Children's Therapy Works is privately owned and operated by occupational therapist Amy Danielson. Children's Therapy Works is dedicated to providing high quality holistic care and believes that therapy should be motivating, challenging and enjoyable. Children's Therapy Works provides out patient occupational therapy and speech/language pathology services to children and adults.
Children's Therapy Works serves central, northern, south western and western Minnesota. We have expanded and now provide therapy to patients in the Brainerd, St. Cloud and Willmar areas.
What is occupational therapy?
Occupational therapy is the therapeutic use of self-care, work and play activities to increase independent function, enhance development and prevent disability; this may include the adaptation of a task or the environment to achieve maximal independence and to enhance quality of life. The term occupation refers to any activity engaged in for evaluating, specifying and treating problems interfering with functional performance.
Occupational therapists view the person, their environment and the interaction between the person and the environment. OT's analyze a person's functional performance within different environments to determine their strengths and limitations. OT's determine whether limitations are attributable to intrinsic skills and characteristics, factors in the environment or a combination of the two.
What is sensory integration?
Sensory integration is an unconscious neurological process that registers and organizes input received from the senses. We are familiar with the senses of taste, smell, sight, touch, and sound. There are additional hidden senses that sense movement, body position and force of gravity. Sensory integration makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment.
Sensory integration dysfunction is a complex disorder of the nervous system. When the process of sensory integration is disordered, it can lead to behavioral problems, difficulty with coordination, problems in learning and many other issues.
- Sensory Defensiveness: Symptoms related to aversive or defensive reactions to non-noxious stimuli. It is an over reaction of normal protective systems.
- Sensory Registration: Impaired discrimination of sensory input. Sensory information is misperceived by the central nervous system. People may over register or under register sensory input.
- Modulation of arousal: This is the ability to maintain a calm, alert state. Persons may be over aroused, under aroused, or fluctuate between the two.
- Generalized integration difficulties: Difficulty processing information from two or more senses. Often times, motor delays or difficulties are present.
What is speech therapy?
Speech refers to the production of sounds, rate, intensity, and vocal quality of speech. Language refers to the understanding and use of words to communicate a person's ideas, needs and wants. Speech / Language Therapy is provided with the goal of improving an individual's ability to communicate effectively and be understood by those around them.
Children's Therapy Works services children and adults with medical diagnoses such as: cerebral palsy, autism, asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects, angelman's syndrome, motor, speech and cognitive developmental delays, infantile spasms, auditory processing disorder, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, attention deficit disorder, low vision and oppositional defiant disorder.
We work with children and adults to develop skills in the following areas:
- oral motor /feeding skills
- fine and gross motor skills
- visual motor skills
- cognitive skills
- sensory integration
- self care skills
- communication skills