Children's Neonatal Occupational Therapy

Neonatal Occupational Therapists (OT) work with premature and high-risk infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Their goal is to support the baby’s development, comfort, and ability to interact with the world in a healthy way.

OTs support infants and their families by implementing developmental care appropriate to the gestational age of individual infants, by adjusting the environment, supporting positive interactions (such as skin-to-skin and cuddles), positional care, techniques to reduce infants pain/stress and teaching parents’ practical skills and techniques to care for their infant and promote healthy development across the sensory-motor systems.

Neonatal OTs help high-risk infants grow, develop, and feel secure, while guiding parents and the medical team to give the baby the best possible start.

OTs may support you and your family to:
• Understand your baby’s language or cues for feeding, stress and comfort
• Understand how to comfort your baby
• Experience bonding activities – like skin-to-skin holding
• Understand what your baby can see, hear, feel, taste and smell
• Understand you baby’s movement
• Provide support for feeding your baby whether you are breastfeeding or giving formula
• Touch, hold and handle your baby in a safe supportive ways
• Understand how your baby is developing
• Learn parenting techniques in the Neonatal Unit
• Understand the effects of the environment on your baby’s development
• Understand safe sleep recommendations
• Review developmental activities for home
• Access information and/or referrals to therapy resources in the community

For more information on how to access the service, resources to support you and your family, as well as useful links to other services; please explore the links below.