Occupational therapy can benefit kids as it helps in enhancing their skills and development. In short, just like in the case of adults, occupational therapy is meant to assist children to develop independence to perform day to day tasks and lead a normal life.
While you can get professional help by enrolling your child for occupational therapy in Dubai, as a parent, it is important for you to be involved in the therapy sessions as well. As the caregiver, your presence and encouragement can bring in a lot of difference.
Benefits of Occupational Therapy
Games are a way of mastering different skills like hand-eye coordination and cognitive abilities. Occupational therapy, for instance, covers all these skills which will help children who need help to catch up with their peers. It uses physical activity to help build coordination, muscle tone, posture, and other skills used in daily living.
Some of the activities that children will learn and perform through occupational therapy are –
- Daily routines like brushing teeth, eating food, buttoning clothes and tying a shoelace.
- Tasks that need hand-eye coordination like writing on a classroom board and copying into the notebook from the board.
- Fine motor skills that are required for grasping and controlling pencils and colouring pens.
- Gross motor skills for physical activities including the core strength to sit straight.
- Organization skills in older children to take the right books to school or note down homework tasks for each day.
- Respond to sensory responses in children having issues processing sensory inputs.
Occupational therapy can benefit children in many ways. With early intervention, kids can learn from basic everyday tasks to complex cognitive skills through occupational therapy.
Types of Occupational Therapy in Dubai
Occupational therapy helps children get on with their lives by doing routine tasks on their own. These include self-grooming, dressing, eating, learning and writing. Some of these therapy sessions are focused on helping children process their senses. Children who fall under the autism spectrum, for instance, need help to process what they see, smell or feel as their senses are overly sensitive, rendering them incapable of doing even the simplest of tasks otherwise.
Occupation therapy also addresses the issues of children who are confined to a wheelchair. The therapy allows them to be independent even with their limitations.
Motor skills, both fine and gross are also addressed by occupational therapy in Dubai. Fine motor skills are the ones that are needed to write or draw while gross motor skills are the likes of kicking or catching a ball.
Difference between Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy
While physical therapy focuses on improving the quality of life for a child, much similar to occupational therapy, it actually deals with pain and endurance training, strength training and such which fall strictly under gross motor skills. Occupational therapy on the other hand also work on improving fine motor skills, cognitive skills, visual and other sensory perception skills
Occupational Therapy for Learning Disorders
Children with learning disorders can also benefit from occupational therapy in Dubai. As the whole focus of this therapy is to make children more independent at completing tasks, it also solves fine motors skills in young children with dyspraxia.
Dealing With Learning and Attention Issues
If your child has certain learning and attention issues, OT may be a good option. It can help kids become more independent and better at completing tasks. This is especially true for young children. As the occupational therapy in Dubai also aid children suffering from dyslexia, visual processing issues and dysgraphia, it is ideal for helping young students perform better at school.
Contact us at Pulse Center today for more information.