Pediatric Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy helps to develop skills for the job of living. A child’s occupation is to play and learn. Therapy is designed to facilitate a child’s meaningful participation in everyday life. Therapy often looks like play and it is meant to be fun! Some children experience inefficient sensory processing or delayed motor skills, which impact their attainment of developmental milestones, participation in typical age-related tasks and social satisfaction of being a part of a group. This can include activities at the playground, at home with family, a birthday party and at school. Therapeutic activities should occur in the context of a natural setting so that children can easily translate their therapeutic goals and carryover of new skills to the setting where they must be performed. At times, therapy can occur in different types of settings such as a sensory gym or even on a horse to access beneficial equipment for specific targeted skill development.
Sensory Processing
Sometimes children will over or under respond to sensory stimuli and therefore have difficulty with their adaptive responses, behavior and emotional regulation. Hypersensitive children may need to wear sunglasses often, hold their hands over their ears, and dislike riding in the car or in a stroller. They may have difficulty tipping their head back for hair washing, be resistant to tags in their clothes, sand on their feet, or certain textures of food. Hyposensitive children need significantly more input to register environmental stimuli and might seek out movement or noise that can be disruptive to others, look for visual stimulation in things that spin or move very fast, constantly need to touch/mouth objects, and take excessive risks during play. It is important for children to be able to regulate their sensory processing so that they can cope, focus and attend for learning and social interaction.
Motor Skill Development
Children must have a strong core at their trunk in order to use their upper and lower bodies for movement and skill acquisition. Posture is an important foundation from which to develop small, fine motor skills. Balance is key to mastering motor activities like climbing at the playground and riding a bike.
Locations
The services that Training Wheels offers is constantly growing and developing. We work to refine our programs to fit the needs of your child. We encourage you to contact us so that we can develop an individualized plan for your child.
School Based Services
Training Wheels maintains contracts with school districts to provide occupational therapy services in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire, as well as the Northshore of Boston. Consultation, evaluation and direct intervention is offered from preschool to high school as well as transitional years.
Outpatient Sensory Clinic
Training Wheels offers sensory based services in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We welcome families into sessions and collaborate to meet goals together. Our office is equipped with suspended equipment, physioballs, crash pads as well as a climbing wall designed for little hands!