Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Experts in occupational therapy for children

Our occupational therapists have advanced training in the full spectrum of pediatric occupational therapy techniques and years of experience working with infants, children and teens. Our therapies and equipment are all specially designed and sized for children.

Many of our therapists specialize in hand therapy, electrical stimulation, infant massage, kinesio taping and other therapy techniques. We receive referrals from around North Texas and some surrounding states because we offer highly specialized therapies that aren’t widely available for children. Our goal with pediatric occupational therapy is to help your child achieve their best possible level of function and independence.

Multispecialty program for comprehensive care

We work closely with providers from other specialties to address all your child’s health needs in a comprehensive plan. Some of the programs we work with include:

• Audiology (hearing specialists)

• Clinical nutrition

• Neuropsychology

• Physical therapy

• Social work

• Speech-language therapy

Members of our team, which may include other specialists based on your child’s needs, meet with you and your child to do a thorough evaluation. We assess your child’s current skills related to play, school performance and other activities, and we ask you about any specific challenges that you’ve noticed.

We compare their skill level with the skills that are developmentally appropriate for their age group. Our team creates a treatment plan to help your child master the skills they need at each stage of development.

Personalized, family-centered therapy

Our pediatric occupational therapists work with children of all ages to provide care that’s tailored to their needs, no matter what their current skill level is. We offer care in a variety of settings:

• Children’s Medical Center. Our team works with children receiving care in the hospital to help them build or regain their level of independence and self-care ability before discharge.

• Children’s Health Integrated Therapy A Panda Cares Center for Hope. We provide specialized inpatient occupational therapy for children who are staying in our rehabilitation facility. Children may come to our Integrated Therapy A Panda Cares Center for Hope program after a hospital stay to build their skills before they go home.

• Outpatient centers. For children who need ongoing therapy at a lower intensity, our occupational therapists work with them in our outpatient program at one of our 7 clinics across the metroplex.

The team works closely with you and your child to understand your family goals for treatment. As part of the personalized care plan, we develop a home program of activities and exercises that you can do with them. We show you how to do all the activities and provide a written handout as a guide.

If pediatric occupational therapy (OT) is recommended:

1.  Request for insurance approval - Most insurance companies require approval for therapy. We will submit the evaluation results and therapy recommendations to your insurance for approval. This process can take anywhere from one to 30 days.

• This is not a guarantee and there are sometimes circumstances that can lengthen or shorten the wait.

2.  Insurance approval received - Once the approval or denial for therapy has been received, we will contact you. If therapy was approved we will schedule your child’s next therapy visit.

3. Scheduling - Availability of scheduling at each location will depend on the treating therapists schedule and recommendations.

• Consistent schedule (i.e.: same day and/or time each week for the time frame of the approval)

• Session to session

  • We often have a wait list for therapy in some disciplines for certain times of the day.

    • If your preferred time is not available, we will place your child on a wait list.

    • Please check in often with the front desk for an update on your preferred time if your child is placed on the waiting list.

At Children's Health℠, our team works with infants, children and teens to strengthen their functional and self-care skills so they can become more independent. Our occupational therapists can help children who are:

• Recovering from surgery, an illness or a traumatic injury

• Receiving treatment for complex, acute or chronic health conditions

• Experiencing developmental delays in any area

• Having difficulty using their hands (fine motor skills)

• In need of adaptive equipment such as wheelchairs or communication aids for daily activities

• Having difficulty engaging in social and other activities due to sensory processing disorders

Our goals are to increase children’s independence in their daily activities and improve their developmentally appropriate skills. For children recovering from an injury or illness, we work to help them return to their previous level of function.

In our pediatric occupational therapy, we use a wide variety of approaches, including:

• Biomechanical (body movement) exercises

• Neurodevelopmental activities for children who have difficulty controlling movement because of neurological (brain or spinal cord) disorders

• Sensory processing activities to help children develop appropriate reactions to sensations in various environments

Some of the skills we work on with your child include:

• Fine motor skills for grasping, holding, pinching and gripping

• Self-care skills such as bathing, getting dressed, brushing teeth and feeding themselves

• Eye-hand coordination for tasks such as catching a ball or copying from a whiteboard

Learn more about occupational therapy