Frequently Asked Questions

What is Occupational Therapy?

A child’s life is made up of “Occupations” or everyday activities such as Play, Social Interaction, Self-Care Skills, Learning, Sleeping and Feeding. An Occupational Therapist will evaluate the child, environment, task and activity. They will assess foundational skills that are impacting output and performance, develop individualized goals and make a plan to help improve a child’s ability to perform everyday activities to reach their full potential and support children of all ages by incorporating activities that are fun, engaging and important to them to learn age-appropriate developmental skills. OT’s look at the whole child: psychological, physical, emotional, sensory, cognitive and social makeup.

How often will my child have to be seen for Occupational Therapy?

Each child is different and has individual needs, but most clients are seen 1 time weekly for a 60-minute session, however more involved clients may be seen twice weekly.

How do I know if my child needs to have an Occupational Therapy evaluation?

Typically, a child’s physician or teacher will notice a delay or disorder in a child’s fine motor, sensory-motor, self-care, life skill and visual-motor skills. Parents may also notice a delay compared to other peer-aged children. A recommendation can be made from any person, physician, parent or teacher for an initial evaluation. If you are concerned with your child’s current performance with their motor or life skills, please contact us to schedule an evaluation.

My child is only 2 years old and not in preschool, should I wait for them to “grow out of it?”

No, please contact us for an appointment to evaluate your child’s developmental motor and processing skills. If delays are noted this young, treatment may be shorter and early intervention is very effective to catch a child up to their developmental milestones. It is always better to be safe than to wait until more developmental milestones are missed! Waiting until older and attending school to work on motor delays may cause additional emotional reactions when trying to keep up alongside peers in school

My child was discharged from an IEP or 504 programs at school, what can I do now if they still need help?

School districts operate under a separate set of guidelines than private practice. For your child to receive Occupational Therapy services within the school setting, it must be proven to be “educationally relevant” and the focus is on educational goals and objectives to access a school curriculum. Your child may have been discharged because they achieved their educationally based goals, and continued direct services were found to no longer be “educationally relevant”. Private practice Occupational Therapy services fall under a “medical model” and provide services for the “whole child” to carry over skills in the natural environment as well as continuing to work on educationally-based skills. If you feel that your child continues to need Occupational Therapy services, you have the right to pursue private therapy as well as have an outside evaluation completed.

What is the difference between a screening and evaluation?

A screening is a shorter, more brief glimpse of a child’s performance with their motor skills. It quickly skims areas of fine motor, visual motor, sensory-motor, and age-level self-care skills. Screenings generally take 15-30 minutes to conduct and are less expensive. Results from a screening help determine whether a more in-depth evaluation is needed. Evaluations typically take 1 or 2 hours to administer and are more costly. A comprehensive evaluation will provide standardized testing results with percentile ranking and specific information on strengths and weaknesses noted with skills. A comprehensive in-depth report is generated that can be brought back to a school or physician for follow-up. Professional recommendations are provided for school and the home settings within this report.