Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy promotes health, well-being and independence through “occupation”, the activities we do on a daily basis – “the job of living”. An infant’s occupations are sleeping, feeding, interacting with caregivers and exploring their environments with their hands and eyes. As children grow, their primary jobs are playing, learning, socializing and developing skills to care for themselves. Moving into adolescence and young adulthood, occupations expand to include preparation for employment, independent management of life skills and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle, intimate relationships, social functioning and community involvement.

Beginning with the premise that children learn best when engaging in activities that are most important to them, our therapy strategies are designed to facilitate a child’s most precious occupation, play! Using state-of-the-art equipment including an obstacle course, rock wall, trampoline and specialized therapy swings, we encourage meaningful play by climbing, swinging and jumping, just to name a few. These interventions are designed to develop and improve strength, balance, spatial body awareness, coordination, physical and emotional regulation and fine and gross motor skills. Utilizing the principals of sensory integration, the ability of the nervous system to organize and regulate sensory functions, as the foundation for our interventions, our therapists focus on the child’s three critical sensory system: the vestibular system which provides a sense of balance and movement; the proprioceptive system which provides us with an internal awareness of where our joints and muscles are at a given point; and, the tactile system which helps us perceive the environment and respond with protective reactions. CEPT therapists offer evaluation, intervention and consultation in the following areas:

• Play and social skills
• Parent training
• School observation and strategy development programs
• Self-regulation and attention deficit
• Sensory integration for home and school environments
• Strength and endurance