Kerry L. Viardo, OT

Pediatrics Occupational Therapist

Ms. Kerry L. Viardo is a Pediatrics Occupational Therapist in Annapolis, MD with special training and skill in helping physically or mentally disabled children develop cognitive, motor, social, and self-care skills. As a Pediatrics Occupational Therapist, Kerry L. Viardo, OT performs educational and physical learning exercises with children disabled by injury or illness. Pediatric Occupational Therapy is a medical specialty dedicated to helping disabled children gain personal independence by improving sensory, motor, visual perception, and social interaction skills. Significant diseases and conditions treated by Pediatric Occupational Therapists include impairments resulting from birth injuries or defects, sensory processing disorders, traumatic injuries, autism, childhood arthritis, spina bifida, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, and many other conditions that affect children's motor and learning skills. Medical tests, procedures and therapies provided by Pediatric Occupational Therapists include play therapy, handwriting exercises, motor planning, gross motor coordination, sensory modulation, visual perception skills, and parental education.

Occupational therapists provide services to infants, toddlers and children who have or who are at risk for developmental delays or disabilities. Occupational therapy is concerned with a child's ability to participate in daily life activities or "occupations." Occupational therapists use their unique expertise to help children with social-emotional, physical, cognitive, communication, and adaptive behavioral challenges and to help children to be prepared for and perform important learning and school-related activities and to fulfill their rule as students. Through an understanding of the impact of disability, illness, and impairment on a child's development, plan, ability to learn new skills, and overall occupational performance, occupational therapists design interventions that promote healthy development, establish needed skills, and/or modify environments, all in support of participation in daily activities.

Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapist

Ms. Kerry L. Viardo is a Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapist in Annapolis, MD with special training and skill in holistically evaluating and resolving eating and swallowing dysfunctions by addressing environmental, cultural, physiological, and psychosocial interventions. As a Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapist, Kerry L. Viardo, OT performs holistic care in neonatal intensive care units, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation hospitals, mental health facilities, nursing facilities, and hospices. Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapy is comprehensive management of feeding, eating, and swallowing challenges. Significant diseases and conditions treated by Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapists include difficulty raising food to the mouth, aspiration, dementia, and psychologically based eating disorders. Medical tests, procedures and therapies provided by Feeding, Eating & Swallowing Occupational Therapists include videofluoroscopy, ultrasonography, electromyography, swallowing technique education, behavior modification program, environmental modification, providing adaptive equipment, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation.

Occupational therapists provide interventions to clients of all ages with feeding, eating and swallowing difficulties. Occupational therapists provide comprehensive rehabilitative, habilitative, and palliative dysphagia care, which includes collaborating with clients to provide individualized compensatory swallowing strategies, modified diet textures, adapted mealtime environments, enhanced feeding skills, preparatory exercises and positioning to clients, reinforcement of mealtime strategies to enhance and improve swallowing skills, and training to caregivers to enhance eating and feeding performance. Occupational therapists provide screening and in-depth clinical assessment which may include instrumental dysphagia assessments including videofluroscopy.