Bellefontaine Physical Therapy

Occupational Therapy in a school based setting

We focus on making the student most successful in their school environment within the areas of fine motor, sensory integration, alert levels, self-help skills, and visual mobility/perception. OT is a related service and serves under a special education category. OT is legally responsible to provide the services listed on the Individual Education Plan. As part of the educational team, occupational therapy works with the teachers and parents as well as the students to enhance their skills and promote carryover outside of therapy. Typical kids seen by OT include but are not exclusive to: cognitive delays, learning disabilities, multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy, autism, ADD/ADHD, and other health impairments.

Definition of areas treated:

• Fine motor skills include handwriting, cutting, grasping pencils/crayons, and coloring.
• Sensory integration is how your body's senses work together or apart.
• Alert levels are where your body and mind are at the optimal place to work.
• Self help skills include tying shoes, buttoning, zipping, and putting your coat on/off.
• Visual motility/perception deals with how the eyes work together to copy from the board or desk, read/write left to right and top to bottom, finding details of objects that are the same/different, and finding a target within an environment or visually busy worksheet.