OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
About Occupational Therapy
Paediatric Occupational Therapy focuses on helping children of all ages with physical, sensory, or cognitive challenges.
Our Occupational Therapist works with your child in areas where they may be having difficulties. These may be difficulties with physical skills such as fine and gross motor skills, skills required for school such as handwriting and scissor skills, daily living skills such as feeding and dressing, play skills, sensory skills, behaviour, attention and concentration skills.
Occupational therapy is about enhancing your child’s skills so they can fully participate in everyday life. We help children from infancy through to teenagers who are struggling with their development and day-to-day activities — whether that’s movement, writing, focusing at school, play, making friends, coping with change, developing resilience, tolerating different foods or participating in sport and extra-curricular activities.
Our Occupational Therapy clinic is led by Zoe Massey, a very passionate and skilled OT with over 10 years experience. Zoe has experience working with children with a range of diagnoses and abilities. She enjoys working with infants, primary school aged children and adolescents, providing assessments, individualised interventions and goal setting.
If your child has difficulty playing, socialising or completing self-care tasks, they may benefit from seeing an occupational therapist.
Through a variety of play-based activities, our Occupational Therapist can assess and provide therapy in areas of identified difficulty. Occupational Therapy helps children improve their cognitive, physical, sensory, and motor skills.
HOW OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY CAN HELP YOUR CHILD
Our Occupational Therapist can assist your child develop skills in many areas including;
GROSS MOTOR SKILLS
We work with children to develop their postural strength and control and help them become aware of their bodies and understand their abilities. Therapy focuses on strengthening large muscles and improving the movement of the whole body that is needed for playground games, sports, balance, coordination, posture, strength and endurance, aiming and catching, core strength, crossing midline, motor planning skills, upper limb strength, shoulder stability, reflex integration, bilateral skills.
FINE MOTOR SKILLS
Fine motor skills refer to the group of skills involved in the ability to manipulate smaller objects with the hands and fingers, for example, grasping, holding and pinching. These skills are necessary for many aspects of self-care but they are also critical for the development of emergent writing. We help children work on fine motor skills so they can grasp and release toys, and develop good handwriting, scissor, block building, puzzle skills and activities of daily living including holding cutlery and tying shoelaces.
HANDWRITING SKILLS
Good handwriting is an essential life skill and the building block for success at school.
Handwriting skills are dependent on the development of three primary areas: fine motor coordination, manual dexterity and visual motor skills. Handwriting difficulties that may emerge may include disorganised handwriting, fatigue and pain, letter reversals, pencil pressure and legibility. We focus on identifying the nature of your child’s difficulty with handwriting, and the reasons for them. Once identified, we can work with you and your child to put in place a plan to address them
VISUAL PERCEPTION & VISUAL MOTOR INTEGRATION
We assess and work with children on their hand–eye coordination to improve their play and school-based skills including hitting a target, batting a ball, and copying from a blackboard.
Visual perception involves processing visual information and matching that with the appropriate motor actions, e.g. completing a puzzle or copying handwriting. Therapy focuses on building skills with visual discrimination, visual memory, visual-spatial relationships, form constancy, sequential memory, figure-ground, and visual closure.
SENSORY PROCESSING
Sensory Processing involves your child’s ability to interpret and organise information from the senses about their body and environment. Children can often be under or over-reactive to emotions, sound, movement, vision, taste, touch, smell and pressure. After a sensory profile assessment, our OT will work with you to develop a sensory diet for your child.
SELF-CARE SKILLS & INDEPENDANCE
Self-care skills are the abilities that children gradually attain to give them more independence. It includes getting dressed, having a shower and brushing your teeth. It's about learning life skills so they can look after themselves without depending on others. We help children develop essential skills to enhance self-care such as dressing, fastening buttons, zippers, and shoe laces, feeding themselves with a spoon & fork, cutting food with a knife, toileting and hygiene etc.
ATTENTION & CONCENTRATION
Attention, Concentration and maintaining focus are essential skills for learning. Attention is necessary for children to hold a conversation, read a book, listen in class and follow directions. Attention difficulties can also be the first indicator of another motor, sensory, engagement or self-regulation difficulties.
Our assessment aims to identify the drivers behind attention difficulties. Therapy can focus on teaching the child and family to recognise what impacts the child’s attention, implementing strategies to support attention; organisational skills, planning, time management, visual prompts and establishing daily routines.
PLAY & SOCIAL SKILLS
Play and social skills are very important in a child’s development. Through play, children learn about the world and themselves. Play Skills include; emotional regulation and social skills, verbal and non-verbal language, problem-solving and higher executive functions, fine and gross motor skills and body awareness. Through play-based therapies, we help children develop positive play and social skills. This may include role-playing, pretend play, following instructions, understanding rules, taking turns and encouraging others to achieve. We also help navigate feelings associated with winning and losing encouraging positive behaviours.
EMOTIONAL REGULATION & POSITIVE BEHAVIOURS
Emotional regulation is essentially the ability to manage our stress and identify how we are feeling. Poor or delayed emotional regulation can lead to social issues, meltdowns, and behavioural difficulties at home and school. We help children with behavioural disorders maintain positive behaviours in a variety of environments i.e. instead of physically ‘acting out’, they can be encouraged to use positive ways to deal with anger, such as sensory integration, writing about feelings or participating in physical activity. We also work with children who have sensory and attentional issues to improve focus and social skills.
Our Occupational Therapist
ZOE MASSEY
Zoe is an OT with over 10 years experience working with children. Prior to this she has worked as an OT with both adult and paediatric clients in acute hospital settings. She has experience working with children across a range of diagnoses and abilities. Zoe enjoys working with children from infancy through primary school and adolescents; providing assessments, individualised interventions and goal setting. She is passionate about working with children and their families to assist in optimising participation at school, with peers, at home and in the community.
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING AN APPOINTMENT
Occupational Therapy is tailored to the unique needs and goals of each child. An important first step is getting to know your child and helping them feel comfortable in our welcoming environment. Each child referred to our service will be seen for an initial assessment/consultation. At this appointment, parents/carer(s) discuss their concerns and what their goals are for their child.
Following the initial assessment, the frequency of sessions is discussed and agreed upon with parents/carers.
Therapy revolves around play and fun while developing skills and strengths helping your child achieve the key goals identified. Sessions include fun, play-based games or activities aligned with your child’s interests, which helps to keep them motivated while they develop and practice their new skills.
Our therapists work collaboratively with the family, which may include strategies to practice at home or school. To provide a holistic service our Occupational Therapist works alongside other allied health professionals, including Speech Pathologists, Psychologists, Dietitians and Paediatricians
INITIAL CONSULTATION & ASSESSMENTS
A comprehensive OT assessment is an important first step in understanding your child’s current ability, strengths, needs and goals. An initial OT assessment is typically a 90-minute appointment in the clinic environment and includes a range of assessments selected to fit your child’s need and goals. This may include administering standardised and non-standardised assessments and/or observational assessments, depending on their age and area requiring attention.
Our OT will discuss your child’s strengths and areas for development and determine the best course of action for your family. This can include a comprehensive report outlining observations, results of assessments and goals for therapy.
GOAL SETTING AND THERAPY
After your initial consultation, our OT will complete an informal assessment to determine your child’s current ability and set some individual goals with a therapy plan. Depending on your child’s needs and goals set, therapy sessions range from 30 or 45-minute time blocks. Therapy Sessions take place in our Currambine Paeds Plus Clinic or at selected Schools.
Therapy revolves around play and fun while developing skills and strengths helping your child achieve the key goals identified. Sessions include fun, play-based games or activities aligned with your child’s interests, which helps to keep them motivated while they develop and practice their new skills.
By focussing on these key areas, we help children in developing confidence, self-esteem, social skills and general wellbeing.
ONGOING PLAN AND REVIEW
Throughout your child’s Therapy Plan we;
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Evaluate your child’s challenges and strengths
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Undertake special assessments, as required
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Perform sensory profiles and develop strategies to help manage the sensory differences which are commonly seen in children with autism spectrum disorders
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Use a range of therapeutic processes to foster skills development
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Help teach self-regulation skills for children with behavioural difficulties
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Educate and support family members and caregivers, including educators, on community-centred approaches
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Offer advice regarding the modification of environments and adaptation of processes
Our therapists work collaboratively with the family, which may include strategies to practice at home or school. To provide a holistic service, our Occupational Therapist works alongside other allied health professionals, including Speech Pathologists, Psychologists, Dietitians and our Paediatricians