Occupational Therapy at Easter Seals focuses on improving a child's fine motor skills (e.g. grasp, pointing), hand strength, and bilateral hand-use. From infancy through adulthood, these hand skills are crucial for skills such as reaching, holding objects, handwriting, and work tasks. Sensory integration (processing input from the senses) is an area occupational therapists often target with children exhibiting attention deficit disorder, feeding difficulties, general overstimulation, and autism. OTs assist children in developing the self-help skills they need for everyday activities, such as dressing, grooming, or self-feeding. The occupational therapist at Easter Seals Pediatric Therapy may offer detailed assistance with skills such as eye-hand coordination, accessing an augmentative communication device, or compensatory strategies for art, computer access, and environmental control.
 |
Tosha Gaines,
Occupational Therapist
Tosha received his Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion/Community Health from UAB in 2003 and went on to secure her Masters of Science – Occupational Therapy from UAB in December 2005. She is certified/ licensed through the State of Alabama Board of Occupational Therapy and the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy. She is a Historian for the Alabama Occupational Therapy Association and a very active community volunteer/artist for VSA Alabama. Tosha has experience in treating children with various developmental needs such as sensory integration, feeding/oral motor therapy, and fine motor delays. Prior to joining the team at Pediatric Therapy, Tosha’s experience included working with the zero through three-year-old population at an Early Intervention Program. She has a special interest in applying art/craft therapy for children with special needs |
Our Occupational Therapist can assist with the following:
Sensory Integration
What is Sensory Integration?
Motor:
• poor motor planning and/or execution
• unable to perform tasks at age appropriate level
• unable to run, skip, jump, or hop
• poor fine motor coordination
Sensory:
• person may have problems from tactile (touch), proprioceptive (position of our arms and legs), vestibular (balance), auditory, and visual functions.
• minor injuries may seem to cause more pain than injury would indicate
• responses may be hypo- or hyper reactive
• Sensory integration is the ability to take in information from the environment and respond appropriately. Sensory integration lays the foundation for higher learning. Sensory integration dysfunction is the inability to process or organize incoming information and respond in a meaningful way. Problems that may be experienced with sensory integration dysfunction may include:
 .... ....
Cognitive
• poor ideational or concept forming skills
• difficulty following instructions that include a series of tasks
• poor problem solving skills
Intrapersonal
• accident prone
• easily hurt emotionally
• Interpersonal reception and understanding of language may be delayed
 ....
Other problems that may be experienced include:
• Gravitational Insecurity- abnormal stress that arises when a child's feet are off the ground.
• Tactile Defensiveness- adverse reaction to touch, such as a feeling of discomfort.
• If you have any concerns in any of these areas please contact your pediatrician
|
... 