Does Your Child Need Support
Some areas that parents may have of concern with their child’s development/Does my child need help?
- The child is not attaining developmental milestones as would usually be expected.
- They seem to have weak hands and/or get tired easily while doing fine motor tasks, such as more difficult than peers putting on their coat, putting on and tying shoes laces and buttoning.
- They avoid motor activities have more trouble putting a puzzle together
- They have difficulty with learning gross motor tasks such as riding a bike, skipping, or hopping, children that may appear ‘clumsy’ and frequently trip over and find getting around a busy environment challenging and uncoordinated.
- They watch rather than join in on the playground and playground equipment.
- They are overly sensitive or emotional to sensory stimulation including touch, textures, tastes, sound, and movement and find this challenging to manage seeking or avoiding sensory input.
- They are under responsive with decreased reactions to movement, touch, sound, or have unusually low emotional responses, ‘not coping’ and finding social situations stressful.
- They have trouble learning how to dress themselves and organisational tasks both at home and at school.
- They have difficulty with coordinating the muscles that control their eyes for good vision.
- They have trouble with writing including pushing too hard or not hard enough, not being able to develop and maintain a good grasp on the pencil, and having trouble with size and spacing of their letters and avoid activities which require these skills.
- They have more trouble than peers writing, keeping their desks and equipment organised, and managing their time.
- The child may choose to play with same activity repeatedly and avoid new toys and games and experiences.
- The child is a risk taker beyond their level of ability and unaware of their safety.
- Just seem ‘all over the place’.
- How will my child manage transition from Pre-school to school?
However, it is important to understand that many children will present with some of these behaviours, however if these behaviours are impacting on the child’s daily function an Occupational Therapy Assessment is significant to understand the holistic picture of your child and how to support their learning and development.
