1. Improve Fine Motor Skills
Your child will need specialized instruction to learn tasks many of us take for granted, such as holding a pencil or grasping small objects. One of the goals of occupational therapy for cerebral palsy is to help patients develop skills that will improve their quality of life. Fine motor skills are crucial to your child's educational success as well as his leisure activities and play time, so occupational therapists will direct considerable effort towards the development of these abilities.
2. Foster Better Hand-Eye Coordination
You'll probably find hand-eye coordination development next to fine motor skills on your child's occupational therapist's to-do list. Hand-eye coordination is extremely important for both leisure and educational tasks, covering everything from catching a ball to copying information off a chalkboard.
Your child's therapist will decide which skill set needs the most attention, based on the patient's specific needs and the severity of the condition your child has. However, since hand-eye coordination is a big problem for many cerebral palsy patients, you can use occupational therapy to help your child address and overcome these issues.
3. Manage Behavioral Problems
The occupational therapist your child is matched with may also deal with problematic behavioral tendencies, though you'll find these issues are usually treated with the assistance of a dedicated behavioral therapist. However, children with cerebral palsy tend to respond to constant reinforcement of lessons they've already learned. Your occupational therapist should be be well versed in ways to help manage the violent, aggressive and uncooperative behaviors seen in many children who are trying to cope with cerebral palsy.
4. Master Basic Tasks
Your child will also learn efficient ways to take care of basic self-care tasks, which she will need to become increasingly reliant upon as adulthood approaches. Cerebral palsy patients have trouble dressing, bathing and getting around to varying degrees. You can use occupational therapy to help your child achieve proficiency in these tasks, which is most easily accomplished if you remember the main objective of treatment: to help the patients use their strengths to overcome their weaknesses.
