When starting therapy services for your child, there are many disciplines that are offered. Therapy at Play provides Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech Therapy. Each of these disciplines is services for different areas of development. Occupational Therapy focuses on fine motor skills, self-care, feeding, sensory regulation, and social and emotional skills. Physical Therapy works on gross motor movement, such as; crawling, sitting, walking, climbing, and running. Speech Therapy addresses functional development in expressive and receptive language, articulation and pragmatic skills.
Navigating Therapeutic Services
Your child has recently qualified for therapeutic services due to a need in their development that may be delayed or just needs extra help. You may find yourself asking, “What does all this mean?” “How does this work?” “Why?” Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed. These are all typical feelings. There are three important keys in starting therapeutic services; therapeutic rapport, parent participation, and patience. Well, I hope you find this article helpful and I hope that after reading this article you will feel informed and at ease.
Starting Therapy Services for Your Child
Once the initial intake is completed with our office, the rest of the process is simple. You walk into Therapy at Play and our staff greets you. Next, you meet your therapist and the first session is all about developing rapport and making the child feel comfortable in a new environment. This is important, the child must have a sense of feeling safe in order to develop a healthy relationship with the treating therapist. This could take anywhere from one to four sessions (depending on the child it could take longer). It’s key to understand every need of each child, so the first encounter is prime in establishing that rapport. Remember our primary focus is to help the child thrive and achieve his/her goals, sometimes there are leaps and bounds and other times its slow progress. Keep in mind that in order for the child to be successful in his/her progress all team members and family must be working together for the success of the child. Please take the therapist recommendations into consideration, even though “parents know best” we do need to be in agreement with your child’s treatment plan and therapy goals.
Once rapport is developed between you, your child and therapist, we look forward to your active participation. When starting therapy services for your child, The best way to participate is by letting the therapist take the lead and guidance during therapy sessions. Generalization with the tips and strategies modeled in each session is critical for progress. We only see your child 1-2 times a week for a short time. Therefore, each therapist provides strategies, homework, and ideas to implement in your natural environment to help your child implement what has been learned.
Lastly, PATIENCE is important. It takes time to adjust to treatment. There will be days when the child refuses to participate and engage in the given tasks. It’s ok; they are human and feel emotions, too. The beauty of play-based therapy is being able to modify the session in creative ways to meet your child where he or she is at. Patience is a virtue. Before we discuss how quickly your child will improve, let’s enjoy the small victories. Pushing fast and forward doesn’t help with mastery of goals.
We Really Care
The staff here at Therapy at play is creative, fun, and is passionate about helping the child and family to cope with challenges and the success of the child’s abilities.
