What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational therapy is skilled treatment that assists people in achieving independence in all areas of their lives. It provides individuals with the “skills for the job of daily living”.
What do we do at The HSC Pediatric Center?
At The HSC Pediatric Center, occupational therapists provide skilled treatment to help children build and improve the skills necessary to increase their independence with life’s activities. Occupational therapy facilitates the achievement of childhood occupations including self-care, play, school, and vocation. By helping to develop skills through treatment activities and finding creative alternatives that help make the most of their abilities, occupational therapists help infants, children and adolescents with special needs live their lives to the fullest.
Individualized evaluations and therapy programs may address:
- Facilitating progression of development
- Splinting and casting
- Upper extremity strengthening, coordination, and range of motion
- Postural control and balance
- Fine motor skill development (i.e. use of hands for drawing, cutting, handwriting, grasping and self feeding)
- Visual-perceptual and visual motor skills
- Feeding and oral-motor skills
- Sensory integration and state regulation
- Cognitive skills training/retraining
- Adaptive equipment and assistive technology recommendations and training
- Activities of daily living training (i.e. feeding, dressing and bathing)
- Environmental access
- Functional Mobility
- Wound Management
Occupational therapists are involved in the following programs at The HSC Pediatric Center:
- OPED program
- Rehabilitation Program
- Medical Transitional Care Program
- Medically Complex Program
- Developmental/Extended Stay Program
- Outpatient program
- Aquatic Therapy Program
- Assistive Technology Program
All occupational therapists at The HSC Pediatric Center have graduated from an accredited college or university, are registered by the National Board for the Certification of Occupational Therapists, and are licensed by the District of Columbia Department of Health. Additional certifications include: Assistive Technology Practitioner, Certified Infant Massage Instructor, Certified Kinesiotaping Practitioner, Sensory Integration Certification, Aquatic Therapy Certification, and Neurodevelopmental Therapy Training.
American Occupational Therapy Association
District of Columbia Occupational Therapy Association