The initial years of your child's life are some of the most formative seasons of their life. In these early years, there is a considerable amount of physical, social and cognitive development that is happening. And this evolution is critical to their brain since this is when they learn skills that they will implement for the rest of their life. Nonetheless, not all children go through their early stages as successfully as others do. And while child development will vary from one kid to another, it is imperative to enlist assistance if your kid is finding it challenging to hit their developmental milestones when they should be.
Paediatric occupational therapy is one of the treatments that can help improve your child's development. This type of therapy can be conducted at a professional institution or right at home depending on your needs. This article lists a couple of the activities that paediatric occupational therapy comprises.
Sensory integration
This type of activity has the sole function of helping your child focus their responses to their environment. As you age, you know how to focus your attention on specific sensations and ignore others. For instance, you can hold a conversation with a person while there is a loud construction project underway outdoors.
However, children who have challenges with both the reception and processing of the various sensations around them will find it challenging to navigate everyday situations as the smallest distraction could throw them off. This inability to focus on what to respond to can then impede their ability to learn, relax and lead a regular life. With sensory integration through paediatric occupational therapy, your child learns to control their responses to their environment.
Physical coordination
Some children may reach their cognitive milestones but have problems with their mobility and coordination. Resultantly, you might find that your child is not developing their fine-motor skills or perhaps are experiencing significant delays in learning how to walk. For this type of developmental problem, you can engage your child in physical coordination activities. There are two main categories of physical coordination activities.
The first is the hand-eye coordination activities that help to fine-tune your child's proprioception and visual processing. The exercises employed work to help your child use their eyes to direct specific muscles to perform physical tasks. The second category is the bi-lateral activities, which function to help your child make the most of both sides of their body when engaging in physical activities.