Frequently asked questions.

+ What is an Occupational Therapist?

Occupational Therapy is an allied health profession performed by Occupational Therapists with a Masters degree. Therapists have studied human development, sensory processing, anatomy, and neuroscience. Specialized schooling helps understand why a client may have difficulty with certain occupations.

+ How do I know if my child would benefit from OT?

Motor Skills and Sensory Processing difficulties may display behaviors that look disruptive in the classroom or at home, but can be improved from Occupational Therapy.

Here are some signs that your child may benefit from OT:

• Fine Motor skills (the small muscles in the hand): Your child may have difficulty with playing with age-appropriate toys, poor handwriting, difficulty with self feeding with utensils, poor hand-eye coordination.
• Gross Motor Skills (muscles used for bigger movements of the body): Your child may have skipped developmental milestones including rolling, sitting, crawling, walking, running, jumping, or climbing stairs. He or she may have difficulty with balance, tripping easily, trouble standing on one foot (depending on their age), or has difficulty with catching/kicking a ball.
• Attention: Your child may have difficulty following a lesson in class or to conversations, fidgety, or has difficulty remembering what was said to him or her.
• Hyperactivity: Impulsivity may be a barrier to participation in activities, difficulty with keeping their hands to themselves.
• Visual Scanning Problems: This may make reading difficult for your child, he or she may skip lines, or they may have trouble copying notes from the board, slow to find hidden objects in a picture or difficulty with word searches.
• Visual-Perceptual Problems: Difficulty with spacial judgement between their body to other things, may not notice details of an object, has difficulty with puzzles or copying shapes.
• Sensory Concerns: Extreme responses to sounds, movement, heights, touching or being touched, types of clothing, or food textures. This includes a strong desire to seek it or avoid it.
• Poor Body Awareness: Your child may seem “clumsy,” bumping into things often, may appear disheveled with clothing not adjusted properly, difficulty with knowing if food is on face or shirt.
• Feeding problems: Children with sensory issues may have difficulty with chewing or swallowing, holding food in their cheeks. Picky or messy eating is common. Difficulty with postural control for a seated position.
• Delayed Self Care Skills: Your child may have difficulty with age appropriate dressing, feeding, personal hygiene, or toileting.
• Poor Social Skills: Difficulty with making friends or keeping friends, poor play skills, may be seen as aggressive, low frustration tolerance, low self esteem, difficulty reading social cues or body language of their peers.

+ What is the process for my child to receive Occupational Therapy?

An Occupational Therapist will evaluate your child to see if they qualify for services. There will be a questionnaire and interview for the caregiver to complete, to better understand how the child performs at home and school if applicable. The evaluation might look like the OT is playing with your child, to engage them in specific skills. This will help the OT see their strengths, and what skills need improvement through Occupational Therapy. The evaluation grades their ability to grasp and manipulate toys, follow instruction, sensory needs and physical abilities. Once the therapist finishes the evaluation, and your child qualifies for services, a plan of care is created to improve the child’s ability to connect and better process their world. The plan of care includes goals for therapy, made with the caregiver or family support so that treatment is child specific to the family’s concerns and the child’s interests.

+ What is the difference between physical and occupational therapy?

Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy both work on your child’s developmental milestones, but the focus of the milestones are different. PT might work on your child’s mobility, strength, muscle development, balance, postural control, range of motion, coordination, and more sports related activities/skills. OT will improve the child’s ability to perform an occupation including play skills, self-care skills, and social communication. This includes fine motor skills (small muscles of the hand), sensory processing, regulation, attention to tasks, strengthening, visual-perception, motor planning, self help skills, coping skills, and coordination.

+ How is the family involved in treatment sessions?

Our therapy is provided in the home, our mission is to make the caregiver as involved in the plan of care in order to ensure the best carry over for future success. We understand our sessions are only a small percentage of the childs’ routine, so integrating good habits will improve behaviors for the long term.

+ Do you take my insurance?

SMPLY Therapy is out-of-network, but we will help you to get reimbursed as best as we can.

+ Is Occupational Therapy covered by insurance?

We are a private service and we do not participate with insurance plans at this time. However, families are likely to get coverage. Every insurance plan is different and may consider this service an out of network exception. Our company is able to create an invoice that includes the diagnostic and procedural codes, therapist license, NPI number, and tax ID number to be submitted to insurance companies. We can also assist by writing insurance letters to help with coverage, but it is your responsibility to find out what your plan requires.

Recommended questions to insurance companies include:

• What out-of-network coverage do I have if I use a provider that does not accept my insurance?
• Do I need to obtain prior authorization or a referral for Occupational Therapy Services?
• Can I apply OT sessions toward my deductible?
• Once my deductible is met, will my OT sessions be fully covered?
• What type of notes will need to be provided?

If you have any other questions, please call us and we are happy to assist in any way we can.

+ What skills do you assess?

Depending on the age of your child we look at fine motor skills, gross motor skills, attention, visual scanning, visual perception, sensory processing, body awareness, self care tasks, and social connection.

+ What is your rate?

Please call or send us a message on our site, we are happy to speak to you about our competitive rates.

+ How long is each session?

The sessions may be 30, 45, or 60 minutes. The Occupational Therapist will be able to determine the treatment time post-evaluation.