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A service provided for qualifying students through the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) process.  Occupational Therapy looks at the whole student and how they do the things they need to do to function in the school setting.  How do they access their educational environment?  We work on a variety of skill areas that relate to educational function. In O.T. we address skill sets such as...

     Self regulation skills are the ability to recognize the Zone of Regulation (control) you are in and determining what tool you need to move yourself into the zone you want to be.

     It also encompasses Executive Functioning skills.  Those skills which direct our actions, attention, focus, organization, planning,  and higher level functioning. 

     Sensory Integration is also in this area.  We all learn  through our senses (vision, hearing, touch, body in space, taste, smell, movement etc.)  and take that information from our senses and process it to determine what is the most important thing to pay attention to. Sometimes students get overwhelmed or cannot tolerate certain sensory input.  In O.T., we work to tune our sensory system to be able to maximize function.

Life Skills are the things you need to do to function in life.  The things that you need to do your job.  In school, our job is to learn.  We also need to be able to take care of ourselves and be as independent as possible.  In Life Skills, we work on tying our shoes, or telling time or managing money.  It could be cooking, getting dressed to go outside or organizing my time and things.  Or it could be learning to do things ourselves, accessing the school environment and moving safely. Independence is important in Life Skills.

Occupational Therapy is...    
Self Regulation and Sensory Integration 
Life Skills
Fine Motor /Visual Perceptual Skills

 SO What is O. T. Anyway?

Fine Motor skills in school address handwriting, cutting ,movement and manipulatives.  As a district we have embraced Handwriting Without Tears.  This uses a motor pattern method of teaching handwriting.  We also work on motor efficiency and use technology to help us become efficient writers.  We work the motor skills of Keyboarding.

Another motor skill we work on is Visual Perceptual skills. We need our eyes to guide our hands. Perceptual skills involve a variety of visual skills to see, organize, and place it in context of space. These are used for example when copying notes from the board or learning our letters.

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