Problems We Help
Occupational therapists can help your child with a whole range of problems, providing assessment and treatment at home, in school or in one of our clinics. We work with children of all ages, conditions and ethnic backgrounds. Some of the common problems that we work with are:
Delayed Milestones
As children develop and grow in the early stages of their life, they will be curiously exploring the world around them and receiving a high amount of visual, auditory, physical and cognitive feedback. All this sensory feedback is processed by the growing brain and in turn progress is made.
Poor Handwriting
Handwriting is an important aspect of childhood, incorporating a variety of complex and intricate muscle movements and visual perception skills. Handwriting is not a simple task, and if left underdeveloped can become a problem later in academic life.
Difficulty Concentrating
Children of all ages often find it hard to maintain concentration, and in the majority of cases it is normal for children to experience some difficulties concentrating.
Fine Motor Difficulties
Fine motor skills is a term used by therapists to describe the intricate and detailed movements of the hand needed to manipulate, control and use objects, produce legible, neat handwriting and dress themselves independently. A child with poor fine motor skills will often be the slowest to get changed, need the most help at school in regards to handwriting and cutting and find everyday tasks hard, or take longer than expected to complete tasks involving small movements
Visual Perception Difficulties
Visual perception can be defined as an awareness or representation of something via the senses. All the information received during visual perception is what is needed to successfully plan movements, for example to hit a ball, visual perception is needed to determine the speed of a ball, its direction in space and how this relates to the position of the child's arm and the applied force needed to move hands through space to successfully catch the ball.
Gross Motor Difficulties
Gross motor is a term used to describe the ability to produce smooth, fluid and accurate movements needed to compete in sport, move through space safely, navigate new layouts and engage in a range of playground activities.
Sensory Regulation Difficulties
Sensory regulation is the ability to listen to the environmental feedback your body is receiving and respond through movement accordingly. Sensory regulation is required during all aspects of life, it is how we interpret the world around us, complete everyday activities and be able to function in a safe and successful manner.
Low Confidence and Social Difficulties
Confidence is a vital aspect of physical and social development in children, for without confidence it is likely that children will struggle to push themselves to make friends, engage in new activities and can have a detrimental effect on their overall happiness in these early years.
This is not an exclusive list, and as an occupational therapist, we are able to address many issues that your child may be experiencing. It is often common for children to just be considered as behind in class, or the class clown when in actual fact there may be some underlying difficulties which need to be addressed.
If you are concerned about any aspect of the child's development, function or ability then please contact us, email us or call us +254 (0) 796 634 253