Occupational Therapists are trained to know and understand many aspects of child development, especially the normal order in which skills emerge and the components of each skill.   For example, we all know that crawling usually occurs before walking.  It is also helpful to know that the ability to transfer weight from one leg to another in turn is important in learning to walk and that this is one of the skills learnt to enable walking to develop.  Occupational therapists use this knowledge of developmental pathways to teach skills step by step.  These developmental pathways apply to play, social, self-help, thinking and pencil skills as well as to motor skills.