Farmington, CT

Occupational Therapy

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Farmington, CT

Occupational Therapy

request Appointment

At our SIGHT Multispecialty Center in Farmington, we offer a range of occupational therapy services to help individuals lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Our team of licensed and certified occupational therapists is highly skilled in assessing an individual’s needs and creating personalized treatment plans to address them.

What is occupational therapy?

Occupational therapy (OT) is a form of healthcare that focuses on helping people with physical, emotional, and cognitive challenges to live more independent and fulfilling lives. Occupational therapy can help individuals of all ages, from infants to seniors, and can be particularly beneficial for those who have vision problems.

Occupational therapy assessment

Occupational therapy assessments are recommended when a child or adult experiences challenges in areas such as sensory processing, motor coordination, strength, social/emotional regulation, and/or cognition. The OT assessment is an essential component of creating a customized, goal-directed plan of care for each patient. It provides our team of specialists with crucial data regarding a patient’s strengths, skill level, and barriers to function. It also provides important observations and input from the patient and the patient’s support system.

By creating a comprehensive, patient-centered profile of our patients, the OT assessment forms the basis of a treatment plan to improve our patient’s ability to successfully participate in meaningful aspects of their lives.

An occupational therapy assessment may include standardized assessments and/or clinical observations as well as an interview with the patient or the patient’s support system. We may assess the following areas:

  • Muscle tone 
  • Strength 
  • Range of motion 
  • Core strength/stability 
  • Posture 
  • Fine and gross motor coordination 
  • Visual-motor skills 
  • Social/emotional regulation 
  • Sensory processing 
  • Reflex integration 
  • Bilateral motor coordination 
  • Motor planning 
  • Cognition/perception  
  • Impact of functional vision deficits 

Occupational therapy treatment

When viewing each patient, OT practitioners draw upon required coursework in the field, including anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, neurology, human development, psychology, activity analysis, and clinical reasoning. An evidence-based practice deeply rooted in science, OT uses a holistic approach focusing on:

  • Health promotion
  • Prevention
  • Acquisition of new skills
  • Regaining previous skills lost through injury, illness, or disability
  • Maintenance or attainment of independence
  • Provision of support and adaptations due to physical or cognitive changes

Occupational therapy services typically include an individualized evaluation, customized intervention to reach patient-prioritized goals, and an outcomes evaluation to ensure goal attainment or to make changes to the intervention plan.

Occupational therapy specialists in Farmington, CT

At our SIGHT Farmington Multispecialty Center, our occupational therapy team has advanced training in assessing and treating the critical underlying areas of development that are directly linked to higher-level skills such as academic learning, appropriate social participation, and activities of daily living.

Working closely with specialists within the areas of optometry, vision therapy, and mind/body therapies, our occupational therapists can continuously collaborate on best practices for improving each patient’s quality of life.

Working from a sensory-integration frame of reference and tapping into the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections (neuroplasticity), our therapists utilize a variety of modalities and treatment techniques to improve sensory processing to optimize sensory regulation.

We help you to understand how a well-regulated sensory system made up of various components of processing contributes to important outcomes in social-emotional, physical and motor, communication, self-care, cognitive, and adaptive skill development and maintenance.

Occupational therapy FAQs 

Below are answers to some of the most common questions about our services. If you have a question that isn’t answered, we’d love to hear from you. Please call us at (860) 231.8491 so that a member of our staff can provide a personalized response. 

Can my child have an occupational therapy assessment if he/she is not a current patient of SIGHT?

Absolutely! We welcome new occupational therapy patients and are happy to assess their functional components of daily living and sensory integration.

What if my child is already receiving occupational therapy services at school?

Wonderful! We are happy to consult with the occupational therapy provider at your child’s school in order to create a collaborative bridge between school-based services and clinic-based services. It is important to understand that school-based occupational therapy services are only provided in areas that may be impacting the child academically. Clinic-based OT services provide interventions that address a child’s challenges in a variety of environments including home, school, and/or the community.

What is the format for occupational therapy sessions?

We offer private and group occupational therapy sessions with individually-designed treatment plans. Together, we will determine which format is most appropriate for your needs.

Is the occupational therapy assessment covered by insurance?

The occupational therapy assessment is typically covered under a patient’s medical insurance plan. We are in-network with most medical insurance plans and out-of-network for all other plans.

Is occupational therapy covered by insurance?

Insurance coverage for occupational therapy varies by insurance, individual plans, and diagnosis code. Some insurances cover occupational therapy and some do not. Some cover occupational therapy but exclude it from an individual’s plan, and some only cover occupational therapy if a patient has a specific diagnosis code that can only be used with a specific procedure code. We are in-network with plans that consistently provide our patients coverage for OT and out-of-network for all other plans.

If I don’t have insurance coverage, can I pay per visit? Do you offer package discounts?

Patients that utilize their insurance benefits are billed per visit with their diagnosis and procedure code based on the results of their occupational therapy assessment, following insurance guidelines and rules. Our self-pay patients have the option of paying per session or can receive a discount on pre-paid packages. We also participate with CareCredit.

How many occupational therapy treatment sessions are needed for a patient?

Patients will receive an estimated number of occupational therapy sessions at their initial evaluation. The number of sessions depends on the total number of patient goals and the patient’s response to treatment. We have found success with a patient-centered model. Our focused approach sets specific goals per every 10-12 OT sessions. This helps our patients build upon the success of each system while providing more manageable treatment, helping the patient to feel less overwhelmed.

How do occupational therapy and vision therapy coincide in your clinic?

As the only clinic in the area integrating the fields of occupational therapy and vision therapy, we proudly stand behind our mission of improving every patient’s quality of life. As part of our mission of seeing the whole patient, we gather all of the necessary information needed to develop a comprehensive plan of care. Through our intake and assessment process, we can begin to identify all of the components that are linked to all areas of affected function. Many providers underestimate the importance of visual function and its integration into other sensory systems. Our integrated center provides patients with access to providers that specialize in both visual function and sensory integration.

Are all vision therapy patients recommended occupational therapy services?

No, patients that are referred to our office for vision therapy may also receive an occupational therapy assessment and potential intervention. This is recommended when our team detects underlying or associated areas of development and function impacting a patient’s quality of life. Many times those underlying or associated deficit areas act as barriers to achieving optimal visual function.

Occupational therapy services at our clinic may be delivered either prior to a recommended course of vision therapy or in conjunction with vision therapy services, depending on each individual’s needs. When provided prior to the onset of vision therapy services, our OT services serve to build a stronger foundation for visual function by priming the sensory-motor pathways to improve core stability, reflex integration, diaphragmatic breathing, and visual-vestibular integration.

When provided in conjunction with vision therapy services, our OT services help to support a patient in maximizing function in meaningful activities of daily living as visual function is improving.