During the first few months of life, children discover and practice new movements in preparation for exploring the world. They begin to develop the ability to move their mouths so that they can babble and say words during their first year. A child learns how to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing to nurse and/or drink from a bottle. A child’s nervous system starts the process and the child quickly learns how to move his mouth and how it feels to do so. The same is true for talking and moving parts of the body. Thus, a child’s motor and sensory centers begin to work together so that he can learn to drink, eat, move, and speak. What a marvelous feat!

However, for some children this process is more challenging. They may have difficulty planning and executing the motor act in order to progress from cooing to babbling extensively or crawling to walking independently. For other children, just tolerating all of the sensory input from touch, taste, smell, hearing, muscles and joints, and movement is overwhelming. This child often appears overly cautious, is sometimes labeled “quiet” or “shy,” and/or is described as a “late bloomer.” The child may not babble extensively, say words by one year, or physically move around as much to properly experience and enjoy his surroundings.

Conversely, a child may not interpret these sensations as well (e.g., a child who falls and doesn’t cry in response to pain) and may need a lot of movement or deep pressure to the muscles (e.g., bumping and crashing) to be able to meet developmental milestones of moving and talking in the first few years of life. This child may be described as overactive and may not be able organize himself to develop speech, language, and motor skills as expected.

At SPS, we help young children learn how do many things at once…. motor plan, move, understand/process sensory information, and communicate successfully with others. When appropriate, we treat the “whole child” by using a Speech-Language and Occupational Therapy co-treatment model. We have found that for many young children who need both Speech-Language and Occupational Therapy, this method is much more efficient and effective than an individual therapeutic model. Family education is more cohesive and we all participate in a truly integrated approach. By working together with you and your child, skill advancement and success occurs more quickly so that your child can develop and enjoy the world with ease.