An occupational therapy program is designed after a complete evaluation. Many tools are used for the evaluation. Some are standardized (scored on a statistical standard) and some are criterion referenced (performances are judged on an average performance scale for a specific age group). Another form is clinical observations: the OTR's look at the style and form with which the child does specific tasks.
How long does the evaluation take?
That is individual to the clinic and the therapist, ask about time, cost and can you observe before the test date.
How long will the course of therapy take?
This is dependent upon the issues found. At Children's Special Services, LLC, the usual length of therapy is one full school year and a summer to insure carry-over. Treatment is usually once a week for 50 minutes. Depending upon the school, many private schools allow Children's Special Services, LLC, to come into the school and provide services on site. Ask your therapist and school about this.
An occupational therapy evaluation assess through standardized tests and clinical evaluations the following:
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Visual Perception
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Visual tracking
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Hand skills inclusive of but not limited to dexterity and manipulation Handwriting Bimanual functions: such as cutting, catching a ball, etc.
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Strength and range of motion
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Balance
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Body Image
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Task Skills
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Self-cares
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Sensory motor developmental abilities
Explanation of standardized tests
The ETCH is a standardized test of handwriting performance evaluating legibility size, formation, writing line awareness, spacing and sequencing. A score of 95% is considered fluid writing. Inclusive in the test samples are near and far point copy skills as well as dictation and number writing.
The functional neuro-assessment tests how the child approaches, executes and completes specific developmental tasks. The functional assessment of neuro-motor abilities tests the child's functional responses in play/game situations. It factors visual, sensory, motor and cognitive components of task.
The Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test is a test of fine motor-cognitive/organizational abilities as well as body image.
The PEER is a multi-task evaluation that combines neuro-developmental, behavioral and health components. It provides normative scored observations that help define developmental areas of concern. It evaluates developmental attainment, associated observation, neuro-maturation, as well as a tasks analysis of the input (visual, verbal, sequential, somesthic), storage (short-term memory ,experiential acquisition) and output (fine motor, motor sequence, verbal sequence and verbal expressive) functions.
The Visual Motor Inventory (VMI) is a standardized test that identifies significant difficulties that some children may have in integrating, or coordinating their perceptual and motor (finger and hand movement) abilities. Visual-motor integration is the degree to which visual perception and finger-hand movements are well coordinated.
The Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities tests the child in the three spheres of visual motor/perceptual development. It provides a psychometrically sound assessment of visual-motor, visual spatial, and fine motor skills. A score of 50 % with a standard score of 100 is considered within the average range.
The Handwriting Without Tears Evaluation, is criterion referenced test of paper pencil production that looks at habituated responses from memory and with a sample.
The Sensory modulation/regulation assessment looks at the sensory systems of tactile, visual, proprioceptive, vestibular, auditory, taste/oral, and olfactory observing both attentional and regulatory responses.
The OT "Play/ Sensory" Evaluation looks at task approach, language, and behavior in various novel motor tasks.
Sensory History is a standardized checklist formulated by Winnie Dunn, OTR for the purpose of determining which situations elicit overly alert behavioral responses. It covers auditory, visual, tactile, movement, body position, emotional/social, and activity level responses. It is scored as always, frequently, occasionally, seldom and never.
