Occupational Therapy

At Happy Play Therapy, we offer occupational therapy services for children to help them develop the skills they need to succeed in their daily lives. Our experienced therapists work with children of all ages to improve their fine and gross motor skills, sensory processing, and daily living skills.

Occupational therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on helping children develop the skills they need to perform daily tasks and activities. Our occupational therapists work with children to help them improve their ability to participate in school, play, and other activities that are important for their development.

Occupational therapy can benefit children in many ways, including:

• Improving motor skills: Our occupational therapists work with children to improve their fine and gross motor skills, such as hand-eye coordination and balance.
• Enhancing sensory processing: Children with sensory processing issues may struggle with processing information from their senses. Our therapists can help children learn to cope with sensory input and improve their ability to focus and engage in activities.
• Developing daily living skills: Our therapists can help children develop the skills they need to perform daily tasks such as dressing, grooming, and feeding themselves.
• Enhancing social skills: Occupational therapy can also help children improve their social skills, such as turn-taking, sharing, and communication.

At Happy Play Therapy, we understand that every child is unique, and that's why we tailor our therapy sessions to meet your child's specific needs. Our therapists use a play-based approach to therapy that makes learning fun and engaging for children.

• Handwriting Skills: Refers to a child's ability to write letters, numbers, and words in a legible and efficient manner.
• Bilateral Coordination Skills: Refers to the ability to coordinate and use both sides of the body simultaneously in a coordinated manner.
• Hand Manipulation Skills: Refers to a child's ability to move and manipulate objects with their hands, such as stacking blocks, manipulating small objects, and manipulating fasteners (e.g., buttons, zippers, etc).
• Pencil Grasp: Refers to the way a child holds and controls a pencil or writing utensil.
• Scissor Skills: Refers to a child's ability to use scissors to cut paper, fabric, or other materials in a controlled and precise manner.
• Hand Strengthening Skills: Refers to exercises and activities that help improve hand strength and dexterity, which can help improve a child's ability to perform daily activities such as writing, drawing, and manipulating small objects.

• Motor Coordination & Motor Planning: Refers to a child's ability to coordinate and plan the movements of their body to complete a task or activity.
• Balance: Refers to a child's ability to maintain stability and control over their body during static or dynamic activities, such as standing on one foot, walking on a balance beam, or riding a bike.
• Body Awareness: Refers to a child's understanding of their own body and the ability to recognize and control their body parts in space.
• Strength: Refers to a child's physical ability to generate force through their muscles to perform tasks or activities.
• Reaction Time: Refers to the time it takes for a child to respond to a sensory input, such as a visual or auditory cue.
• Postural Control: Refers to a child's ability to maintain a stable and upright posture during activities such as sitting, standing, and walking.
• Reflex Integration: Refers to the process of incorporating and integrating primitive reflexes, which are involuntary movements that are present at birth, into more mature motor patterns. In pediatric occupational therapy, reflex integration is important because retained primitive reflexes can interfere with a child's ability to develop age-appropriate motor skills and can lead to challenges with coordination, balance, and other aspects of movement. By addressing reflex integration, occupational therapists can help children develop more refined and efficient motor patterns, leading to better overall function and success in daily activities.

• Feeding: Refers to a child's ability to scoop and bring food to their mouth, as well as their ability to drink from open cups or through straws. In pediatric occupational therapy, feeding is often addressed when a child is experiencing challenges with self-feeding or has difficulty tolerating certain foods or textures.
• Dressing: Refers to a child's ability to put on and take off clothing items, such as shirts, pants, socks, and shoes. In occupational therapy, dressing skills are often targeted when a child is struggling with dressing independently due to challenges with fine motor coordination, motor planning, or sensory processing.
• Manipulating Fasteners: Refers to a child's ability to manipulate and use various fasteners, such as tying shoelaces, buttoning shirts, zipping pants, snapping buttons, and buckling belts. These skills require fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, and visual perceptual skills, and are often addressed in occupational therapy when a child is experiencing difficulty with independent dressing.
• Grooming: Refers to a child's ability to take care of their appearance, such as brushing their hair, washing their face, and brushing their teeth. In pediatric occupational therapy, grooming skills may be addressed when a child is experiencing challenges with fine motor coordination or sensory processing, which can impact their ability to independently perform these self-care tasks.
• Personal Hygiene: Refers to a child's ability to take care of their overall hygiene, including bathing, brushing teeth, and using the restroom. In occupational therapy, personal hygiene skills may be targeted when a child is experiencing difficulty with sensory processing, motor coordination, or other challenges that impact their ability to independently perform these tasks.
• Money Management: Refers to a child's ability to handle and manage money, including counting, sorting, and spending money. In occupational therapy, money management skills may be addressed when a child is experiencing challenges with math concepts, fine motor coordination, or executive functioning skills, which can impact their ability to successfully manage money in daily life.

• Executive Functions: Refers to a set of cognitive processes that help children plan, organize, initiate, sustain, and monitor their actions and behaviors to achieve a goal. These functions include working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, self-monitoring, and goal-directed persistence.
• Time Management: Refers to the ability to manage time effectively to complete tasks within the given time frame. It involves planning, organizing, prioritizing, and executing activities in a timely manner, and being able to recognize and address distractions.
• Organizational Skills: Refers to the ability to organize and arrange items or thoughts in a logical and systematic manner. It involves developing and using effective systems to manage time, space, and information, and maintaining order and structure in one's environment. Organizational skills are essential for completing tasks efficiently and effectively, and can also have a positive impact on one's overall well-being.

• Socio-Emotional Skills: Refers to the ability to understand and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others, in social situations. It involves skills such as empathy, social communication, perspective-taking, problem-solving, and conflict resolution. Developing strong socio-emotional skills can lead to better relationships, improved self-esteem, and overall well-being.
• Self-Regulation Skills: Refers to the ability to regulate one's own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in response to various situations and stimuli. It involves skills such as emotional regulation, impulse control, attention regulation, and self-monitoring. Developing strong self-regulation skills can help children manage stress, focus on tasks, control their impulses, and make better decisions.

• Visual Motor Skills: Refers to the ability to coordinate visual perception and motor movements. It involves skills such as eye-hand coordination, fine motor control, and visual tracking. Developing strong visual motor skills can help children with activities such as writing, drawing, and playing sports.
• Visual Perceptual Skills: Refers to the ability to interpret and make sense of visual information. It involves skills such as visual discrimination, visual memory, spatial relationships, and form constancy. Developing strong visual perceptual skills can help children with activities such as reading, writing, and understanding visual information in the world around them.

• Sensory Integration: Refers to the process by which the brain receives, interprets, and responds to sensory information from the environment. This includes information from all the senses, such as touch, taste, smell, vision, and hearing, as well as the sense of movement and body position (proprioception) and the sense of balance (vestibular sense). Sensory integration is important for a child's development, as it helps them to understand and make sense of the world around them and to engage in appropriate and meaningful responses to sensory experiences. When a child has difficulty with sensory integration, they may struggle with daily activities, such as dressing, eating, playing, and socializing. Occupational therapy can help children with sensory integration difficulties to better regulate and respond to sensory input, improving their ability to participate in daily activities.

• Primitive Reflex Integration: Refers to the process of assessing and supporting the integration of early movement patterns that are typically present at birth and should fade as a child develops. Retained primitive reflexes can impact motor coordination, balance, posture, and sensory processing. Supporting the integration of these reflexes can help children with activities such as sitting upright, handwriting, self-regulation, and overall motor planning.

Don't let your child struggle with motor skills, sensory processing, or daily living skills. 

Contact us today to get started with one of our experienced occupational therapists in Broward county. We are here to help your child develop the skills they need to succeed in their daily lives. Check out our speech therapy services here!