Do you have a kid who has difficulties with daily activities at home, community or school? Do these challenges affect your kids and not other developing kids? If so, you should seek help from an occupational therapist to help your kid deal with the issues they are experiencing. Occupation therapy is a very common treatment on the Gold Coast that can support your kid and your family whenever your kids are experiencing difficulties in certain areas. If you are wondering when you can seek occupational therapy for your kid and how it can benefit them, consider reading the following section.
Instances When Occupation Therapy is the Right Choice for Your Kid on the Gold Coast
As a parent, you need to know when occupation therapy is right for your kid so that you can get them the help they need in time. Therefore, if you see the following signs in your kid, then it means that your kid needs occupational therapy on the Gold Coast;
- Developmental delays
Some parents think their kids have no problem, even when they are behind in their developing skills. However, developmental delay is an issue that needs to be addressed. When a kid is experiencing developmental delays, they are not always behind their kids in a skill. Still, they are always behind in different skills and need help meeting developmental milestones at a particular age. For instance, your kid may not reach developmental milestones like crawling, walking and sitting, failing to learn at the appropriate age level or even being unable to develop age-appropriate social and play skills.
- Fine motor skills
Kids make small movements with their toes, fingers, lips, tongue and wrists. Fine motor skills include holding small objects or even picking objects like spoons. If you realise your kid is struggling with these motor skills, consult an occupational therapist. Other fine motor skills that occupational therapy can address include;
- Manipulating puzzles and toys
- Using buttons, shoelaces, and zippers
- Tracing, drawing, colouring and prewriting shapes
- Poor letter or number formation and handwriting
- Avoiding games and tasks that need fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
These skills help people move and coordinate legs, arms and other body parts. Gross motor skills involve the large muscles that control the body. If your child is behind in strength, balance, or movement, they may be clumsy or uncoordinated. They will also have issues with the following things;
- Climbing up and down the stairs
- Poor ball skills
- Understanding the concept of left and right
- Poor balance
- Coordinating both sides of the body
If you think your kid is clumsy for the above reasons, you should try occupational therapy to help your kid deal with gross motor skills.
- Visual processing
Another instance when you should consider occupational therapy for your kid is if they have issues understanding what they see. When your kid has issues with visual processing, their brain cannot process or interpret visual information. Therefore, they will have issues recognising letters, copying letters and shapes, crossing midline, finding certain objects among many objects, differentiating left from right or even copying from the board or paper. Fortunately, with the right occupational therapy, your kid can work on their visual processing with time.
- Oral sensory skills
This is also known as oral motor skills, which control muscle movements in the oral areas like the jaw, tongue, soft palate and lips or face. When your kid has delayed oral motor skills, they will drool excessively, get tired when eating, lose excessive liquid or food when chewing or eating, be excessively picky, and mouth objects and toys beyond the appropriate age.
Whenever kids have any of the above issues, you should find Gold Coast occupational therapy bookings available. As a parent, you may be unable to provide your child with the help they need since you may not even understand them. However, you can always take them for occupational therapy, where they can get professionals’ help.