Can OT Help?

If your child shows some of these signs and symptoms, Occupational Therapy may be able to help.

development signs

Fine Motor, Visual Perceptual, Self Care, and Play Skills

  • Tremoring or involuntary movement when reaching for toys

  • Contractures, deformities or abnormal tone in upper extremities

  • Indwelling thumb (may inhibit grasping toys appropriately)

  • Child does not play or show interest in age appropriate toys

  • Difficulty with hygiene care

  • Lack of motor skill development is interfering with child’s participating in age appropriate sports or games

  • Child fatigues quickly completing writing tasks

  • Child lacks awareness of personal space boundaries

  • Child exhibits a regression of fine motor skills, activities of daily living, or ability to sustain attention.

Sensory Processing

  • Child avoids sports or physical activity

  • Difficulty moving on playground equipment, poor rhythm (i.e. pump a swing)

  • Under or over sensitive to touch, becomes upset, resists wearing certain types of clothing

  • Child has difficulty learning and performing unfamiliar motor tasks and appears awkward in his movements

  • Fearful of activities that require moving through space; becomes car sick frequently

  • Does not accept change in routine easily, frustrates easily to change

  • Tendency to become overwhelmed easily

  • Impulsive, uses poor safety and judgment, accident prone

  • Easily distracted by sights and sounds, difficulty maintaining attention due to high or low energy level

Oral Motor/ Eating

  • Inability to transition to different textured foods

  • Poor chewing skills/inability to eat table foods

  • Refusal to take liquids or solids

  • Poor weight gain due to food refusals

  • Need for excessive time to eat meals

  • Frustration from parent when trying to feed child

  • Lack of or difficulty with finger feeding after 1 year of age or utensil use (spoon) after 2 years of age

SIGNS by age

In the first year of life:

  • Persistent hand fisting or increased tone in upper extremity after 1 month of age

  • Disinterest in reaching & grasping for toys after 3 months • Inability to bring hand to midline by 3 months of age

  • Dominance of 1 side of body under 1 year of age (may indicate motor asymmetry)

  • Delay in developmental skills or milestones: sitting crawling, pulling to stand

Between 2-3 years old

  • Delay or lack of pincer grasp after1 year of age

  • Delay or disinterest in using crayons, pencils or utensils

2 years of age

  • Cannot isolate index finger to push a button after 2 years

Between 3-5 years old

  • Child does not participate in group play by 4 years of age

  • Immature grasp on a pencil or crayon by 4 years of age

  • Isn ot toilet trained, including hand washing by 4 years

  • Child does not like to participate in cooperative play with peers by 5 years of age

  • Child cannot copy lines and circles on paper by 5 years

Between 5-8 years

  • Child complains about writing tasks or using pencil during handwriting efforts

  • Difficulties manipulating fasteners (button, zip, or snap)

5 years of age

  • Inability to dress self (upperandlowerbody) by 5 years of age

  • Child cannot write letters of the alphabet from memory by end of kindergarten (6 years of age)

  • Hand dominance not well established by 6 years of age

  • Difficulty coloring, drawing pictures or cutting by 6 years of age

  • Child cannot make a simple snack by 6 years of age

  • Inability to tie shoes by 7 years of age

  • Child has poor or illegible handwriting after 7 years of age

  • Inability to bath self completely (including hair) or brush teeth by 8 years of age

Older than age 8

  • Has difficulty counting money or completing simple math functions/fractions

  • Difficulties pouring water from a jug into a glass without spilling

  • Difficulties cutting food with a knife or following simple directions

  • Difficulties completing tasks in appropriate time frame

Common Diagnosis OT’s Treat:

  • Cerebral Palsy

  • Traumatic Brain Injury Prematurity

  • Failure to Thrive

  • Developmental Delay

  • Dysphasia Feeding/Eating Disorders

  • Neurological Disorders (Congenital or Post Trauma)

  • Sensory Integration Disorders Autism Spectrum

  • Learning Disabilities

  • Perceptual/ Motor Disturbances Incoordination

  • Genetic/ Metabolic Disorders Muscular Dystrophy

  • Spinal Bifida/ Spinal Cord Injury

* Reference: AOTA (2004). American Occupational Therapy Association: OT Scope of Practice

tina butterfield