Strengths and Challenges

PlayWrite Therapy offers children’s occupational therapy in our San Francisco center. We offer evaluations, consultations, weekly occupational therapy treatment sessions, and summer intensives.

What is the process to start occupational therapy services?
Initially, we will speak by phone to determine if occupational therapy is appropriate for your child. If we determine your child would benefit from an occupational therapy evaluation, we will schedule an evaluation as soon as an appointment time is available. After the evaluation we will set up a meeting with you to discuss the evaluation results, treatment recommendations, and goals.

How often will my child need to come for occupational therapy?
Typically we see a child 1-2 times each week. A home program will often be recommended to work on activities prescribed during therapy sessions.

Why do we need to do a home program?
We see that a child who works on therapy activities at home on a consistent basis progresses much faster than a child who only works on activities during therapy sessions.

What if I find it difficult to implement home program activities?
Parents frequently report that they find it difficult to motivate their child to work on therapy activities at home or there simply isn’t enough time in the day. If you find it challenging to work on activities at home, your therapist will help problem solve ways to make it easier. Our therapists try to make suggested home activities fun and often activities can be incorporated into the daily routine. It is important to understand that when a child is not working with a home program, the length of therapy is often longer than it is for a child who consistently works on activities at home.

If my child has received an evaluation at another clinic but we would like to have treatment at PlayWrite Therapy, do we need another evaluation?
We will accept an occupational therapy evaluation from another center provided that it is a full evaluation including standardized testing and has been completed within the past year. Evaluations by other professions, such as developmental pediatricians and neuropsychologists are helpful in understanding your child’s development and learning. However, if the evaluation was completed by another professional; your child will also need an occupational therapy evaluation.

What is Sensory Integration and why is it important?
Sensory integration refers to the way we register and organize information from our environment and use the information appropriately in daily activities. All senses must work together in a coordinated fashion to successfully engage in everyday activities. Sensory integration forms the underlying foundation for acquiring motor skills, learning, self-regulation, and social interactions. Our senses include smell, taste, touch, vision, hearing, proprioception, and vestibular sensation.

What are the proprioceptive and vestibular senses?
Our proprioceptive sense is our awareness of the input to our muscles and joints; it is needed for body awareness, coordination of body movements, graded muscle control, and self-regulation. Our vestibular sense is responsible for our balance and our sense of motion. It tells us which direction our body is moving, how fast we are moving, and how our body is oriented in space. Vestibular processing is important for balance, bilateral coordination, visual motor integration, and for maintaining an optimal level of arousal.