All rights reserved. Copy right 2008.
Programs
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY PROGRAMS
What is Handwriting Without Tears?
The developmentally based, flexible, and engaging Handwriting Without Tears™ program is an easy and
effective way for children to develop good handwriting skills. It has been used successfully by more than 10
million children. Combine that with enthusiastic therapists with extensive knowledge in all aspects of
handwriting, and you have a winning combination.

Handwriting Without Tears™ uses fun, entertaining, and educationally sound instructional methods to
teach handwriting to all students.  The intuitive workbooks, engaging hands-on materials, and lively music
inspire active learning. Handwriting Without Tears™ is a proven success in making legible and fluent
handwriting an easy and automatic skill for all students.

Therapy Tree is pleased to provide the Handwriting Without Tears™ program in groups or as part of our
occupational therapy individual sessions. Groups are run by our occupational therapy staff and typically
include 2-5 students. Children are placed in our groups as determined by age and writing level. Groups are
available for children with special needs as well as typical children.
www.hwtears.com

What is Sensory Integration?
All day, every day, we receive information from our senses:  touch, hearing, sight, taste, smell, body
position, movement and balance. Our brains must organize this information so that we can successfully
function in all aspects of daily life:  at home, at school, at play, at work, and during social interactions.

The Senses
  • Touch: The tactile system provides information about the shape, size, and texture of objects. This
    information helps us to understand our surroundings, manipulate objects, and use tools proficiently.
    When you put your hand in your pocket and select a quarter from an assortment of change, you are
    using tactile discrimination.
  • Hearing:  We use our auditory system to identify the quality and directionality of sound. Our
    auditory sense tells us to turn our heads and look when we hear cars approaching. It also helps us to
    understand speech.
  • Sight:  Our visual system interprets what we see. It is critical to recognizing shapes, colors,
    letters, words, and numbers. It is also important in reading body language and other non-verbal cues
    during social interactions. Vision guides our movements, and we continually monitor our actions with
    our eyes in order to move safely and effectively.
  • Taste and Smell:  The gustatory and olfactory systems are closely linked. They allow us to enjoy
    tastes and smells of foods and cause us to react negatively to unpleasant or dangerous sensations.
  • Body Awareness:  Proprioception, or information from the muscles and joints, contributes to the
    understanding of body position. This system also tells us how much force is needed for a particular
    task, such as picking up a heavy object, throwing a ball, or using a tool correctly.
  • Movement and Balance:  Located in the inner ear, the vestibular system is the foundation for the
    development of balance reactions. It provides information about the position and movement of the
    head in relation to gravity and, therefore, about the speed and direction of movement. The
    vestibular system is also closely related to postural control. For example, when the brain receives a
    signal that the body is falling to the side, it, in turn, sends signals that activate muscle groups to
    maintain balance.


Integrating Information from the Senses
Considering all of the sensory modalities involved, it is truly amazing that one brain can organize all of the
information flooding in simultaneously and respond to the demands of the environment. The complex nature
of this interaction is illustrated in the following example:

Michael receives the instruction "Please put on your coat." In order to comply, he must
  • focus his attention on the speaker and hear what that person says;
  • screen out incoming information about other things going on around him;
  • see the coat and adequately make a plan for how to begin;
  • see the armholes and sense muscle and joint positions in order to put his arms into the openings;
  • feel, with touch awareness, that the coat is on his body correctly; and
  • use motor planning, touch awareness, and fine motor skills to zip or button the coat.

In order to accomplish this seemingly simple task, the nervous system must integrate (focus, screen, sort,
and respond to) sensory information from many different sources. Imagine the amount of sensory
integration needed to ride a bicycle, participate in a soccer game, or pay attention in an active classroom.
Individuals who have difficulties with all or part of this process face significant challenges when engaging
in daily functional activities.

Therapeutic Listening
Therapeutic Listening (TL) is an expansion of Sensory Integration. It is an auditory intervention that uses
the organized sound patterns inherent in music to impact all levels of the nervous system.  Auditory
information from Therapeutic Listening CDs provides direct input to both the vestibular and auditory
portions of the vestibulo-proprioceptive, core development, and breath activities so as to sustain grounding
and centering of the body and mind in space and time. Providing these postural, movement, and respiratory
activities as part of the TL program is critical.

Therapeutic Listening utilizes numerous CDs that vary in musical style, types of filtering, and level of
complexity. The music on Therapeutic Listening CDs is electronically altered to elicit the orienting
response which sets up the body for sustained attention and active listening.
www.vitallinks.net   www.sensory-processing-disorder.com
SPEECH THERAPY PROGRAMS

PROMPT
"Prompts for Restructuring Oral-Muscular Phonetic Targets" is a technique that uses
tactile-kinesthetic articulatory cues (PROMPTs) 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.