SERVICES WE OFFER
Occupational therapy refers to what one does throughout the life span to “occupy” their time. These occupations include work, school, self-care, and play/leisure activities. Occupational therapy focuses on the relationship between the cognitive, motor, social, emotional, and sensory functioning that allow a person to perform the daily activities that are necessary in their life.
For children, their occupation includes, play, school, self-care, and socialization. Play is a vital skill that impacts every aspect of development. It is through play that children learn about their bodies and their environment. In typically developing children, this process occurs naturally. For children with neurological impairments, the interaction between the child and their environment does not occur naturally and therefore, all aspects of development are impacted. A child then has difficulty functioning successfully in school, play, and self-care. The role of occupational therapy for children with neurological impairments is to facilitate appropriate interaction between the child and their environment.
At Move to Learn, occupational therapy services may include the treatment of sensory processing issues, fine motor/visual motor integration issues, visual perceptual issues, bilateral integration issues and apraxia (motor planning issues).
Our services are offered in a variety of settings: private-clinic, school-based, community and in-home settings. The following service delivery options are offered: one-on-one, very group (2:1 or 3:1) and small group services led by a multidisciplinary team that focus on executive function, community exposure and sensory regulation.
**Service location and service delivery methods are based on client/family needs and are determined by the therapist and team collaboration.
SENSORY PROCESSING
Sensory processing refers to the body’s ability to take in sensory information from the environment, process that sensory information in the central nervous system, and then produce an appropriate response to the demands of a given task. When a child has sensory processing issues, any interaction with one’s environment becomes challenging. It is the role of the occupational therapist to create an environment that provided a “just right fit” so that exploration and learning can occur in an environment that is challenging but not scary. Sensory regulation is directly related to emotional regulation.
It is important to know that in addition to the five basic senses there are two special senses; vestibular and proprioception. Vestibular sense is the brain’s ability to understand movement based on the position of the head and is located in the inner ear. Vestibular processing directly affects bilateral integration, muscle tone, and multi-sensory processing. Proprioceptive sense is located in the joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons and gives information to the brain regarding the position of the body. The Move to Learn therapist are skilled in the area of sensory processing. As well as understanding the impact sensory regulation has on emotional and cognitive regulation.
VISUAL MOTOR INTEGRATION
Visual motor integration is the ability of our visual and motor systems working in a coordinated manner to complete functional tasks. Visual motor integration skills are necessary to color, write, pick up small objects, eat with tools, throw and catch a ball and so many other activities that require efficient and coordinated movement. Visual motor integration is necessary for both fine and gross motor integration skills.
MOTOR PLANNING/PRAXIS
Motor planning is a complex series of events that happen on a subconscious level. Motor planning requires ideation, planning, action/execution and refinement/adaptation. In typically developing children, this series occurs without conscious thought throughout the developmental process. Children with sensory processing challenges often have issues with motor planning. Children may struggle with having the ideation that sparks the desire to move in a certain manner, they may have difficulty constructing a plan as to how to move, they might not fully understand how to act or move to fulfill the plan or they might have difficulty refining or adapting when things did not occur in the most efficient or effective way. Through functional play and sensory integration based activities, the therapist at MTL will work with your child to address challenges with praxis.
VISUAL PROCESSING
Visual processing is the not how the eyes see but it is how the brain interprets what the eyes see. When an individual has issues with visual processing this could due to any one of a combination of different visual processing difficulties.
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Visual discrimination: the ability to see difference in objects
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Visual motor integration: coordination of visual and motor output
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Figure-ground: being able to differentiate between foreground and background information
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Visual sequencing: the ability to sequence visual information
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Visual closure: the ability to be able to complete a picture when only given a portion of the visual information
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Form-constancy: the ability to recognize a shape, letter or object no matter it’s size, position or orientation
The therapists at Move to Learn can assess challenges that impact visual processing. We address these issues through intervention or make referrals to the top optometrist in central Ohio.
SPEECH-LANGUAGE THERAPY
Speech-language therapy services may include the treatment of speech disorders/sound disorders (articulation and related disorders), language disorders, social-communication disorders, cognitive-communication disorders, and swallowing disorders (dysphagia). Aural rehabilitation, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and overall communication strategies and techniques are also areas which can be addressed across speech-language therapy services.