Pediatric Occupational Therapy in Los Altos, CA

TheraPeeps delivers SIPT- and STAR-certified occupational therapy directly to your home, your child’s school-based occupational therapy, or their daycare across Los Altos. Therapy happens in the environments where your child’s challenges actually occur, not in a clinic waiting room. No commute, no disruption to your family’s schedule.

Many families we work with in Los Altos have larger properties where a session in a backyard or dedicated playroom fits naturally. We draw on outdoor environments whenever clinically appropriate. Our approach is neuro-affirming and relationship-based. We follow your child’s lead, build on their strengths, and partner closely with parents and teachers at every step.

TheraPeeps offers the full range of pediatric occupational therapy services in Los Altos, tailored to each child’s developmental profile. We build in regular communication so you always understand the clinical reasoning behind what we are doing and why. No formal diagnosis is required to begin services.

• Sensory Integration Therapy (SIPT- and STAR-certified)
• Emotional and Self-Regulation Support
• Fine Motor and Handwriting Development
• SOS Approach feeding therapy
• DIR/Floortime-Based Play and Social Development
• Autism-Informed Support (Board Certified in Autism)
• Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) for nervous system regulation
• Gross Motor and Body Awareness Skills
• Daily Living and Self-Care Skills (dressing, toileting, hygiene)
• School Readiness and Executive Function Support
• Nature-Based Therapeutic Groups
• Developmental Evaluations and Individualized Treatment Planning

Call us: (650) 204-0677

The concerns we hear most often in Los Altos involve sensory processing differences, fine motor and handwriting difficulties, and feeding challenges. When families already have context from teachers or private evaluators, we can move efficiently from assessment into targeted treatment. We work with a wide range of presentations, including:

• Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and sensory over- or under-responsivity
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Attention and regulation difficulties (ADHD and related profiles)
• Developmental delays (fine motor, gross motor, language-adjacent)
• Feeding aversions, extreme picky eating, and food refusal
• Anxiety that shows up as school avoidance, meltdowns, or rigidity
• Dyspraxia and motor planning challenges
• Hypotonia (low muscle tone)
• Handwriting difficulties and pencil-grip concerns
• Social-emotional development delays
• Trauma-informed nervous system dysregulation

Call us: (650) 204-0677

Here is why families in Los Altos choose TheraPeeps.

• We bring therapy to you. Navigating Grant Road and Foothill Expressway during school pickup hours adds real time to an already full day. We come to your home, your property, or your child’s school so therapy fits into your schedule rather than competing with it.
• We are SIPT- and STAR-certified in sensory integration, the most rigorous credentialing available in this specialty. Sensory integration is not something every OT is trained to treat at this level.
• Our approach is neuro-affirming and explicitly non-ABA. We know that Los Altos parents are not looking for a program that drills behavior or adds more performance pressure to a child who is already working hard. Our philosophy is developmental and relationship-based: we follow your child’s lead, build on their genuine strengths, and treat the whole child rather than a checklist of compliance targets.
• Our team brings 20-plus combined years of clinical experience. Brooke Olson, OTR/L holds a DIR/Floortime trainer designation earned over 10 years, a credential that is rare at any practice.
• We collaborate with educators. If your child attends Bullis Charter, St. Simon, or another Los Altos school, we can communicate directly with teachers and school support staff to ensure therapy goals carry into the classroom.

TheraPeeps is a private-pay practice, which means we do not bill insurance directly. This allows us to set session lengths, treatment frequency, and goals based entirely on your child’s clinical needs, not what an insurance authorization will cover.

Many families in Los Altos carry premium PPO plans with strong out-of-network benefits. Those plans frequently include meaningful OT reimbursement that goes unclaimed because the process feels opaque. We provide detailed superbills after every session so you can submit directly to your insurer. We recommend calling the member services number on the back of your insurance card and asking specifically about out-of-network OT benefits and annual limits before your first session.

Please contact us directly for current session rates and evaluation fees. We are happy to walk you through what to expect from the billing and reimbursement process before you commit.

Call us: (650) 204-0677

Do you work with children who attend Los Altos private schools like Bullis Charter or St. Simon School?

Yes, we work with children enrolled in private schools throughout Los Altos. We can provide therapy on school grounds (with the school’s permission) or in your home, and we are experienced in coordinating with classroom teachers and school support teams to make sure therapy goals translate into the school day. If your child’s teacher has flagged concerns, that context is genuinely useful to us, and we welcome that communication with your guidance.

At what age do you start working with children, and is earlier really better?

We work with children from birth through age 8, and in our clinical experience, earlier intervention consistently produces faster and more lasting results. The younger a child is, the more neuroplasticity they have, meaning the nervous system is more responsive to targeted input. For Los Altos families, access to specialized early intervention has historically meant a waitlist at a clinic across town. Because we come to you, families can start working with us without reorganizing their entire schedule or waiting months for an opening at a brick-and-mortar practice. If your pediatrician has raised a concern, or if you have noticed something that does not feel right, that is enough reason to reach out rather than wait.

My child attends Bullis Charter School. Can you coordinate directly with their teachers or occupational therapy staff?

Absolutely, and we encourage it. With your written consent, we can communicate with your child’s teacher, resource specialist, or any school-based support staff to align on goals, share strategies, and avoid conflicting approaches. Bullis Charter’s inquiry-based model can be a wonderful complement to sensory integration work — when a child’s nervous system is regulated, curiosity-driven learning tends to flourish. We see school-home-therapy collaboration as a core part of the model, not an add-on.

Can you provide therapy on our property, for example, in our backyard or a dedicated playroom?

Yes, and we find that it often produces better outcomes. Therapy in a familiar, low-pressure environment reduces the transition stress that can derail a session before it starts. A backyard with open space, climbing structures, or natural materials can be an excellent sensory environment for the work we do. If you have a dedicated playroom or an outdoor area you think would work well, tell us when you schedule, we will plan accordingly.

What is sensory integration therapy, and how is it different from general OT?

Sensory integration therapy is a specialized, evidence-based approach that addresses how the brain organizes and responds to sensory input, touch, movement, sound, body position, and more. When sensory processing is inefficient, it affects attention, behavior, motor skills, feeding, and social-emotional regulation. Our team holds SIPT and STAR certifications, which represent the most advanced credentialing in this specialty. General OT addresses functional skills; sensory integration goes a level deeper to address the neurological foundation those skills depend on.

How do I know if my child needs an evaluation, or if I should just wait and see?

Los Altos School District and Bullis Charter School both offer school-based support, but school OT operates under a very different mandate than private pediatric OT. School-based services are governed by the IEP process and focus on what a child needs to access the academic curriculum, not on the full developmental picture. That means a child can be below age expectations in sensory processing, fine motor skills, or self-regulation and still not qualify for school-based OT because their challenges do not rise to the level of educational impact the district uses as its threshold. Private OT with TheraPeeps is not constrained by that standard. We evaluate and treat based on your child’s individual developmental needs, and we can work alongside whatever school supports are already in place.