ediatric Occupational Therapists are concerned with analyzing your child’s ability to perform in everyday contexts.  The goals are to improve the child’s functional performance and to enhance the child’s ability to interact within his or her physical and social environments.

An Occupational Therapist collaborates with families, teachers and caregivers of children with special needs to adapt environments, interaction styles or materials to promote skill development.  The following is a brief description of some targeted skill areas:

• Fine Motor Skills: Skills related to the small muscles of the body, particularly those of the hands.  Children need adequate dexterity, strength and coordination to manage a variety of tools and objects in their daily routines such as writing utensils, scissors and eating utensils.
   

• Sensory Integration: The organization of sensory input for use.  The “use” may be a perception of the body or the world, or an adaptive response, or a learning process.  Through sensory integration, the many parts of the nervous system work together so that a child can interact with the environment effectively and experience appropriate satisfaction.
   

• Cognition and Problem Solving: Cognitive ability is required to learn skills in all performance areas including, self-care, play and school.  These skills underlie the child’s ability to perceive, attend to, and learn from the environment.
   

• Psychosocial Skills: These skills refer to the child’s ability to interact with others, to cope with new or difficult situations and to manage his or her behaviors in socially appropriate ways.  Psychosocial skills influence the child’s ability to establish friendships and other social relationships.
   

• Visual Perception: The process responsible for the reception and cognition of visual stimuli.  Visual perception allows a child to make accurate judgments of the size, configuration and spatial relationships of objects.
   

• Visual Motor Skills: These skills are the integration of visual perception and fine/gross motor skill.  Children who have difficulty with visual motor skills will often have trouble learning how to print or write, as they have difficulty copying information.