What occupational therapy helps with.
“Is this even an OT thing?” is the question I get most. Here's the fuller answer — if any of it sounds like your household, it's worth a conversation.
In short
A child's occupations are the things they do all day — eating, sleeping, dressing, playing, learning, being with other people. Occupational therapy starts by looking at how a child and their environment fit together, and where that fit could be easier.
That means the work isn't always about changing the child. Sometimes it's the seating, the timing, the noise, the expectation, or the way an activity is broken up. Usually it's some of each.
The things families usually come to me about.
Mealtimes have become a battle.
Very limited foods, distress at the table, gagging or refusal, or a child who can't seem to sit through a meal. Eating is one of the most sensory-demanding things we ask of a young body, and it's also loaded with family pressure and worry by the time most people call.
We look at the sensory side, the seating and posture, the routine around the meal, and the pressure in the room — and work toward eating feeling possible again rather than toward a target number of foods.
Getting dressed, bathed, or out the door takes everything you have.
Daily routines break for specific reasons — a step that's too hard, a transition with no warning, clothing that feels wrong, or a sequence with too many parts held in mind at once.
We find where the routine is actually breaking rather than where it appears to, adjust what can be adjusted, and build the specific underlying skills — instead of pushing harder on a routine that isn't working.
Big feelings arrive faster than either of you can manage.
Meltdowns, shutdowns, aggression, or a child who seems to go from fine to overwhelmed with nothing in between. My background before OT was in pediatric behavioral work, and it shapes how I read these moments.
We work out what's setting things off and what your child is trying to communicate, then build tools and adjust the environment so those moments come less often and land more softly — for them and for you.
Sounds, textures, clothing, or movement seem to affect your child more than most.
Seams and labels that can't be tolerated, hand dryers that end an outing, a child who crashes into everything, or one who seems not to notice pain or cold.
Sensory processing shapes an enormous amount of daily life. We figure out your child's particular sensory picture — what they seek, what they avoid, what they miss — and what genuinely helps them feel regulated.
You're not sure how to play together, or how to help them play with others.
For babies and toddlers especially, play is where everything else grows from — communication, problem solving, motor skills, connection. This is the area I've spent most of my career in.
We build foundational play and communication, and — as children get older — the social skills that let them join in with other children without needing to be scripted through it.
Small hands are struggling with everyday tools.
Spoons, crayons, buttons, zips, scissors, and later on handwriting. Fine motor development runs through a surprising amount of a child's day, and difficulty with it often shows up as avoidance rather than as struggle.
We work on it inside real activities rather than drills, because a skill built in a worksheet tends to stay in the worksheet.
You don't need a diagnosis, a referral, or a waiting list place.
A lot of the families I speak to are in the middle of something — waiting on an assessment, waiting on an early intervention place, waiting for a pediatrician to call back. That waiting can take months, and it's often the hardest stretch.
You don't need a label before you can start. We can begin with what's happening right now, and if a diagnosis arrives later it changes nothing about the work we've already done. If you're already working with early intervention or your school district, this doesn't conflict — I'm glad to work alongside what's in place and coordinate with your other providers.
Still not sure?
What's the difference between OT, physical therapy, and speech therapy?
Roughly: physical therapy tends to focus on large movement, strength and mobility. Speech therapy focuses on communication, language and often feeding-swallowing. Occupational therapy focuses on taking part in daily activities — which means it overlaps with both, and pulls in sensory processing, fine motor skills, regulation and routines.
Plenty of children see more than one. If you're not sure which you need, say so when you get in touch — I'd rather point you to the right profession than the nearest one.
Does needing OT mean something is wrong with my child?
No. I work from the view that children behave and develop in ways that make sense given their body, their history and their environment — and that the job is to understand the fit between a child and what's being asked of them, not to correct the child.
Sometimes what changes is a skill. Often what changes is the environment, the expectation, or the way an activity is set up. None of that requires deciding something is wrong with anybody.
My child is doing fine at school. Is it still worth it?
How do I know if it's just a phase?
The best place to start is a conversation.
Call or email me directly — a first conversation costs nothing, and it's the fastest way to work out whether I'm the right person for what's going on.
Get in touch