Play is an important part in the life of small children. In fact every child enjoys playing and its help them grow and develop mentally, emotionally and socially. Plus, play is also good for kids having mental disorders, particularly for those undergoing occupational therapies. This improves their quality of life and helps them live happily and normally. Read on to find out more.
Occupational Therapy in Children
Occupational therapy is a type of rehabilitation treatment to improve the motor skills, coordination and balance in kids facing challenges at home, society or school, so, finding it difficult to live a normal life.
An OT session mostly includes games and physical activities, language and speech therapies, gross and fine motor skills training and social training. This improves the child’s mental and physical health and helps him or her finish specific tasks within a given timeline.
Plus, kids also learn to control their feelings and emotions and use them effectively in the right contexts. Some improvements a child can expect after an occupational therapy include ability to cope with mental illnesses, overcome worries and fears and deal with changing environments nicely.
Benefits of Play in Children
Playing not only improves a child’s physical health but his or her mental health also. Apart from physical and mental growth, play helps a kid to learn new activities and things too. Plus, small children learn to talk to their friends and family members properly through play. Some of the benefits of play in small children include:
- Effective social interaction and communication
- Better motor skills and fine motor skills
- Improved sense of responsibility while playing
- Development of values such as fairness, respect and kindness
So, to ensure all these benefits for your child, consult a good occupational therapist from our team and he or she will take the best care of your child’s mental and physical health with a better life for the person in the long run.
4 Reasons Play is an Important Part of Occupational Therapy
Therapists usually consider play an important part of an occupational therapy. So, an occupational therapist generally uses play to ensure effective developmental results for the child.
Here are 4 reasons play must be an important part of every occupational therapy.
- To identify the child’s tangible defensiveness
When a child reacts to any sensitive touch, therapists usually call this condition tangible defensiveness. And occupational therapists achieve this thing in small kids through play. It happens when the body’s touch receptors can feel any pain, texture or temperature so that the child reacts or responds to that event or situation in the proper and expected way.
- To give the child proper exercise
Play is a very good form of exercise for small kids. In fact, occupational therapists use it to improve the child’s brain and motor skills considerably. Plus, it also entails various other benefits for the child including improved mental health, and immune system, better weight management and zero possibility of depression in him or her.
- To improve various skills in the child
An occupational therapist will generally use play to improve various skills in the child including his or her motor skills, cognitive skills and many other perceptual and developmental abilities.
Plus, an occupational therapy also aims at improving other skills in the child such as his or her memory, attention, critical thinking and learning abilities to name just a few.
Again, hand-eye coordination, locomotion, social interaction and speaking power are a few skills more that a therapist can improve in a child through play-based occupational therapy.
- To make the child feel special
Many therapists use play-based occupational therapy as a way to make the child feel special. The therapist mainly uses it as a reward for polite behaviour or if the child achieves something extraordinary.
In fact, play also motivates the child to finish certain assigned tasks within a given timeline and to behave in different situations in the proper and expected way. This inspires the kids more to maintain good and polite behaviour and use it later in many events and situations in order to make their parents or teachers happy.
Conclusion
So, these were the 4 reasons, play has become an important part of occupational therapy and will remain so for many years to come.
To use play effectively as a part of your child’s occupational therapy, consult one of our qualified therapists today and yield better results both for your kid’s mental as well as physical health.
Good Luck!