Occupational and physical therapy services for internationally adopted children
By: Barbara Elleman, MHS, OTR/L
The Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy at Cincinnati Children's is proud to partner with the International Adoption Center to provide comprehensive services to help your child achieve his full potential. During the IAC post adoption clinic visits, occupational therapists — experienced and trained in the unique needs of internationally adopted children — will evaluate your child's specific developmental skills, identify his individualized areas of growth and make recommendations for home program activities, early intervention services or additional therapy evaluations and intervention, if necessary.
Internationally adopted children will occasionally benefit from additional comprehensive occupational or physical therapy evaluation and programming to address identified concerns in: gross motor skills (i.e. sitting, crawling, walking, jumping, kicking, running); fine motor skills (i.e. use of hands for drawing, cutting, writing, grasping, constructing); daily living skills (i.e. self-dressing, self feeding, grooming, self care); sensory processing abilities (i.e. oversensitivity or undersensitvity to touch,movement, light and sound); feeding and oral motor abilities; and orthopedic needs or rehabilitative needs due to a specific diagnosis or condition.
In addition, one of our IAC therapists, Kari Hufnagel, offers infant massage instruction specifically for children adopted internationally to promote relaxation, adjustment and attachment.
During your post adoption visit, one of the IAC therapists will identify if your child would benefit from comprehensive outpatient services. If recommended, therapy sessions can take place at our main hospital location or at one of our many satellite locations throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.
All of our therapists are certified and/or licensed and have specialized training in pediatrics. All therapists attend additional training courses each year to further their specialized knowledge. The therapists at Cincinnati Children's share a heart-felt love of children and a strong desire to make a positive difference in their lives.
Our therapists believe strongly in the power of family encouragement and involvement.We encourage those close to the child to regularly attend therapy sessions. Instructing and educating the child and their family is as important as the therapy the child receives. It is the family that plays the most important role by following through with therapies at home on a daily basis.
The therapists in the Division of Occupational and Physical therapy are committed to helping internationally adopted children achieve their full potential. If you have questions related to the services provided, contact one of the IAC occupational therapists, Barbara Elleman or Kari Hufnagel, at 513-636-4651 or otpt@cchmc.org. Additional information about generalized services through the Division of Occupational and Physical therapy can be found at www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/alpha/o/otpt/.
