Did you know that Occupational Therapy and ABA Therapy go hand-in-hand? Yes! These two therapies work great together for the development of children for behavior skills, self-care skills, and social skills. April is Autism Awareness Month and Occupational Therapy Awareness Month so we wanted to bring the two therapies together and show you just how important they both are in a child’s development! With the combination of these two therapies, children are able to work on a variety of different skills that are extremely important as they develop.
Occupational therapists work with children with a variety of disorders such as autism, ADD/ADHD, Down syndrome, sensory integration problems, feeding disorders and visual processing disorders. These conditions can affect a child’s ability to do daily tasks such as getting dressed, going to the bathroom, eating, coloring, writing and even interacting appropriately with others. The skills that we work on in Occupational therapy at PediaPlex can help children become more independent and self-sufficient! Occupational therapy can also help to address social skills by teaching children how to take turns while playing games and how to transition between activities, which are huge things we work on in ABA Therapy.
ABA therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis, is an evidence-based approach to intervention that helps children with autism learn a variety of functional skills, social skills, independent living skills, self-management skills, and imitation skills. Our ABA treatment focuses on arranging the environment in ways that promote child success. Some examples of the skills that we can work on in ABA Therapy are requesting items, asking/answering questions, turn taking, conversation skills, completing tasks such as chores, assembling toys and functional play, motor and vocal imitation, and a handful of other skills.
At PediaPlex, we use a collaborative care approach. This means that our clients can receive occupational therapy, ABA therapy, speech therapy, and feeding therapy when they are at our clinic. Having all your child’s therapies in one location improves your child’s success because their therapists are in constant communication about their therapy plan and their progress. Your child’s behavior therapist will go with them to either speech and occupational therapy and get to observe their session. This not only allows them to monitor that child’s behavior in sessions, but they also get hands on experience with that child’s goals. This also makes it easier for the behavior therapist to continue working on those goals in their ABA therapy sessions. Having everyone in the loop and focused on the same individual goals for each child is in the best interest for, well, everyone!
Make sure you give a high-five to your occupational therapists and ABA therapists this month and thank them for all that they do! They are making such a huge difference in the lives of the kids at PediaPlex, and all over the world! From all of us at PediaPlex, we want to say thank you for the awesome jobs that you do!
If you’re interested in learning more about ABA Therapy, occupational therapy, or any of the services offered at PediaPlex, give us a call today or visit our website!
-The PediaPlex Family
