Speech Therapy and OT - Part 1

Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy

I have learned a lot this past year working with an OT and attending OT workshops. I am turning over a new leaf this coming school year. Instead of just targeting speech I am going to incorporate some OT activities to help my students.

What is OT: 

Occupational therapy is the treatment, which focuses on helping people to achieve independence throughout activities in their daily lives. Occupational therapy helps students perform particular tasks necessary for participation or learning in their home life and at school. 

 

Why OT:

• children don't miss out on any classroom activities or learning opportunities.
• to help students sit and are able to concentrate in order to learn in class.
• to help teachers learn what OT is and how they can incorporate it in their teaching to expand their skills.
• focus on skills that are immediately useful for students.
• some children become distracted in the class and traditional lesson plans may not work.
• A lot of kids need help with their gross and fine motor skills like working on pencil grasp, cutting, pincer grasp, and other OT related areas.   
• We can target both areas in Speech.  I have recently learned that adding a few activities such as cutting, play-doh, coloring, building with blocks, and jumping are just a few ways that we can turn an ordinary therapy session into a multidisciplinary approach that can work on many areas at once. 
• OT is especially important to students on the Autism Spectrum.

 

How:

What I plan to do this upcoming school year is to incorporate some fine and gross motor activities during my therapy sessions. I want to do this not to take the place of OT's (I have OT's that work for me!) but to help students learn in class and therapy. These students may not have been identified yet by professionals, many only need help in 1 or 2 areas, may not need direct treatment but just a little indirect targeting and it will help the student with learning in class and in therapy. 

 

I plan on using my fine motor kits, and letting the kids use them during therapy. I also plan on doing crafts that involve cutting and coloring during therapy.  Stay tuned for more OT ideas! 

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills require the use of our small muscles in order to manipulate objects like cutting, printing and writings. 

I have a FREE kindergarten fine motor Kit that you may find useful in your class or therapy!!!

 

****This in no way is designed to take the place of an Occupational Therapists treatment or assessment.If your school has access to an Occupational therapist, ask them for permission and ideas for implementation.