Developmental Therapy
What is Developmental Therapy?
A specialized, play-based approach to foster children's ability to expand their skills across cognitive, language, social-emotional, motor, and self-help domains to help them reach their fullest potential.
Role of Developmental Therapists
Holistic assessment: document strengths & areas needing growth across domains.
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Play-based interventions: implement meaningful, child-led, natural-context activities.
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Family involvement: provide information, feedback and tools that improve daily routines, empower independence and support advocacy.
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Team collaboration: coordinate with stakeholders who include anyone invested or impacted by the services including the client's caregivers, educators & allied therapists.
When is Therapy Helpful
Therapy services may be beneficial to your child if you have noticed a delay in their age appropriate milestones or if your child has been given a diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down syndrome, or other developmental delays.
Requesting an Assessment
To discuss your concerns and request an assessment, you should contact your child's pediatrician for a referral or you can contact your local regional center directly. The Regional Center that covers our agency's territory is Valley Mountain Regional Center (VMRC).
Developmental Domains
FINE
MOTOR
Grasp, bilateral coordination, tool use, pre-writing, self-care tasks.
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GROSS
MOTOR
Balance, posture, core strength, coordination, safe participation.
SOCIAL
EMOTIONAL
Co-regulation, coping tools, flexible thinking, relationships through play.
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ADAPTIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Feeding, dressing, sleep, toileting, transitions, community participation.
COGNITIVE
Attention, memory, problem-solving, following directions, early concepts.
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LANGUAGE
COMMUNICATION
Babbling, gestures, understanding words (receptive), talking/signing (expressive) then forming and building sentences.
APPROACHES TO
LEARNING
Attention, task-focus, curiosity, persistence, and creativity.
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AGES &
STAGES
Infants (0–12 months)
Toddlers (1–3 years)
Preschool (3–5 years)
Early School Age (5–8+ years)