Why We Love What We Do
We Care
We love what we do because we deeply care about children and we want to help each child reach his or her potential. Pediatric speech-language therapists and occupational therapists have extensive training and experience with child development. These child development specialists know how to assess your child’s strengths and weaknesses within the scope of practice of their licensure. So from completing an evaluation and designing a treatment plan, to actually providing therapy, the goal is to nurture and help your child make progress towards their most meaningful (and enjoyable) life.
Following closely behind this core motivation, is the desire to provide hope and empowerment for families as they love and live with their children on a day to day basis. Whether a child has an articulation disorder or needs help with fine motor or has more significant challenges related to fluency, receptive and expressive language, feeding, sensory integration, or coordination, the family is impacted by the unique needs of their child. As a mother of a son with autism, I know from personal experience how much his opportunities and quality of life mean to me. Speech & Occupational Therapy of North Texas works closely with families so that skills learned in treatment will generalize more readily across all typical environments. Evidence based practices strongly supports the importance of caregiver training so we incorporate this into each session. Research shows that family involvement leads to the best results from treatment. We also want to be a listening ear and provide support in every way possible within our specialties.
Therapy Works
For our younger clients, much of what happens in therapy will look and feel like play. This is because young children learn many skills that will translate into lifelong abilities through play. Research bears out that contexts and interactions impact behavior (learning is a behavior) (Dynamic Systems Theory, Rose and Fischer, 2007). From an occupational therapist’s point of view, play is a child’s primary occupation. And we all learn so much through play! Make believe, turn taking, communicating, problem solving… all addressed through the modality of play. We strive to make therapy fun and memorable which leads to strengthened neural pathways critical for learning (Experience Driven Brain Plasticity, Markham and Greenough, 2004).
As much as we enjoy working with children, a significant aspect of the treatment process is planning activities and tracking progress on measurable goals, and tweaking treatment plans as a child makes progress. So for each session spent with your child and with you, there is additional time behind the scenes spent deciding about just the right kinds of activities and strategies for the session as well as time spent on critical medical documentation.
We Become Connected
Some of our clients are with us for a short time, perhaps working on articulation or tongue thrust. Others, with challenges related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or Down syndrome, may be with us for an extended amount of time. For these children, they make progress and then new goals are addressed. Each child and family become a part of our history and memories, also adding to what we love about our professions!
Today a Mom dropped by to just chat about some concerns she has about her daughter’s academic challenges. This precious little girl was with us for several years and was dismissed over two years ago. It was so great to catch up with her mom and offer some ideas for this young girl who was such a part of our experience! She doesn’t need our services at this time, but I was able to provide Mom with some ideas and referral names for other professionals. I felt honored that her mother felt comfortable enough to stop by to get my input!
We Make a Difference
So this is why we love what we do. We are making a difference for children and their families. We are building wonderful memories of all the unique interactions we have experienced with our diverse client population. Who wouldn’t love a job like that?
Speech & Occupational Therapy of North Texas has clinic locations in Frisco, McKinney, and Plano. We are network providers for several major insurance companies. For more information please call 972-424-0148
For more information about early childhood development, Brain Plasticity, and Dynamic Systems Theory visit:
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/chart/
http://www.evergreenschool.org/ftpimages/551/download/Dynamic%20Systems%20Theory_RoseFischer.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550735/
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=360