Daily skills and senses
Parent guide
Occupational therapy / OT (help with daily skills like eating, dressing, and writing) is not a “job class”. Sensory means how the body feels sound, touch, and movement.
What is occupational therapy (OT)?
OT helps children with the work of childhood: play, school work, eating, dressing, and calming the body. It is not about getting a job.
Sensory means how the body feels sound, touch, clothes, and movement. Some children find the world too loud or too itchy. Some crash into sofas to feel their body. This is common in autism and ADHD.
What can sessions work on?
- Holding a pencil and getting ready to write
- Using a spoon, buttons, and a school bag
- Coping with sound, touch, and crowds, slowly, at the child’s pace
OT and speech therapy often work together when talking and daily skills are both hard.
Questions we hear in clinic
Is a “sensory diet” a food diet?
No. It means planned movement and touch/sound activities in the day, not food.
Does every autistic child need OT?
No. If dressing, eating, writing, or noise/touch make life very hard, an OT check is useful.
Guides in this topic
- When the world feels too loud or too itchy: Sensory (how the body feels sound, touch, and movement) problems can look like “bad behaviour”.
- Daily-skill therapy for autistic children: OT (help with daily skills) is the practical layer: body, clothes, food, and school sitting.
