Sensory Area
The sensory area of the brain is involved in regulating the sensory feedback that your child receives from the world around them. Without this integration of touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste, it becomes difficult to navigate and complete the everyday tasks that are required of young children (such as writing, getting dressed, and playing). Some examples of sensory damage that an occupational therapist can provide treatment for include:
- Overly sensitive to smells/ unable to smell
- Finds clothes sharp or uncomfortable
- Struggles to identify differences in temperature
- Regulating sensory feedback from body parts
- Loss of sensation
- Trouble getting dressed, tying shoe laces, or other fiddly activities
- Finds loud noises over-whelming/ too distracting
- Is under-stimulated by sensory input (feels the need to spin/ overload sensory system as a calming method)
Cognitive Area
The cognitive area of the brain relates to the area involved in completing complex thought processes, such as planning, problem solving, memory and concentration. Damages to the cognitive area have great effects on function at school and at home. Some examples of difficulties an occupational therapist can help with include:
- Struggles to concentrate
- Easily distracted
- Poor problem-solving skills
- Emotional imbalance
- Frequently gets upset, or acts out in new or challenging situations
- Struggles to be creative and imaginative
- Difficulty knowing what to do next in tasks
- Struggles to remember and retain information
Motor function, coordination and balance area
The area of the brain responsible for smooth and continuous movement, good balance, posture, and coordination may be damaged following acquired brain injury. Damage to the motor function area of the brain can have profound effects on a child’s ability to complete a wide range of activities, some difficulties include:
- Poor posture
- Difficulty Co-ordinating movements
- Struggles to catch or throw a ball
- Jerky/unwanted movements
- Poor handwriting
- High or low muscle tone
- Poor balance
- Difficulty balancing on one leg/ across a beam
Visual Area
The visual area of the brain is responsible for seeing and interpreting the world around us. Vision is used in most tasks that we complete on a daily basis; any damage to this area can have detrimental effects to a child’s learning and development. An occupational therapist can provide effective management and treatment to improve function following visual impairment. Some examples of how visual impairment affect function:
- Unable to distinguish the difference between 2D and 3D shapes
- Poor form recognition (square or circle, short or long)
- Finds it difficult to pick out information from a crowded page
- Interpreting images
- Poor hand-eye co-ordination
- Poor handwriting
How can these difficulties impact on function?
These lists below are not exclusive but are used rather to provide you with some examples and a guide to understand why your child is behaving the way they are.
Home:
- Difficulty getting dressed
- Dislikes playing with construction based toys
- Difficulty problem solving
- Movement difficulties
- Bumps into objects
- Frequent falls
- Becomes distracted easily
- Struggles to play sports
School:
- Poor handwriting
- Academically behind other classmates
- Finds the sensory feedback from classroom environments overwhelming
- Poor posture at school
- Difficulty completing P.E or sport activities
- Poor concentration
- Difficulty making friends
- Often angers easily
Prevalence:
Every year 200,000 children have an acquired brain injury, and account for nearly a third of the people who attend accident and emergency in a year.
Treatment available for acquired brain injury
Occupational therapy can help overcome the difficulties children face following an acquired brain injury; some of the treatments we offer are listed below:
- Sensory Integration
- Adaptive equipment
- Fine motor Improvement therapy
- Concentration and Memory improvement therapy
- Gross Motor activity training
- Handwriting improvement therapy
- Confidence Improvement therapy
- Group therapy
- Home visits
- School Visits
- Hydrotherapy
Occupational therapists aim to improve the functional capabilities of your child, through an integrated and evidenced approach, the therapist can work together with you in ensuring your child improves and develops their skills.
Summary
In summary acquired brain Injury or trauma can have profound effects on the development of function for a child, and can often take months or years to show. Acquired brain injury tends to affect four main areas, cognition, motor function, sensory function and vision. An occupational therapist can provide treatment and assessment aimed at improving the function of your child.