New clinic provides occupational therapy for kids

Moving through the room, 9-year-old Ana Leigh Thames is nearly unrecognizable from the girl pediatric occupational therapist Melanie Trotter met years ago.

“She’s transformed,” Ana Leigh’s mother, Amanda Thames, said.

Years earlier, as her baby daughter grew and developed, Thames worried.

While clearly intelligent, Ana Leigh wasn’t talking and shied away from physical touch. Instead of playing she dumped her toys out of their box and put them back in again over and over.

Thames knew something was wrong.

Told that it was something Ana Leigh would grow out of, Thames disagreed and kept looking for answers and discovered that Ana Leigh was autistic.

Alongside other changes, Thames started Ana Leigh on pediatric occupational therapy.

Pediatric occupational therapist Melanie Trotter initially began seeing Ana Leigh at a local clinic when she was about 4-years-old

Occupational therapists assist people of all ages with different activities like working, attending school or playing, according to the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc., website.

After working at a clinic that featured various types of therapies, Trotter said she and occupational therapy assistant Sean Campbell decided to open a center of their own focusing more exclusively on pediatric occupational therapy.

“We’re hoping to add speech therapy eventually,” Campbell said.

The pair set up their new business in November and have slowly been contracting with local schools and accepting clients.

Ana Leigh had been doing well without therapy for the past two years, but due to some recent regressions, Thames decided to bring her back.

Therapy takes many forms - from gently brushing children’s skin to help them overcome an aversion to touch to a listening program of modified music to stimulate and train the brain to swings to help children with balance issues.

Not all the children at Sensory Junction have severe issues.

Sitting on the floor with 4-year-old Rocky Martinez, Trotter quietly worked with him on buttoning buttons and zipping zippers with the aid of a colorful stuffed snake.

Pointing to a button on the snake Trotter asked him what it was and had him show her how to use it.

Since he isn’t starting school until next year, Rocky’s mother Tiffany Martinez said her pediatrician recommended they get Rocky some extra help until then.

“He’s kind of behind,” Martinez said.  

While they have two private clients so far in addition to their work with schools, Trotter said they saw a need for additional pediatric occupational therapy resources.

And the kids themselves seem to like it.

“It’s colorful and kind of pretty in here,” Ana Leigh said.

@OAhealth