Occupational Therapy in Franklin, Tennessee

Do you have a child at home who finds it difficult to perform routine tasks? Do they find it challenging to feed themselves or write down their ABCs? Or has your child always found it difficult to perform routine tasks due to any disability, pain, or pressure? Maybe your child hates having baths, hair and nails cut, and teeth brushed— maybe to the point where it takes multiple individuals to complete the task. If so, it may be likely that your child is in need of Occupational Therapy or OT.

Occupational Therapy for children helps them better participate in school, sports, and day-to-day activities by helping them with the following:

• Fine motor and gross motor
• Sensory processing skills
• Motor planning and sequencing
• Bilateral and bimanual skills
• Regulation and coping strategies
• Visual-motor skills
• Body awareness

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy for children is a healthcare branch that caters to assisting children in overcoming their physical, sensory, or cognitive issues. It helps children improve their motor skills that allow them to perform routine tasks such as eating, writing, or getting dressed. In simpler words, Occupational Therapy allows children to improve their quality of life and be able to live life to the fullest.

A child’s occupation at a very young age is to observe their surroundings and learn about them through engagement and activity. Some children might find it difficult to perform activities and learn because of the conditions in which they are born. Once a child understands that they are different, and can’t learn as well as others, this may take a toll on their self-image, mental health, and independence. An Occupational Therapist helps a child by improving their capacity to learn and partake in activities, and as a result, form a better self-image and live more independently.

Child Occupational Therapists, those who specialize in Child Occupational Therapy, work with children of all ages to help them improve their motor functions and enhance the skills needed for their everyday activities, including playing, getting dressed, and writing. The aim is to make a child work more independently concerning these routine activities.

What Can Occupational Therapy for Children Help With?

Occupational Therapy for children is a therapy form that helps children of all ages; it helps them engage with daily life activities despite their limitations due to disability, pain, or illnesses. With the help of Occupational Therapy, children can:

• Develop fine motor skills that help them move around, pick up and release items, write properly, or work with gadgets such as computers, smartphones, etc.
• Improve their overall body movement such as sitting, walking, jumping, passing objects, etc.
• It helps them learn to work with tools such as pencils for writing or cutlery for eating, and other tools they might need for self-care.
• For handwriting specifically, Occupational Therapy helps develop fine motor skills and visual skills. The focus areas here are letter formation, speed of writing, legibility, pencil grip, etc.
• Self-care skills are of utmost importance since these help children lead a better, healthier life. Occupational Therapy helps children develop basic self-care skills such as using a knife and fork, tying shoelaces, buttoning their clothes, dressing, and undressing and toileting.
• Helps them improve hand-eye coordination, a core skill needed for certain activities such as caching, throwing a ball, or copying from a blackboard.
• Helps them adopt positive behaviors and develop social skills such as interacting with those around them, managing their emotions such as anger and frustration, healthily communicating their emotions, etc.
• The way children perceive their surroundings forms a large part of behavior development. Occupational Therapy helps them understand what they are seeing. Visual perception is, after all, a core part of many activities such as reading, completing puzzles, identifying numbers and letters, and writing.

Who Needs Occupational Therapy?

Now we move on to a very important question, who needs Occupational Therapy? Some might find that Occupational Therapy for children falls in line with Physical Therapy, and while both might seem to be the same, they are two separate healthcare types and cater to different children’s needs.

Physical Therapy helps kids improve range of motion, strength and flexibility, as well as developing gross motor skills. On the other hand, Child Occupational Therapy focuses primarily on how a child performs activities that are important for their daily life; it further incorporates physical, psychosocial, behavioral, cognitive, and sensory skills. OT helps kids better participate in school, play, sports and day-to-day activities.

Delays in sensory processing may also be the cause of the lacking skills needed for day-to-day activities. According to 2009 study, every 1 in 6 children experiences sensory issues that make it difficult to learn and function in school.  Sensory processing is a system involving the  brain’s  ability to organize and make sense of different sensation types entering the brain simultaneously.    These include  eyes (visual), ears (auditory), nose (olfactory), mouth (taste), and skin/hands and face (tactile and oral-tactile.)

In short, they treat a child as a whole rather than a single impairment. Child Occupational Therapy is for children who have:

• Birth injuries/defects
• Sensory processing disorders
• Learning problems
• Autism
• Injuries to the brain/spinal cord
• Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis
• Mental health problems
• Orthopedic injuries
• Delays in development
• Hand injuries
• Multiple sclerosis
• Where Can You Find an Occupational Therapist in Franklin, Tennessee?

Occupational Therapy for children is usually provided based on each individual’s needs. Therapists will analyze a child’s strengths and challenges, and then create a personalized program of exercises and activities that will help improve their fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and daily life activities.

This is why it is important to hire a professional, experienced Occupational Therapist who can best provide you with a program that caters to a child’s unique needs. An Occupational Therapist should be able to work in various settings and have the necessary skills needed to help with each patient’s needs. At Mobile Therapy Centers, our licensed and credentialed therapists treat children at their homes or school/daycare, in addition to the clinic.

Mobile Therapy Centers OT in Franklin, Tennessee

If you are a resident of the Franklin, Tennessee area, you and your child can benefit by hiring a professional Occupational Therapist near you: Mobile Therapy Centers of Tennessee. MTC is a multidisciplinary therapy group that will allow your child to get the care and support they need to lead a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. MTC Occupational Therapy department caters to your child’s unique needs and are performed in collaboration with parents and other individuals involved in the child’s life.

Moreover, MTC provides Occupational Therapy services at the location of your choice, be it their clinic, at your home, or your child’s school/daycare center, so your child can get the help they need at their best convenience.

Our Occupational Therapists will help the family understand what steps are important at the early stage of their development. They will offer recommendations and suggestions to first analyze how your child responds to each. What’s more important is that your first consultation is absolutely free of charge. Consultations will allow you to understand the challenges your child must overcome.

Mobile Therapy Centers has several clinics across the US, including Libertyville, IL, Crystal Lake, IL, and Clarksville, TN, and are now offering services at our newest clinic in Franklin, TN.

Occupational Therapy Children Services at Mobile Therapy Centers

MTC is known for its professional therapy services, family-centered and fully personalized. MTC’s services promote individualism, early development, improvement, and overall progress of skills over a child’s lifespan.

Occupational Therapy for children is one of the many services you can receive from Mobile Therapy Centers, as well as ABA Therapy, Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, Feeding Therapy, and Counseling. MTC’s Occupational Therapy programs are personalized to meet each child’s unique needs, using 7 core services as a part of your OT program.

• Free Screenings & Consultations
• Comprehensive Assessments
• Multidisciplinary Meetings
• Individualized Treatment Plans
• Prevention & Intervention Services
• Caregiver & Teacher Education
• Home Practice Programs
• Reach Out To MTC Today For A Free Consultation/Screening!

Now serving the Franklin, Tennessee area, Mobile Therapy Centers can provide your family with the care they need. Our individualized child Occupational Therapy services aim to improve your child’s motor and cognitive functions, so they can lead a healthier life, a life that is truly independent.

Why Should You Hire MTC?

Choosing the right Occupational Therapist to work with your child is important, which is why you must make sure to hire only legitimate licensed therapists. Mobile Therapy Centers takes pride in having a professional team of Occupational Therapists who are fully licensed to provide you with quality services.

The best part? Our services are completely flexible according to your unique needs. Our professionals are able to conduct OT sessions at any location you prefer, be it your child’s home, school/daycare, or at our very own MTC clinic in Franklin, TN. We maintain constant communication with the child’s family to keep you updated on their progress and any new adjustments they may need to incorporate. Want to help your child regain independence? Contact Mobile Therapy Centers today at 800-977-9072 to set up a FREE Occupational Therapy consultation session for your child or click here to Schedule a FREE Consultation/Screening!