Pediatric occupational therapy in Los Angeles can be extremely beneficial to your child especially if they have DCD. LA Speech Therapy would like to share strategies that these occupational therapists may use to help your child.
Oftentimes, if your child has developmental coordination disorder (DCD), otherwise known as dyspraxia, they are directed to see an occupational therapist. These occupational therapists are aware that DCD affects children differently. For this reason, occupational therapists work directly with your child to determine which areas they should focus on. Generally, children with DCD struggle with motor skills and motor coordination and planning. This is something that can affect their performance in daily routines and activities. From practicing to write correctly, to helping children learn to tie their shoes, occupational therapists help with a variety of different tasks.
Tips for Securing Their Clothing and Tying their Shoes
- Use catchy verbal statements to help children remember the steps to fastening their clothing.
- Use putty to help children work on their hand strength. Have them perform hand exercises with this putty.
- Begin with pushing buttons halfway through the button holes for them and have the child finish pushing them all the way.
- Use a lacing board to help them tie their shoes.
- For shoes, have children practice tying them on a table before they work to tie them on their foot.
Tips for Helping Children Use Scissors
- Use various different types of scissors. From hinge scissors to loop scissors there are several small scissors which grant children with greater control.
- Use different colors and thickness of paper. These type of cues allow for children to adjust the speed of their cut and improve their accuracy when following lines.
- Remove excess paper around shapes. This can help children access the lines they are cutting around more easily!
- Begin with showing the kids how to place their hands directly. Then, you can have them find their most comfortable grip.
- Begin with simpler straight lines before moving to complicated cuts such as circles and jagged lines.
Tips for Improving Handwriting
- Use a variety of specialty paper types so that children learn to position letters on a line.
- Just as when it comes to improving cutting skills, you should be teaching them easier tasks and then moving forward from there. Capitalized letters tend to be easier than lowercase letters.
- Have children practice tracing letters in shaving cream, in sandpaper, or on a tablet with a stylus.
About LA Speech Therapy Solutions:
LA Speech Therapy Solutions is a pediatric occupational therapy Los Angeles provider. Here at LA Speech therapy, we offer several services from voice therapy to occupational therapy, working to help everyone we can. To learn more about what we offer, follow us on Facebook for more information!
