Occupational Therapy

• Seattle Children’s has the largest group of occupational therapists in the Pacific Northwest dedicated to working with infants, children, teens and young adults.
• We are a regional center for the treatment of infants through young adults who have trouble eating and swallowing.
• Our therapists have extensive experience evaluating and treating children who have problems using their muscles to eat, speak, draw or write (fine motor skills).
• In addition, we provide splints and other positioning devices to children throughout the region who need help to keep their bodies in correct alignment.

• Our occupational therapists see children with a wide range of conditions and abilities. We develop a plan of care made just for your child or teen and work closely with their doctors and surgeons at Seattle Children’s.
• To help your child get the most from their therapy, we create a fun, inviting and playful atmosphere, while also safely pushing them to overcome their current limits.
• As part of your child’s comprehensive evaluation, the occupational therapist will work with you and your child to set treatment goals. We offer brief courses of therapy — usually over a few months — aimed at very specific, short-term goals. Research shows this approach is the best way to get results for your child. As your child’s goals evolve, we may provide additional brief courses of therapy or refer you to occupational therapists in the community for ongoing care.

• We're advancing therapy for children.
• In 2016, we greatly expanded the rehabilitation therapy space at Seattle Children’s hospital campus. The new facility includes 4,000 square feet of indoor space, 1,500 square feet of outdoor space and equipment the right size for working with growing children.
• Our therapists offer specialized care that families typically cannot find in the community, such as feeding therapy, complete decongestive therapy for lymphedema, constraint-induced therapy to improve arm function and custom hand splinting.

We evaluate young people who range in age from newborns to 21 years old on their ability to take foods and liquids safely (oral motor skills). Based on your child’s unique needs, our occupational therapists recommend ways to make eating and swallowing safer and eating more successful. We provide training for children who: 

• Are reluctant or refuse to eat
• Cannot swallow due to safety concerns
• Are making the transition from getting nutrition through tubes or an intravenous (IV) line to eating

Some of the children we see have complex feeding concerns and receive care through the Pediatric Feeding Program at Seattle Children’s Autism Center.

Our occupational therapists work with your child to help build skills for daily activities, such as dressing, grooming, bathing and toileting. We help children learn these skills for the first time or relearn them after injury or illness. When appropriate, we use adaptive equipment and assess the physical spaces where your child spends time (ergonomic assessment) to help your child master these life skills.

Our occupational therapists evaluate your child’s fine motor skills and provide training to improve control of the muscles that make small movements, for example, during handwriting. Our therapists help your child work on dexterity, strength and function. When appropriate, we provide training in techniques that require the use of only one hand.

When children are weak or have limitations due to injury, illness or a period of not being able to move, our occupational therapists use stretching, strengthening and conditioning techniques to help children get stronger and improve range of motion. We also use casting and splinting to maximize function.

In some cases, splints or other equipment can help your child achieve or maintain a position that helps with function. Our occupational therapists are experienced in designing and making splints and equipment tailored to your child.

Our occupational therapists evaluate and treat the youngest patients – newborns to 1-year-olds – who are in the hospital or who visit our clinic as outpatients. We provide positioning equipment, developmental treatment, feeding therapy and training for parents.

CDT is used to manage swelling that occurs because of a problem in the lymph system (lymphedema). There are 4 parts to this therapy: 

• Skin care
• Manual lymph drainage
• Compression therapy
• Exercise 

Seattle Children’s has certified lymphedema therapists on our Occupational Therapy team and Physical Therapy team to provide CDT. They also teach you and your child to manage lymphedema at home. Read more.

CIT is a motor therapy program for children with limited motor function in one of their arms. The program provides intensive training of the arm with limited motor function. This is done while the nonaffected arm is in a long arm cast so your child cannot use that arm. Read more. (PDF)