Home › Occupational therapy
For babies, kids & teens
Occupational therapy builds the skills kids need for play, self-care, and learning — things like holding a pencil, staying calm, getting dressed, and eating a meal.
You don’t need a diagnosis to call.
In plain words
Occupational therapy — OT for short — helps kids do the everyday things they need and want to do. For a child, those “jobs” are playing, eating, getting dressed, writing, and keeping up at school. When one of them is hard, OT works on the skills underneath it.
A session is one-on-one with a licensed occupational therapist, and most of it looks like play. Your child might swing, climb, dig through a bin of beans, or build something. Each activity is picked on purpose, for the skill they’re working on that day.
We’ve done this in Wilmington since 2001. We see babies through teens — in our clinic, at your home, or at their childcare, preschool, or private school.
What we help with
Most kids we see need help in one or two of these. After the evaluation, your therapist will tell you which ones, and why.
Small-muscle skills, like holding a pencil, using scissors, and managing buttons and zippers. Big-muscle skills, like running, climbing, throwing, and balancing.
We also help kids who seem clumsy, tire quickly, or whose handwriting is slow and hard to read.
Some kids take in sound, touch, and movement differently than other kids do. That’s called sensory processing. It can look like meltdowns over clothing tags, haircuts, noise, or messy hands — or a child who never seems to stop moving.
Self-regulation means noticing how your body feels and settling it down. We practice that with your child, and we show you what helps at home.
Very picky eating, gagging, trouble chewing, or a list of “safe” foods that keeps getting shorter.
We work on oral motor skills too — how the lips, jaw, and tongue move to handle food. We go at your child’s pace, and nobody is forced to eat anything in a session.
Getting dressed, brushing teeth, packing a bag, and getting through a morning without a battle.
We also work on visual processing — how the brain makes sense of what the eyes see — and on keeping track of classwork.
Signs it might help
None of these mean something is wrong. They’re just the things families tell us about when they call.
You don’t need a diagnosis to call.
Some kids already have a diagnosis when they come to us. Plenty don’t. We often work with children who have:
Training
Our occupational therapists have training in each of these. Which ones your child sees, if any, depends on what the evaluation shows.
A step-by-step way to help picky and resistant eaters get comfortable with new foods.
Music-based sessions, used alongside movement activities, for sensory and attention needs.
Teaches kids to notice and change how “revved up” or sluggish they feel.
Balance, vision, and movement activities.
A computer-based program for timing, attention, and motor planning — the planning your body does before it moves.
Hands-on exercises for the lips, cheeks, jaw, and tongue, used for feeding and drooling.
A handwriting curriculum. [now called Learning Without Tears — confirm which name to use]
Where therapy happens
A sensory gym with swings, climbing, and quiet rooms on Capital Drive, plus tables for handwriting and feeding work.
Dressing, mealtimes, and calming down are home problems. For babies and toddlers especially, it helps to work on them where they happen.
We work with children at preschools and private schools, so therapy fits into the school day instead of adding one more trip.
Common questions
No age is too young. We work with babies, toddlers, kids, and teens. With a baby or toddler, therapy usually looks like play on the floor — often at home, with you right there.
A doctor’s order is required for services billed through insurance. You don’t need one to call us, though — ring us first and we’ll tell you exactly what to ask your child’s doctor for. You don’t need a diagnosis either.
We accept most major insurance plans. Call and we'll verify your child's benefits before the first visit.
It depends on your child. After the evaluation, your therapist goes over what they found and how often they’d like to see your child. You’ll always know the plan, and we go back over it with you as your child changes.
Yes. Our occupational therapists and speech therapists work down the hall from each other and plan together, so you’re not sent across town for the second one. Read about speech therapy.
In our clinic on Capital Drive, at your home, or at your child’s childcare, preschool, or private school. We pick the place where your child does best.
Ready when you are
Call 910-313-2111 and talk it through with a real person. You can ask a question without committing to anything, and we’ll check your insurance for you.
We accept most major insurance plans. Call and we'll verify your child's benefits before the first visit.