For the last 20 years, Kids’ Therapy Place, founded by sisters Alyssa Colton and Aviva Lipner, has been providing premier occupational therapy (OT) services for hundreds of children in the tristate area.
Kids’ Therapy Place is not your average OT practice. What sets it apart from other practices is its goal to make the practice feel like home, to make the children, their parents and grandparents feel like family, and to make sure that the kids are having fun and love coming to therapy. “We run our practice very differently from other OT practices because we place a premium on the value of family involvement,” said Alyssa. “That way, the children will be active partners in the therapy if they see it as play and it’s on us to make sure that they are working hard without realizing it. As we mark our 20-year milestone, I think that is something that all of our families have felt.
“Through these relationships with our families, we are able to demystify and explain OT and the therapeutic process. Our parents are investing time, energy and money and we want to make sure that they have a clear understanding of how the therapy is helping their child. This team effort of supporting our parents and working together only enhances and maximizes their child’s experience in therapy,” Alyssa added.
She continued, “Many of the children that come to us have different kinds of difficulties with emotional regulation, especially post-COVID, and because we have these relationships with the families, we are able to address a lot of emotional issues. We really get to know the kids and are able to effectively address many emotional issues through our sessions and also through guiding our parents through different parental issues and effective coping mechanisms for the parents.”
To celebrate Kids’ Therapy Place’s monumental milestone, it has added a new multisensory experience room. “It is a sensory experience focusing on sights, sounds and touch, and set up as a calming and organizing environment for our children to help them regulate and center themselves,” said Aviva.
The room also has a giant pit that is filled with rice where children can sit and play, along with a projector that projects different scenes on the wall, including an underwater scene with jellyfish and dolphins that circles very calmly around the room, while soft music plays in the background. There is also a little tent in the room with all kinds of light up toys and different tactile experiences, providing an ideal opportunity for a child to be in a very calming environment.
Although the new multi sensory room has only been open for just a short time, the response has been incredible and the children are so excited about it. “Children are very anxious about new schools and new classrooms and we have found that when they are in there, it has a magical way of removing a lot of the outside stimuli It is so calming that a lot of the children have been opening up and talking about their anxieties and their fears and have been walking out in a completely different place emotionally. It’s very special to see,” explained Alyssa.
Kids’ Therapy Place also has two sensory gyms: a main one and secondary one. The main gym features all the latest equipment one would expect to see in a top OT practice, from every type of swing attachment imaginable to bolsters and balls and the all-time favorite, ball pit. The secondary gym has a built in jungle gym and now boasts a newly painted white wall where children who come to the center will have the opportunity to put their own handprint, choosing their paint color and adding their initials. “It makes the kids feel like they have ownership of Kids’ Therapy Place and it is just something that they all love.”
There’s also a colorful “Messy Room” for all kinds of fun and messy activities; a “Fine Motor Room” which is fully stocked with all kinds of entertaining activities and toys that help with fine motor skills; and the famous “Center Room,” which is not just a hallway but a fun vibrant space for challenging riding toys and obstacle courses.
Looking back on the last 20 years, Alyssa recalled one of her favorite stories that took place during a session with one of her patients. While playing a game, the child looked up at her and asked, “Alyssa, do you have a job?” Doing her best not to giggle at the innocence of the question, she responded that she did indeed have a job. The child proceeded to ask her what her job was and she answered that she was a therapist who works with children. Surprised to hear this, the young boy then asked her where she worked, completely unaware that he was, in fact, in her place of work and that he was her patient.
Another time, a few weeks ago, the doorbell rang and a tall young man stood there with his mother looking for Aviva. She came out to meet this young man who was so eager to see her. This young man, who had autism spectrum disorder and was now in college, was Aviva’s patient for much of his childhood and had not seen her in years. The moment he saw her he hugged her and started crying, so excited to see her, and talked about how much he had missed her.
“We appreciate the relationships. We appreciate the fact that we were able to be a part of their lives and their families and the development of these children. I love every part of my job and I really love every part of being able to watch these kids grow, develop, thrive and reach their potential. I’m very grateful that I am able to be a part of it,” exclaimed Aviva.
Alyssa added, “We want to say a tremendous thank you to the community. We are primarily around in large part because of word of mouth, not from advertising. That word of mouth has sustained our practice and allowed it to grow. People trust us and speak highly of us and share our name with their family and friends, which is the best kind of referral that you can get.”
To learn more about Kids’ Therapy Place and the services it offers, visit www.kidstplace.com/ email at [email protected] or call (201) 525-0050.
Find them on Facebook at Kids Therapy Place and on Instagram @kidstplace
