Walter Chavez, MS OTR, bilingual in Spanish

Jennifer Palinkas-Chavez, MA LPC

Pediatric Occupational Therapy teaches the basic skills of life through the use of play and therapeutic activities. This allows your child to develop to their fullest potential and establishes a strong foundation of skills for growth and enrichment of their lives.               

We Provide Evaluation, Assessement, Treatment, Education and Collaboration in the development of interventions for:

• Handwriting
• Sensory Integration
• Fine Motor Skills
• Gross Motor Skills
• Motor Coordination and Planning
• Oral Motor
• Self-Help Skills
• Visual Perceptual Skill
• School Preparation

Children with various diagnoses including:

• Sensory Processing Disorder
• ADD/ADHD
• Autistic Spectrum Disorders
• Developmenal delays
• Gross, fine and visual-motor concerns
• Motor-planning & coordination issues
• Handwriting difficulties
• Self-regulation Issues

Treatment methods & protocols include:

• Play-based Sensory Integration Therapy
• Perceptual Enrichment Program (PEP)
• DIR / Floortime
• Therapeutic Listening
• Kawar Vestibular-Ocular Protocol (Astronaut Training)
• Therapressure Protocol (Wilbarger Brushing Protocol)
• Handwriting Without Tears
• Handwriting Camp
• School Readiness
• Parent Education

Assessments and Evaluations:

• Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (PDMS-2)
  The Peabody Developmental Motor Scales 2nd edition (PDMS-2) is a standardized assessment that evaluates gross and fine motor skills in children from birth through 6 years of age.  The gross motor scale consists of tasks that require precise large body muscle movement in 4 categories: reflexes, stationary, locomotion and object manipulation. The fine motor scale consists of tasks that require precise movements of the small muscles of the body in 2 categories: grasping and visual-motor integration.
  
• BOT-2: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency

  The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2) is individually administered test that uses engaging, goal-directed activities to measure a wide array of motor skills in individuals aged 4 through 21. The BOT-2 uses a subtest and composite structure that highlights motor performance in broad functional areas of stability, mobility strength, coordination, and object manipulation.

• The Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (BeeryVMI)
  The Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) is a developmental sequence of geometric forms to be copied with paper and pencil. The Beery VMI is designed to assess the extent to which individuals can integrate their visual and motor abilities (eye-hand coordination).
  
• Sensory Processing Measure (SPM)
  The Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) is an integrated system of rating scales that enables assessment of sensory processing issues, praxis, and social participation in elementary school-aged children.  The SPM is anchored in sensory integration theory. This theory proposes that the processing and integration of sensory inputs is a critical neurobehavioral process that strongly affects development. Difficulties at the level of sensory processing often contribute to impairment in higher level integrative functions, such as social participation and praxis (ability to plan and organize movement).
  

WOLD Sentence copying Test

• Used to determine if a child has the ability to rapidly and accurately copy a sentence from top to bottom of page. Also assists with observing:

• Working Distance

• Pencil Grip

• Writing Pressure

• Paper Support

• Posture

• Paper Rotation

• Head Tilt

• Sub vocalization

• Loss of Place

• The Print Tool

  The Print Tool assesses 7 areas (memory, orientation, placement, size, start, sequence, control) and spacing (optional).

  The following defines what each area means:
  Memory - Remembering and writing dictated letters
  Orientation - Facing letters in the correct directions
  Placement - Putting letters on the baseline
  Size - Writing too large for current grade
  Start - Where each letter begins
  Sequence - Order and stroke direction of the letter parts
  Control - Neatness and proportion of the letter parts
  Spacing - Amount of space left between letters in words and words in sentences

• Reflex Integration
  Primitive reflexes form the building block on which the brain develops higher-order thinking/processing skills, attention, speech and motor development. These hard-wired reflexes must become integrated into the higher levels of the brain in order for all the more sophisticated skills to develop adequately.
  
  Children with learning, attention, sensory and motor development delays frequently have not integrated these primitive thinking, feeling, and movement patterns into fully functioning areas of the cortex and neo-cortex. The greater the tested Abnormal response, the more important it will be to address the neurological reason that particular reflex is still active.
  

Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP's) are trained to evaluate and treat children and adults with a wide range of communication delays or disorders, including speech delays and disorders, expressive (verbal) and receptive (comprehension) language delays and disorders, and voice and fluency disorders. Speech-Language Pathologists also address other areas, including social/pragmatic language skills, play skills, oral motor skills, feeding, and swallowing.

Speech and Language Pathologists at Therapy Tree offer services to Provide Evaluation, Assessment, Treatment, Education and Collaboration in the Development of interventions for:

• Receptive and expressive language delays
• Pragmatic & Social Skills
• School-age articulation disorders
• Fluency / Stuttering disorders
• Articulation/Phonology
• Feeding and Swallowing Disorders
• Oral Motor Skills
• Auditory Processing

Assessments and Evaluations:

• Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-Second Edition (G-FTA-2)   
• Test of AUDITORY Processing Skills (TAPS-3)

Methods of Treatment Include:

PROMPT

"Prompts for Restructuring Oral-Muscular Phonetic Targets" (PROMPTs) is a technique that uses tactile-kinesthetic articulatory cues on the jaw, face and under the chin, to develop or restructure speech production. The PROMPT-trained speech-language pathologist helps to manually guide articulators to help the child produce specific sounds or words. The clinician uses his/her hands to cue and stimulate articulatory movement, and at the same time helps the child eliminate any unnecessary movements.

PROMPT addresses cognitive, social, pragmatic, behavioral, sensory-motor and physical domains, using the client's strengths to maximize his/her potential for communication. The PROMPT-trained clinician examines each individual to determine how to develop improved motor control, cognitive skills and social interactions. The ultimate goal of PROMPT therapy is improved functional, interactive, verbal communication.