At Imagine Pediatric Therapy, we often explain that Occupational Therapy (OT) for children helps kids do the things that are meaningful to them, things like play, problem solving and social skills.
Our Occupational Therapists are not just teaching kids how to play, they are strengthening the life skills and abilities that they will need in adulthood. Our therapists are setting up our pediatric patients for success by improving their gross and fine motor skills when needed, but equally important, our therapists are helping children’s brains make important connections to improve their ability to interact with others.
Life skills in children and adolescents can be broken down into the following categories:
- Cognitive Skills: Problem Solving, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking
- Emotional Skills: Self-Awareness, Self-Management
- Social Skills: Interpersonal Relationship Skills, Communication, Social Awareness
Cognitive Skills
When you are faced with a problem that you cannot figure out, you feel your frustration mounting. With children, when there is a delay in developing cognitive skills, that frustration is present all day, every day, and it builds without a proper outlet. To diffuse this situation, OT assists the child to further develop their cognitive skills to navigate problems.
Imagine Pediatric therapists will work with your child by presenting unique problems and then talking through possible solutions. For example, while playing a game, the therapist chooses your child’s favorite marker, which of course upsets your child. Our therapist will walk through each step of finding a solution:
- Identifying the problem
- Brainstorming solutions or compromises
- Reinforcing that their feelings are valid, but they cannot always get their desired outcome – in this case, using their favorite marker
- Discussing how, although they did not get their desired outcome this time, they can still play the game and have fun, allowing them to move on with their day
It is not always as simple as this, and depending on the child, a therapist might take several sessions to get through one round of these points, and several more for the child to be able to put these ideas in effect independently. It’s important to have repetition and consistency; the more a therapist can work with your child on these issues, the sooner and more expertly your child will be able to use these problem-solving skills on their own.
Emotional Skills
When you are experiencing major tantrums in public, perhaps with your child hitting you and screaming, it is easy to be angry or embarrassed. This isn’t your failure as a parent. Tantrums are your child struggling with self-awareness, emotional regulation and self-management, even though it might just seem like they are just trying to make your day more difficult!
Our occupational therapists can help your child identify their emotions and learn self-calming strategies. These strategies can range from taking deep breaths, to identifying sensory inputs that best help your child in different environments. At home, emotional regulation could be swinging in a circular motion or laying stomach-down on an exercise ball and rolling back and forth. When your child is out of the house – anywhere, such as school, at a pumpkin patch, or in the grocery store – calming exercises may include applying pressure to the body by hugging a weighted stuffed animal or squeezing a stress ball. Every child is different, so every child will have a different preferred way of helping themselves remain calm. Your child’s therapist will help identify what works best for them.
Social Skills
Social skills are one of the key components to success in both personal and professional settings throughout life. Learning these skills in childhood sets children up for success in school by improving interactions with teachers and helping in the formation of friendships. These skills come easier for some kids than others. When your child is having difficulty identifying when others are experiencing emotions, such as sadness, they will have a difficult time expressing empathy for others or apologizing when they’ve accidentally hurt someone’s feelings.
Our therapists will work with your children to help them identify other’s emotions. For example, what does it mean when a brow is furrowed – is that person happy or angry? We will also work with your child on how to handle social situations, such as basic conversations when you meet someone new, what is nice to say and what should be avoided. For instance, if your child doesn’t like the shirt the person is wearing, it shouldn’t be mentioned. When needed, we’ll also work on the importance of maintaining eye contact when they need to apologize.
As adults, we sometimes take cognitive, emotional and social skills for granted. However, these are not skills we are born with; they are skills that are learned. Sometimes, children need a more active learning experience than others.
When your child is not meeting milestones, seems to have difficulty connecting with other people or cannot seem to appropriately express their emotions, call our office at 312-588-5050 or click here. We’ll schedule an evaluation and find out how our experienced, dedicated therapists can help.
