Child & Family Development Child & Family Development

February 10, 2016

Occupational Therapy: Around-The-House with Melissa Petcu MS OTR/L

 

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It‚Äôs a new year!Many people use the New Year to make new resolutions, clean the house or get organized. With so much media content out there about warming up the house after the holidays, Melissa Petcu MS OTR/L, occupational therapist at the Midtown office, had the notion of connecting things happening around the house to a child‚Äôs occupational therapy goals.  After all, occupational therapy is “the job of living”. 

She plans to share ideas each month.  Here are some for the beginning of the year: 

  1. Healthy eating: A great way to engage a picky eater is to involve them in the meal preparations. Teaching a child how to cut with a knife safely, measuring ingredients, getting messy by kneading dough, or setting the table to get in some pre-meal heavy work can all be great ways to incorporate OT goals into meal time prep.
  2. Organization: Have a child put those visual skills to use by giving them a sorting task. Heavy work is involved with cleaning out closets and putting clothes to donate into boxes.  
  3. Decorate the house: Now that holiday decorations have been put away, have your child make some decorations such as snow flakes to hang in some of the bare spots. It’s great fine motor practice! 
  4. Keeping in touch: I bet your child has some thank you notes to write, right? Consider it an opportunity to work on handwriting.  If a child is not yet at writing age, he can draw or color one side of the note that you wrote or sign their name or write the first letter of their name.