Occupational Therapy

Our Approach

The Occupational Therapists at The Children’s Therapy SPOT are nationally board certified by the American Occupational Therapy Association and fully licensed by the Texas State Board of Examiners for Occupational Therapy. The OTs at The Children’s Therapy SPOT focus on the integration of fine/gross motor skills, reflexes, and sensory information in order to help children play, learn, and behave as expected. The OTs at TCTS make up a critical piece of our interdisciplinary and collaborative therapy team.

Sensory Processing Disorder

Sensory processing / Sensory Integration describes the way in which a child’s nervous system perceives and understands the internal and environmental information they experience (vision, smell, taste, feel, hearing, vestibular, and proprioceptive) allowing them to understand their experiences in a way that can be communicated to the people in their lives.  When we understand the information that we receive from our environment, we are able to express those feelings and experiences through communication and social interaction.   When children misrepresent or fail to understand their sensory experiences it can cause them to turn to fight, fright, or flight responses that can result in unexpected results/behaviors for the given situation.  For more information on Sensory Processing click here.

Fine & Gross Motor Development

Gross motor skills are skills that develop and involve large muscle groups such as legs, arms, torso, etc.  The large muscles allow children to participate in a myriad of functional activities like walking, running, jumping, etc. These activities allow children to explore, socialize, and learn from their environment.  Fine motor skills are skills that develop from the smaller muscle groups such as the hands, fingers, and wrists.  These smaller muscles allow kids to write, color, draw, and manipulate small objects.  The OTs at TCTS are trained in identifying deficits in the development of these muscle groups and their impact on a child’s ability to learn from their environment, peers, and experiences.

Reflex Integration

Primitive reflexes are involuntary movements in response to stimulation that we are all born with.  Over time, usually about a year of age depending on the reflex, the involuntary (automatic) movements tend to disappear or integrate.  When reflexes that should be integrated persist past their window, many developmental processes can be affected. Using components of the Masgutove Neurosensorimotor Reflex Integration program (MNRI), the OTs at The Children’s Therapy SPOT identify any active reflexes and determine whether they are functional, dysfunctional, or pathological.  To learn more about the MNRI treatment approach click here.

DIR Floortime

The Development, Individual-differences, Relationship-based (DIR) model of therapy provides a foundational framework for understanding how a child’s social-emotional development lays the groundwork for how they individually perceive and interact with the people, places, and things in their environment. DIR provides a way for the OTs at The Children’s Therapy SPOT to promote functional development in a loving, respectful, and caring manner that reinforces social, emotional, and cognitive connection within interactive contexts that promote functional interactions versus splinter skills and isolated non-contextual behaviors. To learn more about DIR and FLoortime click here.

Areas of Specialty

• MNRI (Masgutova Neurosensorymotor Reflex Integration) – More Info >>
• Ayres Sensory Integration