Gaffney Physical Therapy

The occupational therapy process includes an OT evaluation before care starts. Here are the four steps your family can expect when starting occupational therapy:

1. Complete OT evaluation. An occupational therapist first identifies your child’s strengths and needs through a thorough OT evaluation, also known as an OT assessment or screening. You’ll answer questions about your child’s skills, and your child will most likely demonstrate their skills via hands-on activities with the therapist. Evaluations can last 30 minutes to a few hours.
2. Approve OT plan. The therapist develops a care plan with individualized goals and customized interventions based on your child’s needs. You can also share any specific goals or concerns before approving the OT plan.
3. Start therapy sessions. The therapist works directly with your child and your family, using various strategies and exercises to systematically improve areas of limitations and to build upon a child’s strengths. Some exercises your child might participate in are animal walks, obstacle courses, and therapy swing activities. Your family may learn strategies for supporting your child’s individualized needs at home, such as ways of supporting emotional regulation and sensory processing. The therapist may also recommend tools and techniques to use at home, in the community, or in the classroom to help your child succeed.
4. Monitor your child’s progress. Parents and caregivers can expect ongoing progress monitoring and communication to ensure the child is achieving their short and long-term goals.

Occupational therapy can also be provided virtually via telemedicine. Virtual therapy is a great option for families in rural areas who may not have access to in-person services, or for families who prefer to have therapy in their child’s home.

Virtual OT allows the opportunity for increased caregiver participation and understanding of a child’s strengths, areas of improvement, and generalization of skills in the child’s home environment. Virtual therapy also provides increased opportunities for caregiver and family education to support the child and the family based on each family’s needs.

Once you find a quality physical therapist you want to work with, here are a few things you need to know:

• There will be an evaluation. First, you can expect an assessment to identify your child’s areas of strength and needs. A physical therapy evaluation usually lasts 30 minutes.
• You’ll review and approve the care plan. The physical therapist will create a care plan, also known as a plan of care (POC), outlining the goals and strategies. They will review this with you and your care team before moving forward with therapy sessions.
• Physical therapy sessions will be fun. PT with children is designed to be enjoyable. The therapist will use strategies and exercises based on your child’s needs. Exercises might involve playing on large stability balls, obstacle courses, movement equipment, stretches, and other hands-on activities.
• Expect home exercises. Physical therapists commonly assign exercises to work on at home. Doing these exercises with your child outside therapy sessions can improve your child’s overall progress.

Yes! Most providers offer physical therapy in their offices or a clinical setting, but many are offering at-home options. Virtual options have become more popular in recent years. You might facilitate care with the guidance of the physical therapist.

Pediatric physical therapy is considered safe and should not hurt. Autistic children spend their time in PT moving and exploring their environment. If you are concerned about your child experiencing pain during certain exercises, especially if they may struggle to communicate and advocate for modifications, speak with their physical therapist about your concerns.

Yes, picky and selective eating is actually a quite common concern for children with autism. If you rolled your eyes looking at the steps above because your child with autism has never had a full day's serving of vegetables in their life, you are definitely not alone. As if getting kids to eat their veggies isn’t challenging enough, research shows children with autism have significantly more eating challenges than their peers who are not autistic.

In addition to sensory difficulties that can lead to a lot of anxiety with food, autistic children are 4x more likely to have gastrointestinal issues such as stomach pain and discomfort. This creates the perfect storm for extra extra picky eaters - and a lot of added obstacles and concerns for parents. 

The difficulties associated with autistic children and food can cause a wide range of concerns from children being underweight to overweight (overweight children can still be at risk for nutritional deficiencies!).  This can lead to slower than normal growth and nutritional deficiencies like low vitamin D and calcium levels. Even when given multivitamins, many children with autism are still found to have some of these nutritional deficiencies.

Here are some tips:

1. Keep to a schedule - setting schedules for meal and snack  time can help picky eaters build up their appetite throughout the day
2. Minimize distractions - removing distractions like screens and toys can help your child be more engaged at mealtime 
3. Approach new foods together - Make new foods less scary by trying them together. Touching and smelling the food together before tasting it 
4. Support choice & control - Allowing your child to pick which foods they eat will help them feel more in control 

For more tips, check out our guide for getting a complete diet.

It may not seem obvious, but eating is a complex behavior that involves perceptual, emotional, and cognitive processes. And we know that children with autism process things differently. While many of us look forward to things like our afternoon snack, it may be an activity that causes a lot of anxiety for your child.

Parents describe food selectivity being determined by a few of the following factors: texture (69%), appearance (58%), taste (45%), smell (36%), and temperature (22%). Uniform texture, bland and neutral color foods are reported to be overwhelmingly preferred by more than 90% of children with ASD.