Harry Pangopoulos, owner and clinical director of Kidz Therapy Networks, Inc., shares some insight into the benefits of occupational therapy for special needs children...
When others ask me, “What do you do for a living?” Typically, the response is either “I thought they outlawed child labor,” or “Is that like physical therapy?” As an occupational therapist, we have the professional range that allows us to work with many different populations ranging from neonates to people in hospice. This is because we focus on the “occupation of life,” mainly activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, eating, etc.), work-related tasks, and leisure. Occupational therapy is client centered and is focused on making people as successful in being independent as possible.
A child’s main “job” is to play. This is how children grow, progress, and refine more basic skills. For example, a child crawling with a toy in his/her hand, results in improved hand strength and developed palmar arches (arches of the hand); Both of which are core elements of having developmentally appropriate fine motor and visual motor skills (holding the pencil correctly and having good handwriting) later on in life.
There are all types of settings children can receive occupational, speech, and physical therapies, in the hospital (i.e. after an accident), at home, at school, and in an outpatient clinic setting. Kidz Therapy Networks Inc is a clinic that provides outpatient occupational, speech, and physical therapy services in Cumming, Georgia.
Outpatient therapy is different when comparing it to other environments. Here at Kidz Therapy Networks, we treat children individually for a one hour session. Therapy is very much hands on and is geared to improve the child’s areas of concerns as quickly as possible by using a team approach. Throughout the treatment session, parents/caregivers are informed of progress and activities to work on at home to help with carry over. The use of a multidisciplinary approach is greatly beneficial if the child requires more than one discipline of therapy, because it allows for greater communication between the occupational and speech therapists. Whether it is via back to back sessions or a co-treatment, the therapists work together to create a cohesive therapy environment.
In addition, Kidz Therapy Networks Inc. offers specialized treatments techniques available such as Sensory Integration and Praxis Testing (SIPT), Interactive Metronome, Therapeutic Listening, Advanced Therapeutic Listening, and Oral Motor Therapy. As additional services available to our clients, we also provide group therapy sessions and free monthly parent/caregiver workshops. Please come meet us August 7th at 6pm for our first parent/caregiver workshop on the Alert Program, “How Does Your Engine Run?”
More importantly, where there is a need, we try to accommodate. Our dream is to generate outstanding results in every child. When we help kids succeed in their everyday life, we succeed in ours.
