"Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Occupational therapy practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health, and prevent—or live better with—injury, illness, or disability." -AOTA

General Information and Milestones
In the school setting, occupational therapists focus on the daily occupations of school life.  They work with students who have disabilities to achieve success in the classroom and across all school environments. 

Fine Motor
Fine motor skills refer to using the small muscles in the hands and arms to move objects and complete tasks. Fine motor skills let children perform crucial tasks like reaching and grasping, moving objects and using tools like crayons, pencils and scissors.

Grasp - Pictured below is a developmental sequence for developing a "preferred" pencil grasp for handwriting.  It's important to note that preferred does not always mean functional. (SERC)

• Dominance - Typically established by age 3.

• Coordination/Manual Dexterity - all movements should be smooth 4.5yo

Pre-writing and Handwriting

Pre-writing

• Tracing - 4 years old - should be able to trace simple shapes.

• Design Copy - Copying the lines shown below are important prerequisites to handwriting letters.

• Draw a person - 5 1/2 years old - can draw a person with at least 6 body parts.

Handwriting

• Most children can print names - 5 years old.

• Basic handwriting legibility improves - 6-7 years old.

• Print a minimum of 3 words, numbers 0-9, and the alphabet from memory - 6 years old.

Sensory Processing
Sensory processing is the process that our bodies use to take in sensory information from our environment, organize it, and then functionally carryout everyday activities.  Examples of sensory processing difficulties include a child that is sensitive to noise and covers his ears, not noticing when her face is dirty, excessive wiggling during seated tasks. 

Processing sensory information begins as early as in utero as the sensory systems begin to form and continues to develop during infancy.  Overwhelmed infants begin to learn self-regulation in order to calm or self soothe.  As motor skills develop, so do the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, as these sensations of movement come from the body.  As the infant matures into a toddler, and then into school-age he or she will continue to improve sensory processing skills through maturation and exploration of his or her environment. Ability Path

The vestibular system is responsible to provide information regarding movement and balance. Proprioception is the ability of your muscles and joints to determine where they are in space.

Visual Motor Integration & Visual Perception
Visual motor integration, sometimes referred to as eye-hand coordination, is the ability to respond to visual input with a motor action. Catching a tossed ball is an example of this.  Visual motor integration is also inherent in many academic skills such as, drawing and coloring, using scissors, copying from a board, and getting food on a fork.  

Visual Perception refers to what the eyes see and how the brain interprets that visual information. Visual perception consists of 7 separate skills and each one plays a pivotal role in academic skills like, handwriting, reading, writing solutions to math problems, copying from a board, maintaining visual attention, and organizing materials.

• Scissors Skills

  • Cut on a straight line - 3-4 years old.

  • Cut on straight and curved lines, cuts out circles and squares - 4-5 years old.

  • Cut out complex shapes and a circle without lines - 5+ years old.

• Colors in the lines - 5 1/2 years old.

• Right and Left Discrimination -

  • Aware that L and R are on opposite sides but may not yet be able to correctly identify - 6-7 years old.

  • Knows precisely which parts are right and left on self and in space - 8-9 years old.

Daily Living Skills
Daily living skills, aka self-care or self-help skills are those skills are those skills that we do to ready ourselves for other daily activities.  Basic dressing, grooming, feeding, and bathing tasks are examples of this.  In school, these skills can impact children socially but there are also school specific daily living skills, such as opening a locker, getting food from the cafeteria, and opening and closing a book bag, just to name a few.

• Removes various articles of clothing - 2-3 years old.

• Zips an initiated zipper - 2 1/2 years old.

• Puts on socks and most clothing - 2 1/2-3 years old.

• Drinks from open cup - 3 years old.

• Zips front separating zipper - 4 1/2-6 years old.

• Places shoes on correct feet - 4-5 years old.

• Ties bow on shoes - 6-6 1/2 years old.

• Holds spoon and fork with fingers - 4-4 1/2 years old.

Many of the skills that are addressed by OT in the schools are best improved in school when supported at home.  However, so many tasks and activities at home use the same processes, muscles, grips, pinches, etc that are used in school.  Below you'll find activity ideas that can be fun and functional, or both, but they should always be fun!

Teachers, this section is to be used as a guide for interventions.  Please use the Parents and General Information tabs for additional information too.  You should be able to find a number of activities to use as interventions related to your concerns and observations.  Interventions should be completed for AT LEAST 2 weeks prior to submitting a referral for a formal OT evaluation.  However, we highly encourage you to work with your school's OT on these interventions in order to best help your student.

• Fine Motor

• Visual Motor/Perception

• Daily Living Skills

• Forms