This Occupational Therapy Clinic Uses Nature to Treat Kids’ Developmental Needs

Nearly 85% of brain development happens before a child’s third birthday. In fact, more than 1 million new neural connections from a child’s environment and experiences are formed every second in those first few years of life.However, in today’s tech driven world, current research has shown that because children are being exposed to increased technology and decreased outdoor play opportunities, there has been a rise in sensory and motor issues (such as a decreased attention span, reduced strength, poor posture, increased aggression and irritability, lack of coordination, impaired speech, trouble reading, and picky eating).This alarming research has inspired nature-based clinics like Lake Forest’s Infinity Kids to open up shop. This past June the unique boutique center opened to offer specialized therapies for infants to school-aged children -- specifically those with developmental delays, feeding and/or swallowing delays, language difficulties, Sensory Processing Disorder, Autism, and other genetic and neurological disorders.

Infinity Kids believes in a strong foundation beginning with a healthy nervous system which will lead to future successful learning.

They focus on a child’s eight senses and how these systems interact together in order for a child to think, move, comprehend, and interpret the world around them. When a child's sensory systems are working well, motor skills (sitting upright) can mature, perceptual skills can develop (eye-hand coordination), and higher-level language centers are formed. They believe it is of the utmost importance to recognize if a child is over or under-responsive to sensory experiences before school age as it is easier to address those areas at a young age.Infinity Kids’ two founders (or “OT-preneurs” as they like to call themselves) Amanda Fink and Tala Brinderson, are each young mothers who have their masters in Occupational Therapy and share a special bond and passion for helping others. They created Infinity Kids after they realized the great need to connect families with the proper information and services to support their child’s growth.The mission of Infinity Kids is to enable all children with and without a diagnosis to participate in their daily occupations to the best of their ability through outdoor play. They fulfill this goal through a multidisciplinary team that believes in looking at the whole of the child, using a family-centered approach. Working with pediatric therapists from different areas of expertise (occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, and marriage and family therapists) enables the two therapists to collaborate for the best benefit of each child.Their vision is stemmed from the belief that a child’s whole body should be treated as a system… not just the symptoms. Their team aims to be part of the solution while using a more balanced, integrative, and fun approach to pediatric therapy.