Occupational Therapy & Speech Therapy
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What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapists assist children with developmental delays or physical disabilities:
- be as independent as possible with the activities of their daily lives
- accomplish the physical, social, and learning tasks required of them at each stage of their development
The goal of treatment is to use purposeful play and activities to achieve the physical, social, and learning tasks needed at each stage of development.
Signs that your child might benefit from pediatric occupational therapy:
- Trouble with gross motor skills- difficulty with balance, strength, endurance, and/or coordination. Occupational therapy can help with your child’s ability to walk, climb stairs, use utensils, and other daily activities.
- Difficulty achieving age-appropriate milestones- Are you concerned your child is not crawling at 1 years old or your 2-year-old isn’t walking steadily on their own? Occupational therapy is very beneficial for children who show signs of developmental delay.
- Issues with fine motor skills- Trouble with fine motor skills such as drawing, using scissors, using utensils and other simple tasks can be treated with occupational therapy.
- Sensory processing problems- If you that notice your child is sensitive to touch, taste, sounds or smells, these are common signs that there could be sensory processing issues. Occupational therapy can help with sensitivity to these senses using different exercises.
What is an SLP?
An SLP is a healthcare professional specializing in communication and swallowing. SLPs work in hospitals, schools, or clinics with both children and adults. We provide diagnosis and treatment in the areas of:
- Speech
- Expressive language
- Fluency (stuttering)
- Voice and resonanc)
- Feeding and swallowing
- Cognition
- Literacy
When to see an SLP
Keep in mind that all children learn at their own pace. However,
it’
s never too early to see an SLP if your child is not meeting
milestones. Some “red flags” to watch out for include:
- No babbling by 7 months
- No first words by 15-17 months
- No attempts to copy your movements or words by 11-18 months
- No word combinations (e.g., “ mommy go ” or “blue car”) by 2 years
- Grunting and pointing to make requests rather than verbalizing
- You have trouble understanding your child’s speech.
- Your child has fewer than 50 words in their vocabulary at 2 years old.
- Not responding when spoken to.
- Trouble following instructions.
- Trouble answering simple questions
- Trouble matching colours, shape, and/or sizes.
- Trouble playing with other children.
An SLP will do an assessment and provide a diagnosis of a speech or
language delay. Speech therapy can be one-on-one or in a group
session. Speech therapy is tailored to each child and their specific
communication needs.
What is AAC?
AAC stands for augmentative
and alternative communication –
which is anything that is used
as a supplement or an
alternative to verbal speech
We ALL use AAC without even
realizing it! For example, we
may look at people
’
s facial
expressions to see if they are
joking, or point to locations on a
map while giving someone
directions.
- Gestures
- Body language
- Writing
- Drawing
- Pictures
- Ipad apps
- Speech Generators
Benefits of ACC
AAC helps us communicate more clearly. It can also help with children’s language development.
Children learn best when they have multimodal input (e.g., hearing a word while also seeing and/or touching the item.) AAC can be useful for:
Children learn best when they have multimodal input (e.g., hearing a word while also seeing and/or touching the item.) AAC can be useful for:
- Establishing routines
- Helping children understand and make choices
- Making connections between items
- Building literacy skills
- Increasing independence
