What We Treat
The coat still half on when everyone else is already outside. The fork abandoned for a fist. Small hands need the right practice in the right order, not more reminders. It starts with a comprehensive evaluation, one-on-one with a licensed occupational and physical therapist.
Sound Familiar?
Recognize two or more? That is worth a proper look.
Why It Happens
Fine motor skill means the fingers doing small, precise, separated work, and almost none of it starts in the fingers. It starts at the shoulder and the trunk. A hand can only be accurate if the arm behind it is steady, and the arm is only steady if the middle of the body is. Then the hand has to learn to split its jobs: thumb, index and middle finger do the moving while the last two fingers hold the base still. Some kids pick that up from climbing and carrying and messing about. Some kids have to be taught it.
There is a second half, and it is feeling. To do a button without looking, your kid has to sense how hard to squeeze and where the fingers are. When that feedback is fuzzy, the hand grips too tight, tires early and quits, which is why “try harder” and “practice more” so rarely change anything. A comprehensive initial evaluation sorts out which layer is short, the strength, the stability, the finger separation, or the feel, and the plan starts at that layer instead of the worksheet.
The Honest Truth
Nobody handed you a checklist. You just noticed that helping with the coat had turned into doing the coat. The parents who act on that quiet little observation are the ones whose kids get the practice back.
How It Works
Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like when the hard part is the buttons.
Starts at the evaluation
Pinpoint
What hurts is the morning: the buttons, the coat, the lunchbox that came home unopened. The comprehensive evaluation tells us why the hand is struggling, so we stop drilling the thing that was never the problem.
The early weeks
Prime
Core, shoulder and hand strength on the monkey bars and the climbing wall. A hand cannot be precise while the arm behind it is still busy holding itself up.
As the skills come online
Perform
Buttons, zippers, scissors, cutlery, the pencil. Here first, then at your kitchen table and in the classroom, until it happens without anybody hovering.
Carryover and discharge
Prevent
You get a home program and we collaborate directly with his school. Discharge planning starts once goals are being met with at least 80% accuracy, so there is a real finish line to walk toward.
Unlike other OT places planet sensory has lot of equipments that are really beneficial for kids. I been to many kids OT/PT places, never seen a big sensory play area like planet sensory. I see a lot of improvement in my son’s fine motor skills.
Sebin R.
Before: many kids OT/PT places, never a big sensory play area
After: a lot of improvement in his fine motor skills
Questions, Answered
Plenty of kids arrive at a skill late and are completely fine. The useful question is not when, it is whether the foundation underneath is there: shoulder and core stability, hand strength, and the ability to feel what the fingers are doing. If those are in place, time usually does the rest. If one of them is missing, time mostly buys more practice at the wrong thing. A comprehensive initial evaluation answers that in one visit instead of another school year.
Worksheets test a skill. They rarely build one. If the shoulder is unstable or the fingers cannot separate their jobs yet, more repetitions on paper mostly add frustration and teach a workaround that is harder to undo later. We work the layer that is actually short, usually strength and stability first, then the hand, then the real task. After that you get a home program designed to fit a normal evening, not to become a second round of homework.
It looks like play, and that is on purpose. Fine motor work happens through climbing, pulling, building, cutting and games in a 2,100 square foot sensory gym, because a kid who is enjoying herself gets many times the repetitions of a kid being made to sit and practice. The goals underneath are specific and they are measured. You just will not hear them called that, and you can watch the whole thing on the live feed from the waiting area.
School services exist to help a child access their education, and they are often delivered in a group. Here your daughter is one-on-one with a licensed occupational and physical therapist, working on goals that include the ones that live at home: the coat, the cutlery, the lunchbox nobody at school sees. We collaborate directly with her school, so the two are complementary rather than a repeat of one another.
We are an out-of-network provider, and we submit claims on your behalf when your plan has out-of-network benefits. Self-pay rates are $360 for the comprehensive initial evaluation, then $90 for 30 minutes, $135 for 45 minutes, and $180 for 60 minutes. An 8-session package is 10% off and a 12-session package is 15% off. We accept credit cards, cash, checks, FSA and HSA, and if benefits run out, care continues on private pay with a payment plan.
Book Your Visit
Tell us what you’re noticing at home. A real person calls you back to set up the comprehensive evaluation. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’
5.0 · 28 Google reviews
Ages 2 to 16, individual and group
Step 1 of 5
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to set up the evaluation and answer whatever you didn’t get to ask.
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