OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Helping your children grow across all areas of life.
Occupational therapy (OT) empowers individuals by providing the tools and strategies needed to participate successfully in all aspects of daily life. For children, this includes self-care, play, school, and leisure activities. Our approach integrates sensory processing techniques with the power of human connection and evidence-based practices to deliver high-quality, individualized care. Occupational therapists assess each child’s needs, set meaningful goals, and develop a tailored intervention plan to promote independence in everyday activities. By addressing both the child’s abilities and their environment, we strive to create an optimal fit that supports growth and helps each child reach their full potential.
At ATS Kids, our occupational therapists take a personalized, child-centered approach to care. We view each child, their family, and their environment as an interconnected system—working to ensure every element supports and enhances the others. Our team looks beyond traditional OT, considering all areas of your child’s development through the lens of their unique strengths and needs.
We are proud to have a highly skilled team of therapists committed to evidence-based practice. Our specialties include TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention), Floortime Therapy, Sensory Integration, Feeding Therapy, Reflex Integration, Sound Therapy, Interactive Metronome, Contigo Outdoor Therapy, and Aquatic Therapy.
SENSORY PROCESSING
FINE MOTOR
Fine motor skills refer to small movements of the hands, eye movement and of the tongue for speaking. A child's fine motor ability will influence their ability to perform functional skills like handwriting, coloring, cutting, drawing, catching a ball, referencing facial expressions, chewing, swallowing and speech.
A child's capacity for fine motor coordination is dependent on the mastering developmentally sequenced abilities such as posture, tone, motor planning, touch sensation, gross motor coordination and stabilizing their body.
Sensory processing is how we all process and respond to sensory information – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, balance and interoception – can be reflected in their emotional reactions and behaviors. Sensory processing differences can have a profound impact on the nervous system. How we process sensory information affects our view of the world and most importantly how we respond to our world. Our ability to feel, process and integrate sensory information deeply influences how we interact with our world. Your child's ability to process and integrate sensory information directly influences their perception of safety, ability to plan and execute motor movements, ability to communicate and learn.
​
SELF-CARE
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is rooted in the science of Polyvagal Theory, offering a unique, evidence-based approach to nervous system regulation. By harnessing the power of sound, the SSP targets the vagus nerve to calm the body’s fight, flight, or freeze responses, helping individuals achieve a state of safety and balance.
The music of the SSP has been filtered through a patented, evidence-based algorithm that highlights specific sound frequencies that help regulate the autonomic nervous system and stimulate the vagus nerve.
​
UNYTE: SAFE AND SOUND PROTOCOL
Self-care includes daily routine tasks such as dressing, bathing, feeding, sleeping, and grooming. We work on these skills to establish each child's highest level of independence and improve success in their natural context.
DIR/FLOORTIME THERAPY
DIR/Floortime is both a philosophy to therapy and a technique. DIR stands for Development, Individual Differences, and Relationships - the core tenets of this approach. Floortime (by that we mean getting on the floor to play) is the application of using a DIR mindset: it emphasizes using the child’s interests and strengths through a respectful, joyful, playful and engaging process to promote their development using the power of relationship building. Floortime also emphasizes the critical role of caregivers because of the importance of their emotional relationships with the child.
​
Anyone with challenges in relating and communicating can benefit from this approach: Autism Spectrum Disorder, neurodevelopmental delay, and emotional disorders (ADHD, ODD, PDD).
INTERACTIVE METRONOME
IM is a program in which an individual uses headphones, a computer screen, and a rhythmic rhythmic beat to perform a variety of exercises while trying to stay on this beat. Studies have shown improvements in the attention and focus, coordination, control of aggression and impulsive behavior, and academic performance (math, reading, and processing speed). Diagnoses including ADD/ADHD, Apraxia/dysprazia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, brain injury, brain tumor, auditory processing disorder, cerebral palsy, dyslexia and other reading disorders, language-learning disabled, limb amputation, non-verbal learning disorder, sensory processing disorder, stuttering, and stroke, have been shown to benefit.
REFLEX INTEGRATION
A reflex is your body’s pre-written response to something that happens around you that you don’t have to think about. During development, we have reflexes in our brainstem are helpful to learn how to use our bodies when we are babies and should eventually be stored in our brains as the base for doing more complex daily tasks like reaching, reading, sitting still at school, and using our hands and feet separately from each other.
​
When these reflexes are not completely stored/transformed, they can interfere with how we function on a daily basis as our bodies have not learned to efficiently override basic, early patterns of movement. We work to help integrate these patterns into functional activities.
Trauma in childhood can drastically shape a child's emotional, cognitive, and even physical development. Our team has been trained in a number of approaches to help provide a trauma-informed, child-centered method of facilitating healing and development.
​