mental health intervention

Using Sensory Strategies to Improve Behavior

Sensory strategies have a significant impact on the behavior of children and adolescents with developmental, mental health, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and sensory processing challenges. Deep pressure touch provided by pediatric occupational therapists through massage, brushing, weighted blankets, mat sandwiches and other sensory strategies are described as extremely positive experiences for children and adolescents with […]

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Light touch and Holding Interventions

Light touch and holding strategies promote body awareness and social-emotional skills in children and adolescents with behavioral challenges. Deep pressure touch is a more common therapeutic intervention. However, light touch and holding are valuable therapeutic options for promoting attention, body awareness and social-emotional skills. Body awareness, stress and somatic pain challenges negatively impact behavior in

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Role of school OT's, PT's, SLP's in Behavior Intervention

School Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapists play a significant role in improving student behavior. While traditionally viewed exclusively as the role of school social workers, psychologists, and behaviorists the complex problems of students with interrelated behavioral and developmental challenges can be helped by the contribution of school therapists.  The relationship between behavioral problems, the occupation of students, communication/language

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FAB Coping Card Strategy

The FAB Coping card gives clients, teachers and therapists a visual support strategy for achieving their goals. Based on Power Cards, coping cards use the child’s preferred interest to guide goal-directed behavior. Clients use an index card to depict their preferred interest, behavioral goal, coping strategies, and reinforcement schedule. Constructing and displaying the coping card

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Movement for Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the process of paying attention to what you are currently doing and feeling. Attention is a vital skill that is too often underemphasized, particularly when teaching young and developmentally challenged individuals. Movement strategies are useful for teaching mindfulness, self-control, and attention. Several useful movement strategies are listed below that can help young and developmentally challenged

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Movement Enhances Emotional Expression

Strategies combining movement with expressing feelings motivates students to improve their self-regulation skills. Movement activities that involve emotion expression are especially helpful for motivating students who have behavioral, developmental, trauma history and/or sensory processing challenges. Movement activities are fun and can easily be integrated into strategies to encourage the expression and understanding of feelings. A strategy

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Behavioral & Occupational Therapists Working Together

Combining sensory processing and behavioral strategies is useful for students with complex behavior, developmental and sensory processing challenges.  Integrating sensory processing and behavioral strategies is underutilized because of the theoretical rigidity of many behavioral and occupational therapists.  However, I was lucky enough to work with a behavioral therapist who respected occupational therapists, and by working

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Touch Intervention to Improve Child & Adolescent Behavior

Evidence based touch strategies are an important part of my occupational therapy interventions for children and adolescents with behavioral, psychiatric, developmental, and sensory processing challenges. Although touch is a component of typical attachment and development, many excellent mental health therapists do not include touch in their interventions with children and adolescents, and warned me against

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Sensory-Motor Strategies to Improve Self-Control

Sensory-motor strategies are often motivating for children and adolescents, providing therapists with a useful modality for improving self-control.  DBT www.linehaninstitute.org and CBT intervention http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/7/3/224.full can improve self-control in children and adolescents, but are often ineffective for youngsters who have significant cognitive deficits and/or a very limited attention span. Sensory-motor strategies offer a motivating and effective component

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Sensory Strategies in Adolescent Psychiatry

The FAB Sensory Match Strategy uses individualized sensory coping strategies and reinforcement to reduce self-injurious behaviors in adolescents with psychiatric challenges.  Effective treatment approaches for self-injurious behavior such as DBT, CBT, and ARC teach adolescents to use generalized coping strategies to replace self-injurious behaviors.  However, research reports that adolescent self-injurers have significantly increased sensory modulation

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