with seams, tags, and or of different fabrics/ textures, has behavioral outbursts during bathing or tooth brushing)
• Difficulty with age-appropriate food repertoire and/ or feeding skills (limited diet/ picky eating, only will eat foods of a certain texture, gags often, difficulty feeding self, etc.)
• Difficulty learning, recognizing, and memory for symbols, forms, letters, and numbers
• Difficulty with handwriting, letter formation, spacing, and sizing (messy drawing, illegible handwriting, etc.)
• Your child shows delayed hand dominance/ often switches the hand they use to draw/ write with?  (*While all children develop at their own pace, it is typical for most children in preschool to begin to choose a preferred hand (3-4 yrs.), and children entering Kindergarten (age 5-6 yrs.) have established a definite hand preference for using fine motor tools such as pencil and scissors).
• Difficulty with motor planning, motor coordination, and praxis (difficulty with balance and coordination, appears clumsy, seems rigid, difficulty imitating motor movements, etc.)
• Difficulty with executive functioning skills (difficulty planning, sequencing or organizing activities that involve multiple steps, etc.)

*If your child exhibits one or more of the above listed ‘red flags,’ it is recommended that you consult with a licensed occupational therapist.