What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapists (OTs) work with persons throughout the lifespan including, infants, children, adolescents, adults and their families or caregivers to promote active participation in activities and occupations that are meaningful to them. Occupation refers to activities that support health, well-being and the development of an individual (AOTA, 2014). Karen Oberg, OTR/L, IAYT at Aspen Grove Therapy & Wellness Center works with individuals across the lifespan. To address the occupations of children, therapists attend to the skills of play, learning and social engagement while occupational therapy into adulthood may address anxiety, life skills, body mechanics and could include cooking, yoga, walking, leisure as avenues to address an individual’s unique needs. As primary health care providers, OTs also promote health and wellness as they implement a wide variety of supports in collaboration with families, communities, and other medical, educational, developmental, and rehabilitation specialists.

What Role Does the Family Play?

Parents, families and caregivers have a primary role in their child or family member’s development and care. The pediatric OT collaborates with the family to promote development and implement an individualized intervention program. Families are supported through coordination of services, advocacy, and assistance to enhance the development of their child

Occupational therapists use evidence-informed practice to address the following skills as part of an individual plan of care:

*Play skills

*Parent Coaching

*Attention and focus

*Sensory processing

*Emotional regulation

*Management of stress and anxiety

*Feeding, eating and oral-motor Skills

*Activities of Daily Living (ADLs including dressing, bathing, toileting, sleep hygiene, etc)

*Movement and mobility

*Strength and coordination

*Fine motor skills, including, but not limited to handwriting and scissor skills

*Social skills

*Motor planning

*Functional balance and mobility

*Visual motor integration and visual perceptual Skills

*Recreation, play and leisure

*Equipment design, fabrication, and fitting

*Tone management

*Assistive technology

*Posture, positioning, and lifting

*Orthotics

*Pain management

*Safety, health promotion, and prevention programs

As described by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), “Yoga therapy is the process of empowering individuals to progress toward improved health and well-being through the application of the teachings and practices of Yoga”. Karen Oberg is both an IAYT certified yoga therapist and an occupational therapist. Karen Oberg has been teaching yoga for over 20 years and incorporates it in her occupational therapy practice as well as sees adults and children specifically for yoga therapy. Please see her bio for more information.

Yoga Therapy can be completed individually or in small groups. Yoga therapy can address symptoms and underlying causes of many disease processes through the practice of breathing, meditation, movement and other practices of yoga.

Current Class Schedule

What is Feeding Therapy?

SLPs and OTs work together to help children who have difficulties eating through development of the following areas:

Motor planning: coordinating movements to suck, chew, swallow, and even breathe in order to safely consume a variety of solids and liquids

Structural: strengthening oral motor movements or providing compensatory strategies to reduce risk of aspiration or choking, such as appropriate utensils and positioning

Sensory processing: organizing sensory information during and after a meal including smells, sights, textures, body positioning, reflux/digestion

Mealtime routines: collaborating with families to improve mealtime behavior and acceptance of new foods

Eating and sharing a meal with others is a large social component in our culture. Yet, difficulties with eating can lead to health, learning, and social problems. At Aspen Grove Therapy and Wellness Center, Karen will collaborate with your other team members in order to provide individualized, evidence based therapy that aims to maximize your child’s quality of life through enjoyable mealtime experiences. Karen is currently working on her myofunctional therapy certiication to address airway challenges and how that impacts sleep and eating!

DIR/Floortime is a comprehensive approach to working with infants, children and their families with a variety of developmental challenges, including autism spectrum disorders. Specifically, Floortime looks at the individual’s Functional Emotional Level(s), the individual’s unique processing differences and being able to assist the individual in developing and creating relationships that will help the child move up the developmental ladder.

Unique to Floortime is the approach of following the child’s lead and meeting the child where he/she is at developmentally. It includes PLAY and learning how to join the child’s lead and pulling them into a shared world. Karen works with and coaches families to help them learn how to meet their child at their specific Functional Emotional Level, share their world, and to help them become empathetic, creative, logical and reflective individuals.

Karen Oberg is now offering online parent/caregiver coaching in Montana an West Virginia.