Occupational Therapy For Kids

Our comprehensive Occupational Therapy (OT) for kids in Bellevue helps them succeed in the important areas of their lives, their “occupations of childhood.” OTs address delays or concerns in the areas of fine and gross motor skills, cognitive skills, social development, and self-care that may be impacted by the following diagnoses:

• Autism
• Brain injuries
• Genetic disorders
• Seizure disorders
• ADHD/learning disorders
• Sensory processing disorders
• Other developmental differences, disorders, or delays

Our innovative program aims to improve your child’s ability to meaningfully engage in daily occupations. The occupations of childhood include:

• Social Participation
• Activities of Daily Living (including toileting, bathing, dressing, and eating)
• Play
• Education

OT works to build foundational skills. OTs do this by using specialized equipment and playful sensory-motor activities to provide the “just right” challenge for children as they develop skills through participation in their occupations.

Additionally, OT’s frequently collaborate with developmental optometrists and vision therapists on cases that can be helped by OT’s building a strong foundation for the body and sensory systems, which then serves to progress visual skills.

Sensory Processing

1. Sensory Processing Disorder is a complex disorder of the brain that affects developing children and adults.
2. Parent surveys, clinical assessments, and laboratory protocols exist to identify children with SPD.
3. At least one in twenty people in the general population may be affected by SPD.
4. In children who are gifted and those with ADHD, Autism, and fragile X syndrome, the prevalence of SPD is much higher than in the general population.
5. Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children who are typically developing.
6. Studies have found a significant difference between the physiology of children with SPD and children with ADHD.
7. Sensory Processing Disorder has unique sensory symptoms that are not explained by other known disorders.
8. Heredity may be one cause of the disorder.
9. Laboratory studies suggest that the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are not functioning typically in children with SPD.
10. Preliminary research data support decades of anecdotal evidence that occupational therapy is an effective intervention for treating the symptoms of SPD.