What is OT?

OT stands for Occupational Therapy. "Occupation" meaning that everything we do throughout the day is an occupation. People will commonly mistake OT for helping people get jobs. Which isn't entirely wrong, we certainly can help people get jobs. Examples of occupations are brushing our hair, washing our face, cooking breakfast, driving to work, etc. These are all examples of activities of daily living (ADL's), these are things we do everyday without even thinking about doing them or how we do them. Most of us don't even think twice about it. Being able to do these things gives us a sense of independence. What do we do when this sense of independence is taken away or interrupted by illness, disability, accident, etc.? This is where OT comes in. We strive to bring independence and functionality into all of our patients' lives no matter the age. When it comes to children we know that there are developmental milestones that children are supposed to meet. There can be disruptions to this development due to injury, accident, illness, genetic disorder, or they simply were just born with developmental challenges. THAT IS OKAY! OT's are here to help assist you and your child to perform developmentally appropriate tasks to help bring them and you a sense of independence. For pediatrics, OT's specifically look at fine and gross motor development, bilateral coordination (using both sides of our body together), motor planning, muscle tone, upper body and hand strengthening, core strengthening, sensory processing, self-regulation, attention, academics (handwriting), and executive functioning. OT's can also focus on another super important ADL of eating/feeding. Feeding therapy can be just as important as occupational therapy. For some, it is life threatening. Check back to my blog post explaining more details about feeding therapy!