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STAR Center is an active partner
and enthusiastic sponsor of the
Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation, the leader in SPD research, education and advocacy.
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Treatment Services
STAR Center treatment services include the following:
Occupational Therapy (OT) for Children
 The goal of OT is to enable children with SPD to accurately detect, regulate, interpret, and execute appropriate motor and behavioral responses to sensations so they are able to perform everyday "occupations" in a functional manner. For children, these occupations include playing with friends, enjoying school or work, completing daily routines such as eating, dressing, sleeping, and enjoying a typical family life.
Occupational therapists at STAR work with you and your child to understand how he or she perceives sensation and how those perceptions affect attention, emotions, motor skills, and learning abilities. During sensory-based OT sessions, the therapist and your child interact in a large occupational therapy room ("the OT gym") furnished with toys, nets, ropes, swings of many kinds, and other equipment that the OT uses to foster more appropriate responses to sensation in an active, meaningful, and fun way. Therapy sessions are FUN but subtly structured so that your child is challenged but always successful in completing each activity.
The emphasis of these sessions is on developing automatic and appropriate responses to sensation so that daily occupations can be successfully performed and social participation fostered. During each session, your occupational therapist serves as coach, educator, and role model in order that you may participate actively and learn strategies for home, school, and the community.
Occupational Therapy (OT) for Adults
A growing body of scientific research suggests that the human brain remains capable of change and adaptation into old age. What this means for adults and older children with SPD is that they, too, can benefit from intervention for their sensory challenges.
Effective services for adults and older adolescents include direct therapy, home programs, education, and/or accommodations.
In direct treatment, therapy is designed to improve sensory processing and decrease sensory symptoms. Specific sensory inputs such as tactile stimulation, movement, auditory input, and/or other sensory experiences are utilized to reduce the client's specific symptoms. Adults who have never before experienced heights, touch, or movement with comfort can become much more successful and happy during those activities.
Home programs can also be utilized, with or without regular direct treatment, to assist with reducing the negative symptoms associated with SPD. Education about SPD and the sensory systems can contribute to an individual developing insight into how sensory processing differences affect learning, relationships, and social participation. The understanding that results lays the foundation for developing accommodations to sensory-based differences and helping to reduce the negative impact of SPD on daily life.
Because brain plasticity diminishes through life, adults and older children may progress more slowly in treatment than young children, but improvement is achievable at any stage of life with effective therapeutic intervention.
Listening Therapy (LT)
The goal of listening therapy is to improve the neurophysiological foundation for integrating sensory input by using specific sound frequencies and patterns to stimulate the brain. LT, like OT, is based on the theory of neuroplasticity, which refers to brain changes that can occur as a result of experience.
Listening therapy offered at STAR Center builds upon the psychoacoustic techniques developed by Alfred Tomatis, M.D., in Europe and refined by Ron Minson, M.D., in the United States. The program incorporates 20 to 30 sessions each 50 to 80 minutes in length, depending on whether listening therapy is offered separately or combined with OT.
Sessions take place in a small individual therapy room with pleasant lighting and décor that produce a calm, peaceful environment. During therapy, specific sound frequencies and patterns are delivered via specially designed headphones that include vibration. Vibration stimulates the vestibular system to effect change. Clients being treated by LT alone may engage in creative projects supplied by STAR, bring their own pet projects or activities such as knitting, reading, scrapbooking, or simply relax in a comfortable chair while listening.
Combination Therapy
The purpose of combining occupational therapy (OT) with other therapies, such as listening therapy or speech-language therapy, is to create the most effective intervention possible in the swiftest time frame possible. For example, STAR Center has found that by combining OT with listening therapy, we essentially "jump start" the change process in the nervous system. By employing both therapies concurrently, we believe more effective stimulation takes place in several sensory systems simultaneously. These systems (the vestibular, cochlear, tactile, and proprioceptive) play key foundational roles in motor planning, language, learning, and auditory and visual processing, and contribute significantly to cognitive and emotional development.
The combination model broadens the therapeutic approach and enables STAR Center to help individuals with a wider variety of difficulties including ADHD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, learning difficulties, motor planning problems, Auditory Processing Disorder, and others.
Combined therapy is not always recommended. The decision to combine therapies always depends on the client's age, needs, and sensitivities.
Speech-Language Therapy
Many children with sensory challenges experience problems with speech and language development. To integrate the therapy programs these clients need, the STAR Center team includes a speech-language therapist with extensive experience in assessing and treating children. Her services include:
- speech-language assessment
- one-on-one speech-language therapy
- speech-language treatment combined with occupational therapy
In feeding assessment, the role of the speech-language pathologist is to evaluate oral-motor skills and swallow function and their role in feeding. Tongue, jaws, swallowing, and the roles those play in a child's ability to eat or not eat are evaluated.
Home and School Consultation
Home consultation provides a STAR Center occupational therapist to observe your child in his or her natural home environment in order gain a better understanding of at-home supports and challenges. During home consultation, we work with you to develop therapeutic activities and environmental adaptations that will provide increased support for your child at home. For example, sensory strategies for problematic mealtimes or ideas for creating an in-home sensory play room might be offered.
School consultation provides a STAR Center occupational therapist to observe your child in the school environment and consult with classroom teachers and other school officials regarding school performance. In collaboration with your child's teacher, the therapist explores opportunities for classroom adaptations and sensory activities throughout the day. Supportive strategies such as visual schedules, reward systems, and social stories to address your child's classroom needs are offered.
Psychosocial Services for Children, Teens, Adults, and Families
STAR Center's family-centered psychological services focus on practical education and skills for children, siblings, and parents living with Sensory Processing Disorder or other sensory challenges.
Services include:
- Assessment of social-emotional, cognitive, and/or achievement functioning
- Education addressing behavioral and/or psychological concerns
- Consultation with health-care providers, teachers, and caregivers
- Counseling for individuals, couples, and families
The goal of STAR psychological services is to build skills that enhance the development and emotional well-being of all the members that make up a family.
These skills include:
- Managing positive and negative behaviors in individuals with sensory challenges
- Balancing positive interactions between children with sensory issues and their caregivers
- Promoting well-being when "difficult" behaviors are exhibited
STAR Center's psychological services focus on teaching all family members skills for promoting sensory-focused self-regulation, emotional competence, problem-solving, and well-being.
For pricing information and payment options, click here.
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