Services > Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy is a treatment that focuses on helping people achieve independence in all areas of their lives by improving cognitive, physical, and motor skills. Your child may benefit from these services if they have one/more of following conditions:
- Handwriting difficulty (e.g. messy, unorganized, and/or illegible)
- Has stiff or weak muscles
- Avoids using one or both arms
- Demonstrates trouble when grasping objects
- Unable to follow moving objects with his or her eyes
- Drools excessively or demonstrates decreased oral motor skills
- Difficulty with feeding, moving from bottle to baby food or tolerated textures in food
- Demonstrates poor response to sensory information from environment (e.g. resisting being hugged, sensitive to sounds, difficult to soothe with upset)
- Resists messy activities (e.g. sand, finger paint activities)
- Shows anxiety with movements (e.g. uncomfortable on swing or slide)
- Avoidance of fine motor activities such as coloring, cutting, drawing
- Is always on the go, constantly in motion and unsafe at times when playing
- Demonstrates more parallel or repetitive play than cooperative play
- Seems clumsy, has poor balances
- Poor attention to school tasks
- Unable to manage self-help tasks (e.g. doing buttons, snaps, zippers, shoelaces)
All Butterfly Effects Programs are individualized and focus on aiding children to improve the following: fine motor skills, sensory processing/modulation abilities, visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills, graphomotor development, self-help skills, upper extremity, hand, and finger strength, dexterity, in-hand manipulation skills, as well as bilateral motor skills.
Our Program Developers who specialize in occupational therapy services are all licensed by the state of Florida and registered with NBCOTA. Butterfly Effects Occupational Therapists specialize in the treatment of those with developmental disabilities, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and are experts in sensory integration.
Occupational Therapy Service Description
Each occupational therapy evaluation takes place in the setting in which the concerns are occurring. The data collected allows our Developers to not only gain an understanding of the child’s current skill set, but determine the best plan of treatment.
What can I expect during my assessment appointment?
The assessment is completed in the home, school, or clinic environment were the concerns are occurring and is on average two hours in length. The evaluation is comprised of the following:
- A caregiver interview to gain background information and review of outside evaluations, therapy progress reports, school reports.
- An observation of the child in his or her natural environment. During this time, video clips and anecdotal data is collected to objectively analyze any behavioral excesses and/or skill deficits.
- Evaluations will be completed to assess motor and/or sensory motor skills.
- Where appropriate, interviews are conducted with outside providers involved in the care of your child to develop a comprehensive treatment plan.
When will I receive the assessment results?
Within 48 hours of the appointment, the Program Developer will review the data collected and create an online account with your child’s Butterfly Effects program. The account will include a summary of the evaluation findings, service recommendations, and action plans that describe program implementation. You will receive a phone call from the Program Developer at this time to discuss findings.
What type of ongoing services may be recommended?
Your Program Developer will include service recommendations in your assessment findings. Please note that we understand the financial constraints that ongoing treatment can place on a family and we will work with you to develop the most cost effective program possible. A description of these services can be found below:
Program Implementer Services
These services are utilized by our clients in the child’s home, school, and clinic environments to put into action the program developed for your child at assessment by the Program Developer. Many clients require an intensive number of hours of therapy to make immediate and long lasting change. In this case, Implementer services may be recommended to assist families burden the cost of heavy hours without having a licensed/certified professional deliver the services directly. Our Implementers come from a variety of backgrounds and have received extensive training in the Butterfly Effects system.
Our data demonstrates that frequent analysis and review of the child’s progress by a Program Developer is necessary for a successful program. Thus, it is mandatory if these services are received that a review be conducted as seen fit by the Developer (typically every two weeks of service).
Program Developer Services:
These services are utilized for intensive, hands-on parent training, school consults, and ongoing Program Reviews conducted for Program Implementer services completed either via distance or onsite. Onsite consults can be used as a current programming review of implementer services, for training of your child’s teachers, expert consultants at an IEP meeting, etc. Distance reviews provide a cost effective means of receiving feedback and program updates for those clients that receive ongoing implementer services. These reviews are conducted via video submitted by the program implementer and analysis of data collection input in your child’s account.
School Inclusion Programs:
Butterfly Effects, LLC, the behavior change company, now offers unique school inclusion programs designed for children with special learning and social-emotional needs. These programs encompass the best of both worlds. They give the child the opportunity to learn new skills and address behavioral concerns in an intense small classroom setting while maintaining exposure to daily activities in the mainstream classroom for generalization of learned skills. The program is designed to give educators, care-givers, and parents the practical step-by-step resources they need to ensure each child reaches his or her fullest potential. Depending on the location, our experts employ a variety of teaching and treatment methodologies founded in the principals of Applied Behavioral Analysis, Occupational Therapy, and Speech and Language Pathology.
