SPOT 4 KIDS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

What do SPOT4KIDS Occupational Therapists do?
Occupational Therapists aim to optimise a child’s independence and function by assessing and treating the following areas in fun and creative ways:

Our sensory systems:
The sensory systems include our tactile system (information brought about by touch); the vestibular system (the sensations of gravity and movement ie. where our head is in relation to gravity); the proprioceptive system (information we get back from our deep muscles, tendons and joints, enabling us to know where our body is in space without using our vision); and our visual system (information brought by the eyes).

A child with deficits in one or more of these sensory systems may present in the following ways:

under or overreacting to seemingly normal tactile sensations;

hyperactivity;

Attention difficulties

poor balance; excessive rocking in their chairs,

behavioural problems

Seeking or avoiding rough and tumble play, outdoor activity or contact sports

Excessive jumping/jolting of joints

Slow/inaccurate copying from blackboard or textbooks

Difficulty reading, writing and spelling

Visual Motor Integration:
This refers to eye-hand coordination or eye-foot coordination. It impacts not only on a child’s ball skills etc, but also in the classroom on being able to coordinate the eye and the hand to work together as a team for copying from blackboards/textbooks accurately, accurate placement/plotting of data on graphs etc, ability to do dot to dots and mazes etc.

Muscle Tone:
The resting level of tension in muscles. Children with low tone in the body often fidget excessively in their chairs, fix on to furniture, slouch and appear distractible. Low tone is often also observed in hands/fingers with very flexible hand and finger joints resulting in poor fine motor skills and pencil grasp.

Motor Planning:
Some milliseconds before the brain actually tells muscles to move, it runs a mini-program for that movement, adjusting speed and direction throughout, to keep it on target- this is motor planning. Children with deficits in this area may have difficulty copying, learning, initiating and completing new tasks as opposed to familiar “learnt” tasks.

Fine Motor:
Small movements controlled by the hands and fingers, tongue and toes (ie the body’s extremities). Difficulties present in handwriting and prewriting skills, pencil grip issues, cutting, managing shoelaces/buttons/zippers, colouring, drawing etc.

Gross Motor:
Larger movements of the body controlled by the larger muscles. Deficits or delays are seen in clumsy children, difficulties with coordination, sport, running, jumping, hopping, skipping and climbing.

Hand Dominance and Preference:
The consistent favouring of one hand over the other in the performance of skilful acts.

Crossing the Midline:
The midline of the body is an imaginary line cutting the body in half from top to bottom, separating the left from right side of the body. Children who exhibit an avoidance of crossing the midline often complete activities presented on the left side of their body with their left hand, and those presented on their right side with their right hand and/or demonstrate a lack of hand dominance.