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Welcome to ...

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11 Child Street

Warren, RI 02885

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401 - 400 - 2121

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Hello!

My name is Pebbles!

  • Did you know that children learn best by engaging in play activities? 

  • Occupational therapists use their unique skills to develop purposeful and motivating activities to engage children in tasks to improve their developmental skills.  

  • Does your child have difficulties with day-to-day activities at home, school or in the community? 

  • Do they experience challenges in any of the following areas?  

  • ability to follow directions  

  • attention skills

  • problem solving

  • fine motor

  • self help

  • play and social

  • upper-body strength

  • coordination

  • self-regulation

  • self-soothing

  • sensory issues

How does occupational therapy help?

Remember all children are different and develop skill sets at their own pace.  However, if you think your child may be struggling with some of these skills, please reach out.

A child's most important "occupation" is play.  Therefore, therapy incorporates meaningful tasks with a "just right" level of difficulty in order to promote the child's development, independence and well-being.  

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Treatments address any of the following skills:  (Click to learn more.)

Developmental Delays

Developmental delay means that a child is behind in developing skills that are
common during a particular age or during a particular time period. A developmental
delay, however is more than being a little behind other children in a skill; it is being
behind in a combination of skills or not meeting development milestones. These are
examples of developmental delays:

  • Not reaching developmental milestones of sitting, crawling, and walking

  • Not learning at an age appropriate level

  • Not developing age appropriate play and social skills

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are small movements made with fingers, toes, wrists, lips, and
tongue, like holding a small object or picking up a spoon. If your child is struggling
with fine motor skills, they may have difficulty with one of these actions:

  •  Manipulating toys and puzzles

  •  Holding a pencil

  •  Using silverware or straws at an age-appropriate time

  •  Using scissors

  •  Using zippers, buttons, shoelaces

  •  Coloring, drawing, tracing, prewriting shapes

  •  Poor handwriting, letter/number formation

  •  Not developing a hand dominance at an age-appropriate time

  •  Avoiding tasks and games that require fine motor skills

Gross Motor Skills -
Movement, Strength & Balance Development

Gross motor skills help us move and coordinate our arms, legs, and other body
parts. They involve larger muscles that help us control our body. A child who is
behind in movement, strength, and/or balance may appear clumsy or
uncoordinated. They may also have difficulty with these things:

  • Going up and down stairs at an age appropriate time

  • Coordinating both sides of the body

  • Understanding the concept of right and left

  • Poor ball skills

  • Poor balance

Their muscle tone, or muscle tension and resistance, could be higher or lower than
the appropriate developmental milestone. They might also:

  • be fearful of feet leaving the ground

  • doesn't cross midline of his or her body during play and school tasks

  • avoids tasks and games that require gross motor skills

Learning Challenges

Learning challenges, sometimes called learning disabilities, are another type of
developmental delay. If your child is challenged by one of the following, you may
want to consult an occupational therapist:

  •  Unable to concentrate and focus at school

  •  Easily distracted

  •  Difficulty following instructions and completing work

  •  Tires easily with school work

  •  Poor impulse control

  •  Hyperactivity or low energy

  •  Not keeping up with workload at school

  •  Difficulty learning new material

Play Skills & Social Interactions

Play Skills

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Play skills are skills that can help a child make sense of the world around them. A child can gain self-confidence, learn problem solving, and develop social skills through play. Your child may be developmentally delayed if they show one of the following symptoms:

  •  Needs adult guidance to initiate play

  •  Difficulty with imitative play

  •  Wanders aimlessly without purposeful play

  •  Moves quickly from one activity to the next

  •  Does not explore toys appropriately

  •  Participates in repetitive play for hours (e.g., lining up toys)

  •  Does not join in with peers/siblings when playing

  •  Does not understand concepts of sharing and turn taking

Social Interaction Skills

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Social interaction skills are skills that help us have relationships and understand those around us. They help us bond with other people in our life. Your child may have delayed social skills if they show some of the following things:

  •  Difficulty interacting socially and engaging with family and peers

  •  Difficulty adapting to new environments

  •  Delayed language skills

  •  Overly focused on one subject (e.g., space, universe, dinosaurs, trains)

  •  Can't cope in the school environment

Visual Processing

Visual processing is the process we use to make sense of what we see. It is a
process in our brain that interprets visual information. If your child has difficulty with
one of these things, they may have difficult with visual processing:

  •  Difficulty with the spacing and sizes of letters

  •  Difficulty with recognizing letters

  •  Difficulty with copying shapes or letters

  •  Difficulty with visual tracking and crossing midline

  •  Difficulty finding objects among other objects

  •  Difficulty with copying from the board or another paper

  •  Difficulty with the concept of right and left

Your child may lose his or her place when reading or copying from the board or
may have poor eye contact.

Sensory Processing

Sensory processing is making sense of information that we receive through our
senses, like sound and smell. Your child may be oversensitive to things around
them and show the following symptoms:

  •  Overly sensitive or heightened reactivity to sound, touch, or movement

  •  Under-responsive to certain sensations (e.g., high pain tolerance, doesn't notice cuts/bruises)

  •  Constantly moving, jumping, crashing, bumping

  •  Easily distracted by visual or auditory stimuli

  •  Emotionally reactive

  •  Difficulty coping with change

  •  Inability to calm self when upset

Self Help Skills

Self-help skills are abilities that children gradually attain to give them more independence. It includes getting dressed, having a shower and brushing teeth. It's about learning life skills so they can look after themselves without depending on others.

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If a child has self care difficulties, they might:

  • Be unable to feed themselves independently.

  • Require more help than others of their age to get dressed or undressed.

  • Find it difficult to tolerate wearing certain clothes.

  • Struggle to use cutlery.

  • Need adults to open food packaging in their lunch box.

  • Be unable to coordinate movements to brush teeth.

  • Require extensive help to fall asleep.

  • Choose to toilet only at home where there is adult support.

  • Be late to develop independent day time toileting.

  • Show limited motivation for independence in self care, so they wait for adults to do it for them instead.

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