Therapy involves a variety of engaging therapeutic interventions and strategies, with suggestions for ways that your child’s progress can be supported at home. Sessions are 50 minutes in length. The duration of treatment varies according to the identified difficulties, the individual’s neurological system, and the family’s ability to carry out supplemental therapy activities at home.
Floortime
Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a child psychiatrist, developed a form of play therapy that uses interactions and relationships to reach children with developmental delays and autism.
This method is called the Developmental, Individual-Difference, Relationship-Based model, or “DIR®/Floortime” for short. Floortime is based on the theory that autism is caused by problems with brain processing that affect a child’s relationships and senses, among other things.
With Floortime, the child’s actions are assumed to be purposeful. It is the parent or caregiver’s role to follow the child’s lead and help him develop social interaction and communication skills.
For example, a boy may frequently tap a toy car against the floor. During a Floortime session, his mother may imitate the tapping action, or put her car in the way of the child’s car. This will prompt the child to interact with her. From there, the mother encourages the child to develop more complex play schemes and incorporate words and language into play. Floortime is more child-directed than some teaching methods. Its goal is to increase back-and-forth interaction and communication between child and adult.
back to top
Food Chaining
About 25 percent to 35 percent of children, including those developing typically, have a feeding disorder of some kind. However, more than 70 percent of premature or medically fragile children have a feeding disorder, and up to 90 percent of children with cerebral palsy have a significant feeding or nutritional problem. All of these children are candidates for food chaining.
“The main goal of food chaining is to expand the diet and have children eat food from all food groups. Not necessarily all foods, but food they enjoy,”
Best practice guidelines recommend a low-pressure approach to feeding. Clinicians need to provide children with multiple exposures to food, become familiar with the swallowing aspect of feeding, and understand some children lack certain skills to eat some foods. They may appear picky, but in many cases they are probably avoiding particular foods because they don’t know how to eat them successfully.
back to top
The Wilbarger Protocol
The Wilbarger Protocol (Wilbarger, 1991), commonly referred to as a brushing program, is a specific, professionally guided treatment regime designed to reduce sensory defensiveness. This protocol has its origins in sensory integration theory, and it has evolved through clinical use. It involves deep-touch pressure throughout the day.
Patricia Wilbarger, M.Ed., OTR, FAOTA, an internationally recognized expert who specializes in the assessment and treatment of sensory defensiveness, developed this technique.
The protocol has been used by many occupational therapists that have noted positive results with a variety of populations. Many parents of children with autism have reported that their children have responded positively to this technique, including reduction in sensory defensiveness, as well as improved behavior and interaction. Many adults with autism have also reported reduction in sensory defensiveness, decreased anxiety, and increased comfort in the environment through the use of this technique. I have observed significant behavioral changes in many of my clients following the introduction of the Wilbarger Protocol.
back to top
Therapeutic Listening
Listening Therapy is a structured program of listening to specially designed music that is individually selected for each client. This technique has been adapted from the works of Guy Berard, Alfred Tomatis, Steven Porges, and Ingo Steinbach. Sheila Frick, OTR, has integrated it into a sensory processing model.
How Does Listening Therapy Work?
The music stimulates the polyvagal system in the child which regulates behavioral reactivity through three neural circuits. The structured music exercises the vestibular/cochlear system, the attending and organizing mechanisms of the middle ear, as well as their interconnections throughout the central nervous system and autonomic nervous system.
Basically, we are less able hear/understand the human voice when we are over aroused. I use specially designed and selected music to normalize over arousal, enhance spatial perception and improve the directionality of sound. The music creates a specific emotional experience, enhances learning and attention. It also stimulates facial expression and vocalization, and improves eye contact.
back to top
The Interactive Metronome
The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the patient to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The patient attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions. A patented auditory-visual guidance system provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds, and a score is provided.
- Over the course of the treatment, patients learn to:
- Focus and attend for longer periods of time
- Increase physical endurance and stamina
- Filter out internal and external distractions
- Improve ability to monitor mental and physical actions as they are occurring
- Progressively improve coordinated performance.
Handwriting without Tears
“Handwriting Without Tears” is a handwriting program designed by an occupational therapist to improve fine motor, visual perception, and eye-hand coordination skills that impact a child’s handwriting abilities. The program uses a consistent, easy to follow, multi-sensory approach and is very successful with the 2-lined method to teach proper letter formation.
It is an easy and fun way to learn the skills that often frustrate our children The program is designed to use with both right and left-handed children and includes easy steps for pre-writing skills, and learning printing and cursive handwriting for children of all ages and developmental levels.
back to top
