Terms and Definitions

Occupational Therapy: Occupations are meaningful, functional activities that are participated in daily. Occupational therapy helps children to reach developmental milestones and live life as independently as possible. This is achieved through participation in functional skills training and activities of daily living. Activities of daily living encompass self-care tasks such as dressing, bathing, and grooming. More over higher levels skills such as telling time, daily household chores, academic activities, and money management can be addressed. Therapists assess fine motor skills, visual-perceptual skills, gross motor skills, and motor planning. The ultimate outcome is always to prepare the child to participate in home, school, and community environments as independently as possible.

Physical Therapy: Physical Therapists identify children’s unique needs and problem areas to improve growth and development. Physical therapy can be used to address the areas of strength, balance, coordination, motor planning, range of motion and endurance. Integrating multiple components into treatment allows physical therapists to achieve age-appropriate functional skills to improve performance in school, home, and community environments.

Early Intervention Benefits: Early Intervention programs focus on children’s growth and reaching developmental milestones. Children are eligible for the Early Intervention Program if they are under three years old and experiencing developmental delays in gross motor, fine motor, self-care, and or social interactions skills. They are also eligible if they have a disability with a risk of resulting in developmental delays in these areas. A disability or disorder is a diagnosis with a physical, medical, cognitive or psychological condition which typically results in delayed achievement of developmental milestones. For more information see the New York State Early Intervention website, including statutes and application for the Early Intervention program.