Occupational Therapy
Meet the service providers
Missy Holmstrom, OT/R
Markus Kittrell, COTA/L
Jen Band, COTA/L
Founder & President
In our facility, we use a developmental approach to evaluate our Friends. This means we look at the whole person as they are ever evolving, improving, progressing and moving towards their goals throughout their lifespan.
Our Occupational Therapy team assess developmental levels and skill sets across all domains (work, self-care and leisure). We meet our friends where they are and help guide them to that next step; ever conscious of individual needs, and their desire to flourish.
We identify the deficiencies, but more importantly we focus on strengths. We help our friends remediate, compensate and accommodate for an identified weakness. We help them use their strengths to reach their maximum level of independence within their scope of disability.
*See below to schedule a tour
Areas that we address with our OT services
Cognition
- Poor attention, highly distractible
- Preoccupation for specific activities, repetitive actions
- Difficulty with teamwork
- Poor memory
- Difficulty with complex cognitive tasks
- Sequencing
- Imitation
- Generalizing concepts
- Symbolism
- Reading comprehension
- Executive function
- Language delay, verbal skills
Sensory Stimuli
- Sensory-perceptual abilities
- Tactile defensiveness
- Hypersensitivity
- Hyposensitivity
- Postural stability without visual cues
Visual
- Seeing images as a whole
- Visual fascination with visual effects
- Hypersensitivity to bright lights
Auditory
- Decreased responsiveness to auditory stimuli, or
- Oversensitive to auditory stimuli
Vestibular
- Seeking or avoiding certain vestibular movements, e.g. swinging, spinning
Taste
- Food preferences
- Sensitivity to textures
- Craving specific foods
- Unusual smell preferences
Irregular sleeping pattern
- Quality
- Quantity
- Disturbances
Emotion
- Emotional regulation
- Emotional lability
- Emotion interpretation
Mental Health
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Loneliness
Socialization and Communication
- Flat affect
- Reading facial expressions
- Reading body language
- Interpreting voice intonation
- Minimizing aggressive behaviors
- Minimizing self-injurious behaviors
- Minimizing self-stimulatory behaviors
- Understanding dangerous situations
- Dating and relationships
- Public sexual behaviors
Activities
- Feeding/eating
- Brushing teeth
- Grooming
- Toileting
- Dressing
- Bathing
School
- Writing/handwriting
- Reading
- Cutting
- Communicating needs
- Arts and crafts
- School subjects
- Interacting with peers
Work and Career
- Preparing for a job
- Applying for a job
- Holding a job
- Soft skills
- Working with others
- Judgment
Play
- Playing with parents, family
- Playing with peers
Leisure
- Shared interests
- Videogame addiction
Health Management
- Medication management
- Going to appointments
Gross and Fine Motor skills
- Hypotonia
- Apraxia
- Toe-walking
- Clumsiness
- Poor coordination
- Hand-eye coordination
- Decreased speed
- Poor posture
- Poor balance
- Difficulty with motor imitation
- Abnormal gait pattern
- Ambiguous hand preference
Occupational Therapy for Adults With Autism
Many adults with autism receive occupational therapy. For some, occupational therapy is a tool for building skills of daily living such as cooking, cleaning, dressing, folding, etc. For others, it’s a means for managing stress, building physical stamina, or increasing recreational skills.
The Role of Sensory Integration Therapy
Before 2013, while occupational therapy was commonly offered to children with autism, sensory dysfunction was not part of the criteria for autism spectrum disorder. In 2013, with the publication of the DSM-5, new criteria were created—and sensory issues were added to the list of autism symptoms. The list of sensory issues now includes hyper- or hypo-reactivity to stimuli (lights, sounds, tastes, touch, etc.) or unusual interests in stimuli (staring at lights, spinning objects, etc.). This change was due to the reality that the vast majority of people on the autism spectrum (including very high functioning individuals) have and/or crave strong reactions to sensory input.
Until the change in criteria for autism, the field of Sensory Integration Therapy (a form of occupational therapy) was struggling for general acceptance by the larger clinical community. Today, it is a more widely accepted form of therapy and may be offered even by occupational therapists who are not specifically trained as sensory integration specialists. According to the STAR Institute (one of the foremost centers for Sensory Integration research and treatment): “Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD (originally called Sensory Integration Dysfunction) is a neurological disorder in which the sensory information that the individual perceives results in abnormal responses.”
Sensory integration therapy uses a range of techniques such as swinging, brushing, jumping, pushing, squeezing, rolling, and exposure to selected sounds to help children (and adults) with sensory processing issues to lessen their over-reaction to or need for intense physical sensation.
The Role of Occupational Therapy in Social Settings
Occupational therapists are not necessarily trained in social skills therapy, but many occupational therapists use a multi-disciplinary approach that combines occupational therapy with other traditional and innovative social teaching tools. For example:
- Occupational therapists may work on spatial awareness and coordination in the context of a playground activity such as swinging, playing catch, or climbing. This makes it possible for the occupational therapist to work on both physical and emotional/cognitive skills at the same time
- Occupational therapists may use some of the same techniques as recreational therapists, working with their clients to participate in activities such as summer camp programs, swimming, team sports, and bicycle riding.
Occupational therapists work with children and adults with autism to help them better perform activities of daily living. Occupational therapy is one of the three most commonly offered therapies in the school setting (along with speech therapy and behavioral therapy); occupational therapists may work toward a huge range of goals, from better handwriting to play skills to sensory integration.