OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

Occupational therapy is skilled treatment that helps your child achieve independence and ability to participate in all facets of his or her life---play, self-care, school and community participation, socializing with family and friends.  OT gives children and their families "skills for the job of living" necessary for independent, fulfilling and satisfying lives.  Their services typically include:

• Developmental (sensory, motor, cognitive, social) and performance skills evaluations;
• Comprehensive home, school, and community environmental assessments with recommendations for adaptations and supportive accommodations; 
• Customized treatment programs to improve your child's ability to perform daily activities and participate fully with family and peers;
• Where appropriate, adaptive equipment recommendations and usage training;
• Guidance to family members, teachers, coaches, and other caregivers.

Pediatric O.T. Clinicians

Pediatric occupational therapists are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of human growth and development with specific emphasis on the social, emotional, and physiological effects of illness and injury.  They complete supervised internships in a variety of healthcare settings, and must pass a national examination in order to become certified.  Most states in the U.S. also have licensure and regulatory bodies. The occupational therapist enters the field with a bachelors or masters degree. However, to function well in pediatric practice, obtaining advanced specialty continuing education and/or certifications in areas such as sensory integration, neurodevelopmental treatment, or other approaches is the expectation.

What Types of Children Benefit From Occupational Therapy?

A wide variety of infants and children can benefit from occupational therapy, including those with

• Prematurity, birth injuries, or uterine exposure to harmful substances
• Attention deficits, learning problems, or developmental disabilities
• Sensory processing/sensory integration disorders
• Problems with organizing and coordinating skilled movement ("clumsiness")
• Neuromuscular conditions such as cerebral palsy
• Chronic musculo-skeletal conditions such as muscular dystrophy, arthrogryposis, or osteogenesis imperfecta
• Behavioral problems, substance use or eating disorders
• Sports injuries or accidents
• difficulty learning to drive due to perceptual, cognitive, or motor problems

Meet our OT staff

PHYSICAL THERAPY

Pediatric physical therapists (PTs) are health care professionals who diagnose and treat children of all ages who have developmental, medical, or other health-related conditions that limit their abilities to move and perform functional activities in their daily lives. PTs also help prevent or reduce conditions associated with lack of of mobility (such as obesity) through fitness and wellness programs that help children achieve healthy and active lifestyles.

PTs examine children and develop plans using treatment techniques that promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability. They provide care in clinics such as this one, schools, home-based early intervention, sports facilities, and more.

PTs must have a graduate degree from an accredited physical therapy program before taking the national licensure examination. The minimum educational requirement is a master's degree, yet most educational programs now offer the doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree. Licensure is required in each state in which a physical therapist practices.

What Types of Children Benefit From Physical Therapy?

Infants and children with any disorder that affects movement or physical fitness can benefit from physical therapy, including those with:

• developmental disabilities such as Down syndrome or Cerebral Palsy
• prematurity, birth injuries, or uterine exposure to harmful substances
• childhood obesity 
• musculo-skeletal conditions such as muscular dystrophy, arthrogryposis, or osteogenesis imperfecta
• sports injuries and accidents

Meet Our PT Staff

Speech-Language Therapy

Working with the full range of human communication and its disorders, speech-language pathologists:

• Evaluate and diagnose oral-motor, speech, language and swallowing disorders. 
• Treat oral-motor dysfunction, speech articulation, language and swallowing disorders in infants and children.  Some pediatric speech pathologists also treat feeding disorders.

Speech-language pathologists work as part of a team here at Sensational Kids, which includes parents, teachers, physicians, audiologists, psychologists, social workers, PT, OT and others.

Entry Requirements

In medical, non-educational settings, speech-language pathologists must have a Master's degree and must have completed a year of supervision by a qualified SLP, in order to obtain the Certificate of Clinical Competency (CCC).

SOCIAL WORK COUNSELING  NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

At Sensational Kids!, our Clinical Social Worker works directly with individuals, couples, and families to identify and help them overcome a variety of difficulties, such as the child's or family's adjustment to disability, marital and family stress, anxiety and depression, other emotional instability, or economic uncertainty.

Social work's approach is unique among the helping professions because it focuses on people's problems in the context of their social environment. Social workers believe that people are influenced by the quality of the environment and people around them - in their families, communities, workplaces, and organizations.  Our clinical social worker can assist you in identifying these factors and deciding how to make the most effective use of personal and other resources.

Who Can Benefit from Clinical Social Work Counseling?

• Children and adolescents with social and emotional difficulties:
• • social anxiety and/or depression
  • oppositional/defiant attitudes and behaviors
  • children with disabilities and secondary adjustment difficulties
  • eating disorders (obesity, anorexia, bulemia)
• Parents who have recently given birth to a child with a serious medical condition or disability, who often feel a huge sense of loss and grief.
• Parents of children who have physical disabilities or socio-emotional disorders, who are experiencing marital stress and strain.  This strain may be financial or time-oriented, but has emotional consequences.  (Parenting is hard enough---parenting the child with a disability can put unusual duress on a relationship.)
• There may be huge discrepancies in the perception of the child's difficulties between mother and father.  One parent may appear to be "in denial", while another may seem to be over-focused on the child, while ignoring the marriage.
• Siblings of the child with a disability often experience a feeling of neglect, due to the amount of parental attention that must go towards the care of the child with the disability. 
• Other siblings may feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility for the disabled brother or sister.  The brother or sister may act out in negative, delinquent ways in order to obtain more of the parents' attention.