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Learning Vs. Living

Highlighting the differences between Cognitive Skills and Occupational Therapy.
Dec 1 / KoolMinds Online

You've probably heard the phrase, "You live, you learn." This phrase basically means living your life means learning from your experiences - the school of life, essentially. While living and learning obviously go hand in hand, there is a difference when it comes to therapies and interventions. 
In the world of interventions there can be a wealth of confusing information, to say the least.Luckily, the professionals of said world can steer you in the right direction as to what would be an appropriate approach to the challenges you are seeing on a daily basis with your child. 
Today we'll chat about the differences between KoolMinds Cognitive Skills program and Occupational Therapy. It's a question that pops up from time to time and the short answer is that our Cognitive Skills program focuses on building learning skills while Occupational Therapy focuses on building living skills. 

What is the Cognitive Skills Program?



Cognitive skills are the core skills that our brain uses to
pay attention, read, think, learn, remember, and reason. These skills can be weak for many reasons including brain injury, neurological disorders or mental illness but most commonly it is simply due to that part of the brain not developing properly in utero. We often see weak cognitive skills in people with ADHD. 

If you want to be stronger in a particular area, it's important to exercise that area, right? That's how it works for physical activity and it's the same for mental activity. The BrainWorks Cognitive Skills program helps develop 10 Key cognitive skills that are essential to learning. Through an integrative approach and interactive exercises the student stays engaged and is able to strengthen these skills. 

Improvements in reading, writing, memory, ability to focus, differentiating, processing and overall confidence are often a result of our program. 

  • Focus & Concentration
  • Tracking
  • Working Memory
  • Directional Orientation
  • Cross Patterning
  • Conceptualization
  • Processing Speed
  • Visual- Spatial Awareness
  • Figure Ground
  • Auditory Discrimination

The Logistics

Our program is 4-5 hours per week for 26 weeks. Sessions can be completed in a few different ways - in person with an instructor, some with an instructor and the remainder at home, or solely at home using our online platform. 

Students with the most success have parents or guardians who are involved in the process and practicing at home. This allows parents to see where their student is struggling, where their frustrations lie, witness breakthrough moments and experience the positive changes that result.  We often see a 2-3 year improvement in grade level after the program is completed. 

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To see some of the exercises in practice, view the demo video below:

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy is a bit of a different ballgame.

We're going to talk about Occupational Therapy (OT) for kids since that's who most of us are here for. Occupation equates to a person's everyday activities and for kids it looks pretty much like this... 

-eating meals
-brushing teeth
-dressing
-tying shoes
-climbing and playing on a jungle gym
-going to the bathroom
-taking a test at school
-playing with friends
-riding a bike

OT helps people who struggle to do everyday tasks because of poor motor skills. For kids, that includes tasks that are part of learning and functioning well at home and at school. OT works on the skills kids need to do the things they struggle with, from zipping their coat to writing and typing. The need for it could stem from injury or illness and is commonly needed for children with developmental delays. 

The Logistics

There are different needs and variables for each patient but typically a pediatric OT session lasts an hour and is held 1-2 times per week for about 12 months.  OT is performed by a licensed professional usually in a clinical therapeutic environment although online therapy is becoming a more popular option for many. Dedication from family is also a big component so that skills are being developed in the home setting as well. There will often be suggestions or "homework" to complete between sessions for the therapy to be most effective. 

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Is this a complete list? Absolutely not, but you get the idea. 
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Where to Start

Your first step is to really delve into what your concerns are. Are you more concerned with the day to day ability to complete lifestyle tasks? Or is your concern more on how your child is learning and retaining information? The ability to focus? The love (or lack thereof) of learning? 
It's always a good idea to speak to your pediatrician about your concerns because they can provide a full assessment and make recommendations. That being said, many pediatricians are simply unaware programs like ours exist so while they can make informed recommendations be aware they don't know about every option available. If they don't know about it they can't recommend it, right? 

Be an advocate for your child. There are many battles they will need to face on their own but this isn't one of them. They need you to ask questions, look for solutions, commit to the time and financial aspects and move forward to provide them all the help that is available. 


For more resources on Occupational Therapy, visit: 

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Interested in learning more about our Cognitive Program?

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Cognitive Skills Program

BrainWorks Cognitive Skills Program

At-Home Program

At-Home Program

Licensing

Licensing