LifeSkills Through the Therapist’s Lens
When I graduated from my Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant program and began thinking about the population I wanted to work with, I immediately knew my heart was with the kiddos. Generally, Pediatric Occupational Therapy traditionally focuses on occupations like Activities of Daily Living, Feeding, Sleeping, and most specifically learning.
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Through schools and the general public who are aware of Occupational Therapy, this means tabletop tasks focusing on handwriting and fine motor skills. As a new grad, I was under this impression as well. Although these skills are undeniably important to a child’s success in all their occupations, I was not entirely excited about sitting a child down at a table and having them write the alphabet or thread beads. This was until I was introduced to Sensory Integration Therapy. I was introduced to LifeSkills through my fieldwork coordinator and thanks to her and the rest of the LifeSkills team, my world opened to the beauty that is play-based Sensory Integration.
Sensory Integration is the process in which the brain recognizes and responds to information provided by our senses. This means how our body processes or integrates things that we taste, touch, smell, hear, or see, as well as the way that our body exists in space. This is important to understand because in individuals with sensory processing difficulties, just existing in the world can be exhausting. If your clothes are scratchy or too tight, you can’t tune out the clock ticking or you can smell the rotting food in the trash across the room, sitting at your desk and focusing on your work are the least of your worries.
Learning about sensory processing changed the way I viewed therapy and being a therapist. You always hear a person must learn to crawl before they can walk and walk before they can run. This is the same with our sensory system and learning, first, a child must be able to take in and process all the sensory input they are receiving appropriately before they can engage in and master more focused and challenging tasks like writing the alphabet or threading beads. At LifeSkills, therapists get to use play-based activities to help kiddos integrate their sensory systems enabling them to process sensory information effectively. Once able to process this sensory information, then children can effectively begin to learn functionally and academically.
A program special to Lifeskills called the Short Term Intensive is a 2-week program where a child comes 2 hours a day, 5 times per week to provide a focused and immersive sensory environment that allows children to make accelerated progress in a shorter time frame. I have the privilege of taking on the role of the Short Term Intensive Therapist and can work closely with families to develop personalized plans tailored to each child's unique sensory needs. This program has been especially rewarding, observing the progress a child can make in such a short time due to this approach brings a new appreciation for Sensory Integration Therapy.
The team at LifeSkills has shaped me into a better, more well-rounded therapist than I could have imagined by introducing me to and training me in Sensory Integration Therapy. Sensory Integration focuses on the whole person, seeking and treating reasons for difficulties as opposed to only focusing on a problem to generate surface-level results. Lifeskill’s Sensory Integration Specialists focus on your kiddo as a person, and we are here to help each child put the pieces together.
Gabrielle B.
Certified Occupational Therapy Practitioner