Frequently Asked Questions
Does my child have to attend Sensational Minds: Early Learning Academy LLC in order to receive Occupational Therapy Services?
Your child does NOT have to attend the childcare center in order to receive services. All you need is a referral from your child’s primary care provider for Occupational Therapy Services and I can perform the evaluation and we can go from there.
I don’t see my insurance on your list. Can my child still receive Occupational Therapy Services?
If you do not see your insurance on my list, all it means is that I am not currently contracted with that company. You can always give your insurance company a call and see if they would cover the services, and/or provide reimbursement for private pay. I also accept private pay patients at a cost per session.
What if I want my child to attend Sensational Minds: Early Learning Academy LLC?
It does help if a child also attends our center because it can make scheduling your child’s therapy services more flexible. However, Sensational Minds: Early Learning Academy LLC does often have a waitlist for most of their rooms. If you are interested in our childcare center, please contact us ASAP and we can either get your child into our center or put you on our waitlist.
How do I get my child started with Occupational Therapy services?
What you will need is a referral from your child’s primary care provider for an Occupational Therapy Evaluation that will be sent to Carolann Prescott, MSOTR/L at the fax number of (833)215-5229. Once I receive a referral I will immediately give you a call, send you out some paperwork to fill out, and schedule a time for the evaluation. Once the evaluation is performed, the results will determine if your child qualifies for Occupational Therapy Intervention. If your child does qualify, we will work together to create goals for your child and then start providing services in order to reach those goals.
How do I know if OT is for my child?
This is a question that I can write pages and pages about. The simple answer? If you have any concerns with your child’s development ask your doctor about an Occupational Therapy Evaluation. Occupational Therapy covers an array of activities and skills from: adapting to routines, self feeding, fine motor skills, zipping jackets, getting dressed, playing with peers, climbing up and down playground equipment safely, organizational skills, sensory processing, core strengthening, increasing overall attention, getting homework done, brushing teeth…the list can go on and on and on.
What exactly do you do as an Occupational Therapist?
This is another question that I could write a book on. But I will give you the basics. An Occupational first gathers information about your child by completing a comprehensive evaluation that looks at all of their skills (fine motor, visual motor integration skills, sensory processing, cognitive, object manipulation, etc.). This is done so that I can get an extremely clear picture of what the possible cause or issue that is effecting your child’s overall development.
Once I have this figured out, I create goals that are the steps to getting them closer to independence in the activities that mean the most to them, in most cases-play.
As an OT my job is to understand tasks at their most basic levels and dissect every step it may take so that I can understand how to adapt it, or help your child learn specific skills that can help them get to that goal.
For example, lets use putting on a t-shirt. A child has to be able to either sit up independently or stand up independently. They have to be able to correctly orient the shirt so that the hole for the head is at the top, but also so that the shirts tag is in the back. They have to be able to pick up the shirt and put their arms up over their head and then lift up each arm and be able to feel and/or see the hole that their arm goes through and bend and extend each arm through the holes. They then have to be able to find the bottom of their shirt and pull it down so that it covers their stomach. All the while, their bodies sensory system has to be able to tolerate the light touch and/or tickle of the fabric texture, tag, and how tight or loose the shirt is. They also have to have enough stamina in order to sit or stand the entire time they are doing this. Their brain also has to remember all these steps and what order they go in so that it can remember how to do this correctly each time.
There are so many factors, and its my job to figure out which factor may be contributing to your child’s difficulty, and then address those skills through science based intervention so that your child can be more successful with whatever it is they need to do.
My child’s primary care provider says I shouldn’t worry and that they will catch up. Should I still try to pursue services for my child?
I want to be very clear in stating that I do not want to undermine physicians and their opinions. Primary care providers are highly trained professionals that are great at their jobs and their opinions should be respected. However, it is easy to assume at times that children will “catch up” to their peers at some point. Especially when children are in that 0-3 years range. Children are SO different, but that’s what can make those opinions and recommendations so hard at times. For example, some children just don’t talk until they are almost 2 years old and they go on to develop at a normal rate once they finally start. But for many other children, they don’t talk at 2, but then they also don’t start talking at 3, and then all of a sudden it is a concern because they never hit their milestones.
When it comes to Early Intervention my theory is this- you can never do TOO much to help a child progress. So if you have concerns, as a parent/guardian you need to remember that YOU know your child best. Understand that providers are professionals in their area of expertise but you are an expert in your child. When the worst case scenario is that your child is developing at a typical rate and may not need services, wouldn’t you want to make sure?