Fine Motor Therapy
Fine motor skills involve use of the small muscles in the hands. These include skills such as: grasping objects, writing, cutting with scissors, shoe-tying, and fastening buttons. These skills are needed to for self-care and participation in activities at school and at home. Through pediatric occupational therapy (OT), patients can develop and improve these skills.
Handwriting
Handwriting has many components to it, including fine motor skills, and visual perceptual skills. In therapy, we work on the underlying causes of the problem in a task, so we wouldn’t necessarily be working on handwriting, we would be working on the problem that is causing the poor handwriting. Our initial evaluation will help determine the root of the problem and guide us in making the treatment plan.
Sensory Processing Disorder
Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming. The light touch of a shirt may chafe the skin. Other people with sensory processing disorder may be under-sensitive to things in their environment. They may put too much food into their mouths at once or seek out input by jumping and crashing into things/people.
Others with sensory processing disorder may:
• Be uncoordinated
• Bump into things
• Be unable to tell where their limbs are in space
• Be hard to engage in conversation or play
• Seek out specific textures or pressure
• Avoid specific textures or pressure
If you notice these characteristics in your child, he or she may benefit from a sensory processing evaluation and pediatric occupational therapy.