Pediatric Occupational Therapy Essay

They have many different puzzles at their disposal and their teachers are always there to play with them. Building a castle with blocks and keeping it all in a line and not allowing it to fall is a great way to work on fine motor skills. Making sure that the puzzle pieces in the wooden dinosaur puzzle fit into the correct space and turning it until it reaches the correct position. These are all little ways that we help tune the fine motor skills.

Physical activity encourages children and young people to develop all their physical skills and to practice the skills that they already have. Your role in supporting a child’s physical development will be to ensure that the child has a wide variety of experiences of being in a safe environment. Any setting should offer a wide range of equipment that can be used both indoors and out. It is considered important that children are given opportunities to develop their gross motor skills indoors as well as outdoors. Such opportunities may be provided by designated areas such as soft play area or by activities such as drama.

Occupational therapy combines my two loves the medical field and working with special needs children. While being employed in the school system as an occupational therapist, I will be interacting and working with many different people on a daily basis. We will all be considered part of the support staff and will work together to help the children achieve their goals. I will also be keeping the parents updated on a weekly basis of their child’s progress, along with attending each child’s IEP (individual education plan) conference. Becoming an occupational therapist is a very long and hard journey. During the process I will be taking many difficult classes, learning about numerous disabilities, taking lots of tests, learning how to use adaptive

An occupational therapist is a trained and licensed health care professional who can make a complete evaluation of the impact of disease on the activities of the patient at home and in work situations. Hobbies and recreational activities are considered when an assessment is made. The most generally accepted definition of occupational therapy is that it is an activity, physical or mental, that aids in a patient’s recovery from disease or injury.

Motor skills involve movement of muscle in the body (John, 2009). These are larger movements such as crawling, running, and jumping (John, 2009). Most of the gross motor development occurs during childhood (John, 2009). Gross motor skills have two principals that determent how a child will regularly develop (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Head to toe development this means the upper parts of the body will develop before the lower parts of the body (John, 2009). Children develop these skills throughout play (John, 2009). A tree year old Toddler can be very active therefore participating in activity that require movement, coordination, and balance can be beneficial to help a toddler to develop their motor skills (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old child can throw a ball but catching it is more difficult. They start walking with good posture similar to an adult; they can also walk backwards (Jan, Beth & Melissa, 2012). A 3 year old can run which required strength and balance, during running they should be able to rotate their trunk and swing their arms (John, 2009). By the age of 3 a child walks up and down stairs alternating their feet without support which is possible because their balance has increase (John, 2009). A 3 year old child also learns to jump from a step and learn to jump forward (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). They start hopping at the age of 3 ½ and also can stand on one foot (Center of diseases Control and Prevention, 2016). Skipping requires sequencing and rhythm which makes it more difficult this include step and hop patterns.

This semester, I had the opportunity of shadowing a group of pediatric occupational therapists at KidsConnect Occupational Therapy Clinic in Houston. During my observational experience, I was able to observe the use of the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-based (DIR) and Floortime model in clinical practice. This therapy approach focuses on the individual developmental differences of each child and utilizes social support and interaction to encourage the child’s ability to relate, share, and communicate with others. This therapy approach was exciting to see, as it placed emphasis on both the cognitive and physical development of each child and promoted positive social interactions between the child and their environment through social skills training. Furthermore, it seemed to be an appropriately-designed therapy approach for children, who still have so much to learn about how to interact with the world around them and are at an age where they can be heavily influenced by the skills they learn. The practice of this therapy approach, while already quite effective, can be improved in several ways through the consideration of several concepts that we have seen in our Health Psychology literature. In this paper, I will outline and review the concepts of health behaviors as they are observed through the Biopsychosocial Model, the promotion of positive health behaviors through the utilization of teachable moments and socialization, the encouragement of

A. Pediatric Occupational Therapists treat and help infants, children, and teens who are born with a physical disability or recovering from an injury.

The results of the present investigation will provide empirical evidence for the use of perceptual- motor training for improving social interaction and fine and gross motor skills in children with

help them learn is prehension. In cases of using this skill, patients are able to relearn how to use their arm or learn and be able to perform daily tasks and be able to function. Prehension is a very important skill for the patient to relearn because at some point, they will have to reuse their arms again and be able to reach in front of them and grab an object (Magill & Anderson, 147). As a therapist, I would slowly do certain manual exercises with them by lifting their arms, and showing them how it should feel and move properly. After they are able to do some arm movement exercises on their own, I will have them work on prehension. One example is that I can place them at a table to sit on and put a few objects in front of them. I would then

Fine motor skills require the coordination of the small muscle groups in body parts like the fingers, feet, toes, lips etc. Fine motor skills are needed to perform actions like picking up a pencil using the thumb and finger, using a pencil to write carefully, manipulating objects carefully, etc. Development of fine motor skills is necessary for pre-schoolers to learn to write neatly, for proper grasp and control of the pencil. Fine motor skill development is often overlooked when your child is an infant or toddler. You can help your child

Mentally disabled child cannot acquire a skill in same degree as normal children; it should be emphasized on learning basic motor skills such as right standing, walking, running, jump, as basic important movements to adapt to environmental. It don 't require much cognitive aspects or high coordination between body parts; in same time it work ti increase locomotor and physical abilities level to improve muscle tone. It is highly possible that mentally disabled children get impaired physical and motor fitness compared to ordinary peers as a result of avoiding participation in motor activities. (Alhagrasy, 2002, p. 220),( Macintyre, 2002, p.117,)

Fine motor skills refer to the ‘small muscles’ in the hands. Proper development of these muscles is crucial for children to succeed academically in writing and self help skills. According to the National Childcare Accreditation Council (NCAC), “Fine motor skills form an important foundation for the acquisition of many other skills, including literacy, numeracy, self-help and the ability to perform many everyday tasks” (2008). Children start to develop motor skills from birth, and the ways in which children’s muscles develop will later affect their motor function. Caretakers often look for the typical milestones that infants develop; however, infants acquire development at different rates benefiting child growth. From birth through the early grades (preschool to second grade) children are constantly using their fine motor skills to eat, dress themselves, and in social settings such as school. These skills link to infancy development and are factors in knowing how well children will succeed. The following sub-topics address fine motor development and the importance of occupational therapy interventions:

This job takes time and hard work, with each individual patient since no case and no treatment plan is the same. The features of this career is that physical therapist make a difference in the world. Not only because they are giving back to the people and the world, they make a difference in patients along with their families lives, because they grow a connection to work with the patient one-on-one. Not only do physical therapist make a difference, they are the start of a movement in the world. This specific career helps children in need and is greatly increasing with time. The demand for physical therapist is increasing especially in pediatrics, with this demand there brings job security. Jobs in the medical field will always be needed and since there is a major demand in this specific field, there is that job security. Although one should not come into a career, just for the security and the pay that the job offers, a person must love their job. This field requires you to be patient and to work with kids who do not understand simple commands, which makes it difficult. A person going into this field must love what they

Students should participate in daily physical activities that promote development of fundamental movement as children who are unable to do simple gross motor movement often have problems performing fine motor skills (teacher observation). These

The fine motor skills are regularly addressed in the form of peg boards, coloring, puzzles and other activities that require children to use their hands with small movements and precision. There are also assignments for handwriting practice. This is also for work on motor skills. Fine motor skills are used for buttoning pants, tying shoes, washing in the shower etc. There are more than one common day to day activity that uses a person's motor skills.