Occupational Therapy / ergo medicine is a conventional treatment based on neurodevelopmental and functional approaches which aim to make a child functionally independent in all aspects of life…There are many developmental areas to deal with regarding the recovery of a child like Physical development (gross motor & fine motor), Emotional development, Cognitive development, Play development, and Psycho-Social development…Occupational therapy along with sensory integration therapy provides a complete developmental framework for a child with sensory perceptual deficits…Without proper perceptual functioning, a child may not be able to behave normally…he might be self-withdrawn or hyperactive…systematized and customized therapy sessions help a child to integrate into the normal stream & thus lead a normal life…
Sensory Integration Therapy is a specialized treatment approach designed for children who experience difficulties in processing and responding to sensory information, commonly seen in conditions such as Autism, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), PDD-NOS, and Asperger’s Syndrome. Many of these children display either hypersensitivities or hyposensitivities to different senses, which may affect their responses to touch, sound, sight, balance, smell, joint sensation, or taste. At PRAYAS, therapy sessions are carefully planned based on standardized protocols such as Wilbarger’s method, combined with a variety of manual sensory stimulations. Alongside this, play-based therapeutic activities and movement-based exercises are introduced, tailored to the unique needs of each child. The ultimate goal of SIT is to help children regulate and integrate sensory input more effectively, thereby enhancing their focus, emotional stability, learning abilities, and overall participation in daily life.
Speech or communication ..the ability to express one’s thoughts or feelings is a sign of good perceptual ability and comprehension. Autistic or ADHD children have difficulties speaking because of perceptual deficits. As their perception gets corrected, these children start communicating by themselves. Some might have oral sensitivities, for which they need Oro- motor therapies. Proper eye contact, imitation, tongue movement, and sitting tolerance are pre-requisite for developing speech.
Speech in autistic and ADHD children is based on the development of understanding and comprehension…these group of children can already sing rhymes and can say alphabets and numbers…problems lies in communication and for this their perceptual functioning should get corrected first…
Special education is a structured programme, developed to improve the perceptual deficits of a child. Without proper perceptual function ,it becomes difficult for a child to perceive the information that he gets through the senses. Though they are hearing, they are looking at object, they are handling toys, still they can’t react to a situation normally as they are unable to process , understand and interpret the information. Because of this they can’t give response to any commands, can’t read and write like a nomal kid and can’t behave properly in any situation. As they are unable to express their feelings, so they throw tantrums. Through special education the perceptual functioning gets corrected because of which the child with autism ADHD and learning difficulties starts reading and writing in a normal way and it also improves the comprehension ability of a child. They starts visualizing and analyzing information they get through senses ,thus starts giving proper responses to commands.
