Co-ordination Disorders in Children (Part 3)

Therapeutic approaches for coordination disorders(CD)

Sensory IntegrationandOccupational Therapy approaches  that can support the child with Coordination Disorder and their carers include:

1.           Observing the child during play and formal assessment to determine the child’s abilities with gross motor (whole body) tasks and then making recommendations for management.

2.           Devise goals: Setting functional goals in collaboration with the child, parents and teachers so that therapy has a common focus beneficial to everyone involved.

3.           Educating parents, carers and teachers about coordination disorder,  age appropriate skills a child should be demonstrating and providing management strategies/ideas to assist the child in the home, at school and in the community.

4.           Physical skills: Providing ways/ideas to promote physical activity and participation in team/group activities.

5.           Underlying skills: Developing the underlying skills necessary to support whole body (gross motor) and hand dexterity (fine motor) skills, such as providing activities to support:

1.           Balance and coordination

2.           Strength and endurance

3.           Attention and alertness

4.           Body awareness

5.           Movement planning

6.           Direct skill teaching through a task based approach.

7.           Confidence: Building self-confidence to enable a child to willingly participate (it is common for these children to shut down when they perceive the task to be too hard) in activities by:

 

1.         Providing the child with education about why they may be experiencing difficulties with movement, their strengths as well as their                weaknesses and providing them with and teaching them strategies to overcome obstacles they may face.

2.        Breaking down specific physical skills into one or two step components to teach the skill and then gradually adding in new components until  the skill is doable in its entirety (e.g. skipping – start with a step, then a hop).

3.           Providing opportunities and strategies to master the same skill in differing environments (e.g. home versus school versus. therapy session).

4.           Presenting the activities at the ‘just right challenge’ level to provide success and then gradually increasing the demands of a mastered skill.

8.         Educating parents and carers on ways to simplify tasks to the smallest possible components and use simple and concise language.

9.         Non-verbal cues: Using physical and visual models or instructions, wherever possible, not just verbal.

10.       Sensory processing: Improving sensory processing to ensure appropriate attention and arousal to attempt the tasks as well as ensuring the body is receiving and interpreting the correct messages from the muscles in terms of their position and relationship to each other.

11.       Multi-sensory approach: Using a multi-sensory approach to learning new skills.

12.       Modelling tasks visually and using hands-on adjustment techniques to aid body awareness for the child.

 

By

S.Mariappan

Sensory Integeration Therapist

Life Healthcare Rehabilitation Clinic Pl

moses.lhc@gmail.com