Developing Confident, Independent Children and  Young Adults

Visual perception is the ability to interpret what we see. Visual information is received through our eyes and is then integrated, processed and interpreted by the brain to allow us to make sense of the incoming visual information and respond appropriately. Visual perceptual skills are used during school-related tasks such as reading, writing and spelling, as well as daily living activities such as dressing, feeding and personal hygiene. Occupational therapy can help to improve and develop visual perceptual skills.

Children with difficulties in this area may struggle to organise themselves and their environments to carry out daily living tasks. They may also find it difficult to plan and execute the sequences of movement that are required in a task (motor planning). They may appear to be disorganised, frequently lose or forget what they need for daily activities and take too long to complete tasks such as dressing, feeding or packing their school bag. Occupational therapy identifies areas of difficulty and provides strategies to help these children to plan and organise their daily activities more effectively.

Sensory processing is the ability to perceive and interpret the sensory information that is received from the environment through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and tactile system, as well as sensory information that is received from within the body itself via the nervous system. This information is taken to our brains where it is interpreted so that appropriate adaptive responses can be made. Children who experience sensory processing difficulties experience too much or too little sensory stimulation through their senses. This creates feelings of insecurity, anxiety and discomfort and has a significant impact on their social relationships, behaviour, concentration and attention, development of gross and fine motor skills and their readiness to learn. Occupational therapy can help these children to reach their optimal levels of arousal so that they can respond appropriately to sensory input and make sense of their worlds, allowing them to feel more confident and secure and ready to learn.

Daily living skills refer to the wide range of personal self-care tasks that each of us do on a daily basis at home, school, work, leisure and in the community. It includes all tasks related to dressing, feeding, personal hygiene, domestic chores and mobility. Illness, injury or disability impact on our ability to perform these activities independently and occupational therapists are skilled at providing assessment and treatment to facilitate and maximise independence in these areas.