Pediatric Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy Services
6120 St. Giles St. Suite 260
Raleigh, NC 27612
Phone
919-238-9470
About Us
Your child and family are unique... Your child's therapy should be too!
We provide personalized, effective occupational therapy and speech therapy services that support children and families in meeting their unique goals for participating in life to the fullest.
Occupational Therapy
Skills for the job of living
Occupational therapists are experts at supporting participation in meaningful activities. In OT, we get to know the whole child: their strengths, their goals, their passions, their supports, and their challenges. We then look to remove any barriers to that child's participation in the tasks that matter to them and their families. This may involve adapting the task or the environment, coaching parents on new ways to support their child, using supports such as adaptive equipment, or building new skills to help that child participate as independently as possible. Our assessments and interventions can help children participate in tasks involving the whole body (gross motor), the hands (fine motor), coordination of the hands and eyes (e.g., writing, drawing, cutting, building), awareness of the body in space, and the ability to plan complex or unfamiliar tasks (motor planning). OTs also help children gain increased independence in everyday self-care activities, such as dressing, eating, grooming, hygiene, and bathing. Occupational therapy can also help support sensory processing differences and self-regulation skills for managing and coping with the sensory experiences of everyday life. In short, we help kids do all of the meaningful activities they need to do and want to do!
Speech Therapy
Helping children find their voices and connect with the world.
Speech therapists are experts in helping children to communicate more effectively. Speech therapists provide assessments and interventions to support children’s ability to express themselves through speech (expressive language), to understand what is said to them (receptive language), to speak in a way that is easy to understand (articulation and phonology), to speak in a smooth, fluid manner (fluency), and to use the nuances of social language effectively (pragmatics). They may also support children with feeding and swallowing challenges, and provide recommendations and training for the use of augmentative alternative communication (AAC) devices when appropriate.
Meet our Founder
Kate Pingel, MA OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Kate has been practicing pediatric occupational therapy for 16 years. She knew from a young age that she wanted to spend her life helping children, and it has been her passion ever since to learn new ways of doing this. In 2002, Kate earned a BA in Psychology with a focus on Development from Smith College. In 2006, she earned her MA in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California, where she had the privilege of learning from a number of leaders and innovators in the field. In the years since then, she has worked in a range of pediatric therapy settings, including schools, outpatient clinics, and home-based therapy. She has advanced training in a variety of areas, including sensory integration (including administration and interpretation of the SIPT), neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT), fine motor development, handwriting interventions, feeding therapy, and pediatric yoga.
In creating Little Oaks Therapy Center, Kate's goal has been to create a neuroaffirming, family-centered practice that supports the unique needs of each child through highly individualized, creative, and effective therapy solutions. She believes in genuine collaboration with parents that incorporates their unique values, needs, and priorities. She has a passion for connecting with children, seeing their strengths as individuals, and breaking hard challenges into small, manageable chunks. Her approach is playful, empathetic, creative and flexible. When she’s not at the clinic, she loves cooking, exploring the outdoors, and spending time with her kids and husband.
