Oakville Autism & Special Needs Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation Services Provided

Dr. Smith has worked as an IBI (intensive behavioural intervention) therapist for the past 10 years and was trained in IBI principals at Erinoak treatment centre. She also has experience working at the Muki Baum Children's Centre assessing and treating musculoskeletal ailments of the children who are behaviourally, mentally and physically challenged.

The following services are offered to special needs clients in our clinic:

• Passive or active exercise to maintain or increase range of motion • Active or resistive exercise to increase muscle strength • Casting and use of orthotics for positioning or functional activity • Modalities such as heat, cold, and Thumper (vibrating massage) to decrease pain, improve flexibility, and for sensory desensitization • Aerobic exercises to improve cardiovascular endurance • Sensitization to medical examinations using IBI principles to facilitate future encounters with other healthcare professionals • Collaboration with existing gross motor programs to help provide tools for building social/physical skills which can be implemented in home based IBI programs or in physical education programs in the school

Physical Rehabilitation

Developmental outcome is determined by the interaction between biological disorder and environmental factors. Physical rehabilitation sessions can be beneficial for individuals with physical, developmental or neurological disabilities and musculoskeletal problems. The main emphasis is on impairments of movement that leads to functional limitations.

Gross Motor Deficits in Children

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, meaning that most individuals with autism have delays, or differences in many areas, including gross and fine motor skills. Children on the spectrum may have low muscle tone, or have a tough time with coordination and participation in sports. These issues not only interfere with basic day-to-day functioning, but also with social and physical development.

For example, children with autism commonly have difficulty walking naturally, and may "toe-walk", stepping only on the front portion of their feet, rather than a normal relaxed walking pattern. This practice may lead to irregular muscle development in the calves.

Many autistic children may also lack awareness of where their bodies are in relation to their surroundings. Although some individuals with autism may have superior motor skills and balance despite a lack of body awareness, many children do become very accident-prone and tend to bump into objects.

Physical rehabilitation can help enhance your child’s gross motor development, emotional well-being, opportunities for sport and leisure, as well as independence in fine motor tasks such as dressing, and feeding.

Sensory Deficits in Children

Children with autism tend to have extreme reactions to sensory stimulation. Their senses may become hypersensitive (over-sensitive) or hyposensitive (under-sensitive). Hypersensitive children find themselves overloaded with even moderate levels of sensation, and work to block out sensory inputs such as light, sound and touch. Hyposensitive children, on the other hand, are not stimulated enough by normal sensory inputs and typically seek out extra stimulation. To illustrate, children who are hypersensitive to touch sensations may tantrum when they are touched, while hyposensitive children may crave and seek out strong hugs that provide deep pressure. Children with high pain tolerances may injure themselves quite significantly but carry on as though nothing has happened, while oversensitive children may find simple touches or textures to be intolerable.

Part of the issue autistic children have with fine motor activities is that they tend to interfere with their need to engage in stereotyped repetitive movements and self-stimulatory behaviours. Autistic children with hyposensitivities to sensory stimulation constantly feel under-stimulated, and engage in a variety of self-stimulation behaviours such as hand flapping or rocking just to help themselves feel more 'normal'. Likewise, hypersensitive children may engage in self-stimulation as a means of blocking out otherwise overwhelming environmental stimulation. In either case, autistic children find it aversive to be prevented from self-stimulating by the need to concentrate on tasks and are likely to resist efforts to motivate them to complete such tasks.

A physical activity program can lead to improvements of sensory deficits and the need for repetitive self-stimulatory behaviours.

Dr. Carole Smith has developed a special needs physical rehabilitation program now available at Wellness for the Body. For more information and to book your appointment please call 905.465.4595.

Common spellings:
autism | intensive behavioural intervention | IBI
ABA | physical rehabilitation | rehab | special needs