Does your pre-school age child need OT?
Please complete this brief checklist if you have concerns in regards to your pre-school-age child's development.
Fine Motor
- Immature drawing skills
- Dislikes and avoids fine motor and tabletop activities
- Immature pencil grip
- Unable to write own name
- Poor scissor skills
- Generally poor performance at fine manipulative tasks
- Difficulty learning new fine motor tasks
- Tires easily when performing fine motor tasks, particularly pencil skills
Gross Motor
- Trips over a lot
- No sense of danger or scared of heights
- “Accident prone” – always bumping into things
- Appears floppy and awkward when performing movement activities
- Poor balance
- Problems learning new motor tasks (often dislikes outdoor activities)
Visual Perception
- Lacks concentration with visual tasks
- Difficulties with puzzles and block designs
- Difficulty with finding images in picture books
- Poor visual memory
Behavioural
- Poor self-esteem
- Poor concentration
- Disorganised
- Does not mix well with peers – often prefers playing with younger children
- Immature social behaviour
- Aggressive/shy and timid/disruptive behaviour at school
- Unable to sit for group activities or storytime
- Difficulty sitting still during structured activities
Self -Care
- Difficulties dressing self
- Cannot use appropriate utensils to feed self
- Messy eater
- Dependent on others to assist with self-care tasks at an age older than normal
- Slow to perform all self-care tasks
If you ticked some of the boxes above an Occupational Therapy Assessment is recommended as Occupational Therapy can assist the development of these skills. Bring a copy of this checklist to your assessment.
