School Readiness Skills
Attention
Occupational therapy can help improve your child’s attention by engaging in client-centered interventions that involve motivating reinforcers using preferred activities/items. Therapy can also improve attention through the use of simple behavioral strategies to promote staying on task.
Sensory processing
Occupational therapy can help you and your child’s teachers learn more about their sensory needs by completing clinical observations and standardized assessment to learn more about the supports your child may need to be a successful learner. This may lead to the use of a sensory diet or incorporating a multi-modality approach to learning.
Regulation
Occupational therapy can help your child by bringing awareness to their body's emotional state, identifying coping strategies, and implementing strategies with adult support to help decrease the duration of tantrums and improve transitions and attention across contexts.
Behavior
Occupational therapy can help your child learn social norms through play based strategies and social stories to help your child differentiate between what is expected vs what is unexpected and how to navigate tricky situations through watching scenarios and helping characters make the adaptive choices before being able to apply these lessons to their own lives.
Sitting positions and strength
Occupational therapy can help strengthen postural control and core muscles which in turn help promote attention and regulation. We can also provide specific sensory, behavioral, and strengthening interventions to help improve your child’s ability to maintain seated during circle time or at their desk.
Fine and visual motor skills
Occupational therapy can help develop unique strategies to help your child learn age appropriate fine and visual motor skills needed in the classroom environment (grasp on a writing utensil, pre-writing shapes, handwriting, scissor skills) and other areas that often get flagged in school settings.
What are school readiness skills and how can occupational therapy help?
All children develop at their own pace. There are many skills that children will need to learn in order to succeed in school for example opening their lunch box, following directions, remain seated, and participating. Occupational therapists can assist children in developing those foundational school readiness skills, including but not limited to: