Empowering Kids Pediatric Therapy

04/10/2026

Do you have a child who loves to tear paper? Let them! 🤣
Tearing paper actually has fine motor benefits. Check out this post from The OT Toolbox to see the MANY ways pinching and tearing paper can help strengthen and refine your child's fine motor skills.

📄 Tearing paper 📄
When a child tears a piece of paper, they improve hand strength and endurance in the small muscles in the hand. These intrinsic muscles are important in so many fine motor skills, including those important to handwriting and coloring, managing buttons and zippers, manipulating pegs, and more.
📄
Activities and tips to use just paper in building skills: https://www.theottoolbox.com/torn-paper-art-awesome-fine-motor/

04/08/2026

During April, we will be showcasing how Occupational Therapy can help children increase and fine tune their skills.

One way OT can help a child is with Motor Planning.

Motor planning is the problem solving, moving around spaces, and use of fine and gross motor skills to complete an action.

Some signs that a child may have difficulty with motor planning include:
*Taking small steps
*Moving at a slow speed
*Demonstrating weakness
*Pausing to think while attempting to complete certain movements
*Poor coordination
*Clumsiness
*Difficulty completing physical tasks

Have questions for us about your child? Reach out to Melissa at: Melissa@empoweringkidsspeech.com or send us a message here!

04/06/2026

April is Occupational Therapy Awareness Month!

We are sure grateful for our OT, Miss Patia! She helps families and the team to understand how all of the systems in the body work together to help kiddos to meet their goals!

Miss Patia especially enjoys working with children to improve their sensory processing skills. She enjoys working with kiddos who have coordination difficulties and loves to make challenging-and fun-obstacle courses for them!

This month, we will make a few posts about what OT helps children with. If you have questions for us, feel free to reach out!

04/05/2026

Wishing all our little bunnies a blessed Easter today!

04/02/2026

Today is World Autism Awareness Day!

Our clinicians have learned so much from our Autistic friends. So many of our kiddos share their pure joy, the biggest smiles, and the most loving hugs with us!

We appreciate our clients and their families allowing us to journey with them. They open our eyes to the struggles the face, the joys they experience and frustrations with systems that do not adequately consider people with autism.

Empowering Kids has a passion for children. We hope to continue to learn and grow personally, as well as assist families in our community to build the best life possible for those with autism. 💙

04/01/2026

ISO: used patio furniture or a picnic table 😎

With the warmer weather coming up, we are itching to be outside! We have some fun plans to allow all of our clients to safely work outside...stay tuned for that fun update!

For now, we are on the hunt for a generous soul to donate used outdoor furniture to us. This will allow us to hold some sessions outside-or allow our employees to comfortably enjoy some fresh air!

If you have something that still has some life left to it, we'd be so grateful to you! 😍

03/12/2026

Signs your child is having difficulty with Visual Tracking and Visual Processing. 👇

Our OT loves to help kids improve their visual tracking and processing skills.

If you have noticed that your child skips lines while reading, loses their place while reading, mixes up similar words or reverses letters, they may be benefit from OT!

Our OT will assess how the eyes are working together to move across a page and process visual information. We are here to help! Contact us if you have questions about your child's visual processing!

www.empoweringkidspediatrictherapy.com

Visual tracking plays a big role in reading, writing, and classroom learning. Yet, it’s one of those skills that often goes unnoticed until challenges appear.

When a child struggles with tracking, you might see red flags like losing their place when reading, skipping words or lines, mixing up similar words, reversing letters, or having trouble following written directions.

These difficulties are often tied to how the eyes work together to move across a page and process visual information.

👉 Learn more about visual tracking skills and how to support them here: https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-tracking/
👉 Discover activities to help improve tracking here: https://www.theottoolbox.com/visual-tracking-tips-and-tools-for/

03/08/2026

Happy International Women's Day!

Columbus is BLESSED with so many inspirational women! Empowering Kids Pediatric Therapy stands strong with women who support their community, their home, and who honor themselves. We are thankful to be a small part of the community of women working to continually better our beautiful community.

03/06/2026

Our Summer Therapy Waitlist is Open!

If your child is receiving services through the school system, we would love to help ensure that they keep their skills {and grow them more!} over the summer. Prevent the "summer slide" by continuing speech therapy or occupational therapy with us this summer!

Contact us today to get on our waitlist. We will begin to make our summer schedule after Spring Break!

www.empoweringkidspediatrictherapy.com

02/26/2026

Executive Functioning Toolbox comes through again with this great resource!
Self-Regulation is a tricky thing for a child to learn (and let's be honest...some adults are still working on this, too)! That's OK! Here are some great ideas for you to use to help your child become aware of how they are feeling and what they may need to help themselves in the moment.

02/18/2026

Why should you read to your child everyday?

Daily reading to children, even from birth, is considered by many the premier predictor of future academic and life success.

That's HUGE!

Reading to your child is crucial for brain development. It builds vocabulary, increases their cognitive skills and strengthens emotional bonds between you and your child.

Reading daily to your child can expose children to over 1 million more words by kindergarten compared to children who are not read to daily.

We know kids aren't always willing to sit and listen to stories-that's OK! Read to them even if they are playing nearby. They will still get the benefits!

02/16/2026

Happy President's Day!

We are open, as usual today! Here's a little President's Day Joke for you to share with your kiddos:

Q: What would you get if you crossed the first US president with an animated character?

A: George Washingtoon! 😂