Knowing when to pursue occupational, physical, or speech therapy for your child can be tricky. We are here to help!
Occupational Therapy
Some of the most obvious indicators that your child may benefit from occupational therapy, or OT, is if your child is having difficulties with day-to-day activities at home, school, or in the community. The skills that an occupational therapist will help your child develop are expansive, but can be loosely grouped as the following: fine motor, visual processing, oral motor/ oral sensory, sensory processing, social interaction, learning abilities, play, strengthening, self-care, sleeping, attention, body awareness, and self-calming. Oftentimes, children with developmental delays, orthopedic issues and neuromuscular issues are common candidates for an OT referral.
Your child’s occupational therapist will help your child master typical activities for their age. Some common examples of what your child will work on in OT are activities such as holding a writing utensil properly, cutting with scissors, brushing teeth, tying shoes, managing food in their mouth, and more. For younger patients, OTs will work on activities such as grasp patterns, stacking blocks, clapping, and playing with cause-and-effect toys.
If you would like to learn about this topic in further detail, this website may provide helpful information here.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy, or PT, is often recommended for kids who have been injured or have movement difficulties from an illness, disease, or disability. When a problem with movement affects a child’s daily activities, treatment from a physical therapist may be beneficial. A few examples of conditions that a physical therapist will help treat are sports injuries, developmental delays, cerebral palsy, genetic disorders, birth defects, limb deficiencies, torticollis, and muscle disease.
In order to help treat a condition that limits a child’s movement, a physical therapist may guide a child through developmental activities, such as crawling and walking, balance and coordination activities, adaptive play, aquatic therapy, flexibility exercises, and more. These treatments will help your child build strength, improve movement, and strengthen skills needed to complete everyday activities.
Learn more about PT here.
Speech Therapy
It may be difficult to identify whether your child needs speech therapy because the age at which children begin learning language and speaking can oftentimes differ. That said, the stages of speech and language development are the same for all children. If your baby does not respond to sound or is not vocalizing at all, they should be seen by a doctor immediately. On the KidsHealth website you can find a list of some things to watch for in your child that may indicate that they would benefit from speech therapy here.
Furthermore, the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association website includes excellent resources about speech therapy.
In addition to speech and language development, speech-language pathologists, or SLPs, will help your child if they have feeding or swallowing difficulties. It is normal for a young child to initially struggle with actions such as learning to eat solid foods or drinking from a cup. However, if your child continues to have difficulties, they may have a feeding or swallowing disorder. If you would like to learn more about this, the American-Speech-Language-Hearing Association website includes in-depth detail about feeding, swallowing, and how an SLP may help. You can find that here.
Overall, it is important to understand that no two children develop and progress in the same way. That said, there are basic developmental milestones that should be met depending on your child’s age. You can find an overview of those developmental milestones here.
Thanks for reading!
-Medical Support Services Staff