Every excellent plan requires a solid foundation. Simply put, our Therapists are expertly trained to evaluate your child and establish both measurable and subjective information that will provide answers about your child's current developmental status. This is the information that we use to analyze how we can be most effective in assisting your child if in fact any intervention is required.
Most children really enjoy participating in an Evaluation at Children's Therapy Works. A child learns through play…therefore, our therapists use play as part of the diagnostic procedure when performing an evaluation. Children's Therapy Works is a "fun place for a kid to play." Our evaluating therapists are accommodating of every child's needs and have the skills to adapt in changing situations. Most kids end up not wanting to leave at the end of the evaluation. "I just want to play for another 5 minutes, Mom!"
In addition to the well known evaluations like an Occupational Therapy Evaluation, a Speech Language Pathology Evaluation, and Physical Therapy Evaluation, Children's Therapy Works provides many specialized evaluations including the SIPT Evaluation and a host of others, may we suggest calling us to find out what may be most appropriate for your child's individual needs.
All children are unique, our professional staff is available to speak with you regarding your child just give us a call TOLL FREE at 877 960 KIDS (5437) - no strings attached.
Children's Therapy Works has an extensive library of standardized tests that we use to establish measurable outcomes and scores that help establish medical necessity as well as a baseline of functional abilities. Here are just a few of the tests we use include:
- De Gangi Berk
- Test of Visual Motor Skills
- The Sensory Profile
- The Quick Neurological Screening
- Bruininks Oseretsky
- Peabody
- Test of Auditory Processing skills
- T.I.M.E
- MAP
- Test of Sensory Function for Infants
Feel free to call us and talk…we'd appreciate the opportunity to help any way we can.
Occupational Therapy Evaluation
When a child receives an Occupational Therapy Evaluation, his or her strengths and weaknesses are noted. Areas examined include but are not limited to muscle strength and endurance, range of motion of the joints, tactile discrimination, eye/hand coordination, fine motor ability, and visual perception. The occupational therapist also looks at the child's social interactions with peers and therapists.
After the evaluation is complete, the child may begin therapy if it's necessary. Deficits in the above areas will manifest in different ways; for instance, muscle strength/endurance may be seen as clumsiness and fatigue. Problems with tactile issues may manifest as aversion to certain types of clothing or foods and over-or-under responsiveness to pain or injury. Poor range of motion, deficits in eye/hand coordination, problems with fine motor ability, and decreased visual perception often result in poor performance in sports, poor handwriting, and will likely lead to problems with academic performance. In addition, the child's functional abilities, such as self-care, may be impacted, as the child may not be able to function at a developmentally appropriate level.
Ultimately, the occupational therapist looks at your child's occupation. As children develop, the function in varied occupations or roles from self-care to play to schoolwork; the occupational therapist's goal is to allow the child to perform as independently and successfully as possible in their chosen or developmentally appropriate roles.
Children's Therapy Works clinical teams rely on the comprehensive information recorded during our evaluation procedure to establish a solid baseline for your child's treatment plan. Don't forget, we're used to working together, after all, it often takes OT, PT and Speech to cover all the angles. We call it the Full Circle Approach.
Speech Language Pathology
"Speech therapy" is really a misnomer - it's not just for children who talk late, don't talk enough or don't pronounce words correctly. At Children's Therapy Works, we specialize in treating speech and language disorders that often go undiagnosed, or those that are often difficult to treat. We treat children with a variety of diagnoses, including, but not limited to, Apraxia, Autism Spectrum Disorders, ADD, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, OCD, Learning Disabilities, Tourette's Syndrome, and Genetic Disorders.
In addition to articulation and language therapy, we also offer specialized treatment for children with auditory processing and verbal expression difficulties. Speech and language services at Children's Therapy Works are offered in either individual sessions or in conjunction with another discipline like OT or PT.
Therapy is goal-oriented and child-centered; we encourage the child to make decisions and select appropriate activities, but with structure provided by the speech/language pathologist. Specific therapeutic objectives might include: following and executing multi-step verbal directions, processing complex verbal information, remembering what was said, retelling a short story, planning and organizing what he or she wants to say, describing familiar procedures and words, and initiating language.
In all therapies, the child is challenged yet nurtured, with the goal being to achieve the highest level of successful communication of which he or she is capable. Research has shown that combining Sensory Integration with Speech Therapy can dramatically reduce and often eliminate symptoms without medication enabling the child to work on learning and playing. Children's Therapy Works' treatment goes far beyond the walls of our practice. We offer educational seminars, home programming and resources for all those involved with the child.
Physical Therapy
Physical Therapy at Children's Therapy Works plays a vital role in the complete approach we use to treat most of the kids we see.
A Physical Therapist is specially trained to understand the inner workings of muscles throughout our bodies. Many children exhibit difficulties in daily tasks as simple as having correct posture, running, walking or even sitting in a chair. Many children have balance and coordination issues due to strength or postural instability, which can also contribute to more complex issues like feeding, breathing and communication. Our PT's provide our clients with correct positioning to facilitate correct oral awareness in a wide array of clients while working with the Oral Motor Therapists. The Physical Therapy team prides themselves as being a dynamic component of the therapy process. The PT team uses our in house mineral water pool for aquatic therapy and our well trained Dressage Horses for Hippotherapy when appropriate. Physical Therapists are also well known for understanding and administering Neuro. Developmental Techniques ( NDT ) as appropriate.
Oral Motor
Oral Motor Therapy is a highly specialized area of Speech Language Pathology. There are hundreds of difficulties that can be overcome by performing Oral Motor Therapy, some of them include a deviate swallow, tounge thrust, non-verbal communication, basic and complex feeding difficulties.
Myofunctional Therapy is a specifically prescribed regimen of exercises designed to correct orofacial muscle imbalance and deviate swallow patterns. It is instrumental in the elimination of various oral noxious habits and contributes to the overall improved facial appearance of an individual.
Myofunctional therapy treats orofacial muscle imbalance in such a way that, once corrected, the muscles will function appropriately with all interrelated body systems. It develops oral awareness, correction of misarticulated speech sounds, prevents orthodontic relapse of dentition, and improves the ability to eat and swallow correctly. Individuals demonstrating the following problems are good candidates for Myofunctional Therapy; poor facial development and/or poor facial tone (mouth breathing); oral motor inadequacy related to speech awareness; protruding teeth; facial pain; recurring headaches with unknown etiology; thumb-sucking or tongue sucking; stomach discomfort and belching from air swallowing; limited eating skills and limited diet; difficulty swallowing pills and capsules; cleft lip and/or cleft palate; clenching and grinding of teeth; earaches with unknown etiology; and difficulty wearing dentures. Orofacial muscle imbalance and a deviate swallow are diagnosed through a thorough examination which includes muscle measurement with a Force Scale, Myoscanner and the Payne Technique by a trained and qualified Myofunctional Therapist. Treatment may be appropriate for preschool to adult patients.
