Occupational Therapy Insights
OT Therapy Tools at Kmart
Kmart is a wonderland when it comes to toys and gadgets for your child. Their affordable toys and stationery are a perfect way to keep your child entertained and [..]
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Sensory Strategies for the Classroom
Classrooms are space for learning, exploration and creativity. However, this can sometimes come with a space that is overloaded with different sensory experiences [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
Fun Activities to Help You Survive January with your Kids
Well the excitement of Christmas is over and the fun of New Year’s Eve has fizzled away. We’ve now hit those long January weeks and it’s at this time kids [..]
Read moreMotor Development
Gross motor activities for home
Why is gross motor important for your children? Gross motor is incredibly important in enabling children to perform everyday tasks and have the endurance to [..]
Read moreGroup Programs
Sense Rugby
For those of you who haven’t heard of Sense Rugby, it’s an Occupational Therapy based program designed to help kids who find it challenging to participate in [..]
Read moreSpeech Pathology
Lurking in the shadows: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)
Guest blog written by North Shore Speech Therapy Speech Pathologists often hear comments that the reason for a child’s poor performance at school is simply [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
Pretend Play
When you hear the word ‘play’, you think of happiness, fun and enjoyment. You also may think that all kids must know how to play and how hard can it be? [..]
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What is Proprioception and Why Is It Important?
Proprioception is often known as the sixth sense, as it is a sense that is not commonly known. To put it simply, proprioception is the sense that tells the body [..]
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What are the milestones to look out for in speech and language development?
Children grow and develop at their own pace. While some might start to walk and talk earlier than expected, others might be delayed. Without the ability to [..]
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What is Interoception?
Interoception is often known as the “hidden sense” and is referred to as the eighth sensory system. It is the sense that tells us what is happening [..]
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Dyspraxia ( Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) in Children
Remember back in school when there was always that ‘clumsy’ kid, who would easily trip over things, bump into people, was never the best at sport, and appeared [..]
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What does a paediatric speech pathologist assess and treat?
Guest blog written by Lauren Reinhardt, Director and Speech Pathologist for North Shore Speech Therapy Have you ever wondered what a Speech Pathologist actually [..]
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What is Sensory Processing Disorder?
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) is a complex disorder of the brain that affects both children and adults. People with Sensory Processing Disorder are not able to [..]
Read moreOccupational Therapy Insights
Life as an OT student
The in’s and out’s of study, placement, and juggling life commitments as an OT student Written by Merinda Griffith Occupational Therapy, What is it and what [..]
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Hypermobility in Children
So you think your child is hypermobile? Guest blog written by Cathy Molloy, Physiotherapist for Just for Kids Physio Hypermobility refers to the ability of a joint [..]
Read moreAutism
What does ASPERGER SYNDROME really mean?
We’ve all heard the term Asperger Syndrome, but what does it really mean?! The term was initially derived by Austrian Paediatrician Hans Asperger in the 1940s. To [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
The Whole-Brain Child | Book Review
‘The Whole-Brain Child’ by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson gives you a deeper understanding of the neuroscience of a child’s brain. The book provides [..]
Read moreOccupational Therapy Insights
Occupational Therapy – What to Expect from a Kid’s OT Service
1. Initial Phone Call When you phone an Occupational Therapy practice for children, the person on the end of the line should be engaging and generally interested in [..]
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Sydney’s New Inclusive Play Spaces
Time for an adventure: a new park that is inclusive of all children! “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any [..]
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Sporting Activities: Our Top OT Recommendations
Moving from the therapy environment to community activities Occupational Therapy is a client-centred health profession concerned with promoting the health and [..]
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Top Summer Fun Activities
Holiday fun activities with an OT Perspective! Well done for making it through the last term of the year – it’s holiday time! The Aussie summer break is an [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Top Tips for Developing Resilience in Your Child
If your child struggles when things don’t go their way or if they encounter change or something unfamiliar, developing resilience skills may help them to cope [..]
Read moreADHD and Executive Functioning
How Can Occupational Therapy Help Kids with ADHD?
If your child has ADHD, Occupational Therapy sessions can be really beneficial to their development. Read on to find out how we can help your child. At Occupational [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
Using Creativity to Develop Kids’ Fine Motor Skills
Fun at-home craft can be great for developing your child’s fine motor skills as well as their creativity and imagination. Here, we’ve shared how you can [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Learning Self-Regulation with The Zones of Regulation®
If your child struggles with emotional regulation, the Zones of Regulation® can be a great tool to help them. Our team recently had the opportunity to learn from [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Top Online Typing Programmes to Help Your Child Learn to Type
Learning to type is a skill children increasingly need in our tech-reliant world. So learning to type — and learning it correctly! — is important to help set [..]
Read moreADHD and Executive Functioning
How Occupational Therapy Can Help Your Child’s Executive Functioning
Learn about how your child could be struggling with their executive functioning and how Occupational Therapy can help them. Think about an executive of a company: [..]
Read moreSensory Processing
Sensory Processing: Our Learning Journey at the STAR Institute
Our Founder and Director, Lisa Hughes, recently went to the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorder in the US, where she participated in an intensive [..]
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The Secret to Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Disorder
Helping your Child with Sensory Processing Disorders… it’s no longer a secret! Occupational Therapy Helping Children’s Founder and Director, Lisa Hughes, [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
How to Raise an Emotionally Health Child
How does your child know how they are feeling when they are playing with peers, with family or by themselves? As humans, we experience a huge range of emotions: [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Improving Your Child’s Letter Formations
It’s such an exciting moment when you can see your little one first starting to write their name for the first time! And to see all their (and your) hard work [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Improving Your Child’s Pencil Grip
As occupational therapists, teachers and parents often approach us about their children’s awkward pencil grasp. Left unaddressed, pencil grip problems can end up [..]
Read moreNutrition
The Essential Nutrient for Your Child’s Brain
Nutritionist, Amanda Ford, explains Omega-3’s key role in your child’s development and health. If you’ve ever wondered how you can support your child’s [..]
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What Exactly is ‘Sensory Processing’?
Have you heard the term ‘sensory processing’, but aren’t too sure what it really means? Don’t worry — you’re far from alone. So today we’re sharing [..]
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The Top 10 Books on Sensory Processing
Does your child have a sensory processing disorder and do you or your child’s teacher want to better understand how to help them? Occupational Therapy Helping [..]
Read moreNutrition
How To Survive The Winter Flu Season
Nutritionist Amanda Ford from Zest+Zing shares her top tips for helping your family avoid colds and the flu this winter. With the cold and flu season in full swing, [..]
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Developmental Milestones Before Starting School
Is your child four or five years old and starting school next year? Transitioning from preschool to ‘big school’ is an exciting time — and a very big step for [..]
Read moreMotor Development
How to Tell if my Kindy child is meeting developmental milestones?
What skills are children developing in Kindergarten? There’s a lot more happening than may meet the eye… So, your little one has started Kindergarten, [..]
Read moreMotor Development
Understanding Your Child’s Development
We’ve unpacked the foundations of child development and share our tips for how you can manage and assist your child’s development. “What age [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Helping Manage Your Child’s Behaviour
Our Director and Senior Clinician, Lisa Hughes, has reviewed ‘The Bonsai Child’ by Judith Locke and shares her learnings about how to help our children develop [..]
Read moreNutrition
5 Healthy Back to School Snacks
Nutritionist Amanda Ford from Zest+Zing shares her top tips for making your kids’ lunchboxes healthy and tasty (including an easy recipe!). Preparing healthy [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
How to Handle the Holidays
Does your child sometimes find it hard to cope during the holidays? In this blog post we share our tips to help make the holidays easier and less stressful for you [..]
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Should my child repeat next year?
There are lots of different opinions when it comes to repeating a year at school. Here, we share our insights from the latest research and our perspective as [..]
Read moreGroup Programs
Six Surprising Benefits of Holiday Groups
Occupational Therapy Helping Children’s Director and Senior Clinician, Lisa Hughes, shares some of the key benefits of group programmes she’s observed during [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Does My Child Need Help with their Social Skills?
Social awareness and interaction is an increasingly common area we, as Occupational Therapists, are helping children with. And it’s not just for children on the [..]
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How can I help my child survive Term Four?
Occupational Therapy Helping Children’s founder and director, Lisa Hughes, shares her top tips to help your child finish the school year on a high. It’s [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Anxiety in Children
Everybody can feel worried or stressed at various stages. However, how do you know when simple worries or stresses are becoming too much? And how can you recognise [..]
Read moreMotor Development
Fine Motor Skills Explained
What are fine motor skills? You may have heard your occupational therapist, and sometimes teachers, use words such as fine motor strength, and dexterity when [..]
Read moreSensory Processing
Building Skills for Positive Eating & The SOS Approach to Feeding
Does your child struggle to tolerate a wide range of foods, despite trying every trick in the book? Or are you starting a little one on solids and want to know [..]
Read moreSensory Processing
How to Help Your Fussy Eater
Occupational Therapy Helping Children’s Founder and Senior Clinician, Lisa Hughes, shares how to help your picky eater develop their feeding skills. Often as [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
Yoga and Occupational Therapy
There is a natural connection between Occupational Therapy (OT) and yoga. They both accentuate the importance of mind, body and spirit. There are numerous benefits [..]
Read moreMotor Development
Importance of core strength in children
Just as a tree needs a strong trunk to be able to hold its branches up, and withstand elements in its environment, a child requires a strong core to participate in [..]
Read moreSensory Processing
The Vestibular System
The vestibular system is a structure that is housed in the inner ear, very close to the auditory system. It is the sensory system that provides our brains with [..]
Read moreSocial and Emotional Skills
Developing Skills and Strategies for Emotional Regulation in children
Emotional regulation refers to an individual’s ability to recognise, process and act upon the emotions that they feel within different situations. Our capability [..]
Read moreHandwriting
HSC Special Provisions: How does it work?
If your child is in year 11 or 12 this year, chances are you may have heard the words “Special Provisions” floating around. But what does this mean for your [..]
Read moreMotor Development
W Sitting
“W” siting describes the position of a child when siting on the floor knees together and feet pointing outwards. Why do children W sit…? Children W sit [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
Sports-based programs catering to Kids with additional needs!
We all know that sports can have a positive effect on children, from learning about leadership, teamwork skills and all the physical benefits. But what if your [..]
Read moreOccupational Therapy Insights
A Day in the Life of a Paediatric O.T.
Although many of your children may have had Occupational Therapy in the past, you may not know what an OT’s day-to-day routine consists of! Over the years I have [..]
Read moreSensory Processing
The Adaptable Brain
Child Neuroplasticity – An Overview We are always evolving, learning and changing, as children and as adults. Our brains, especially, are always adapting by what [..]
Read moreActivities for Home & in the Community
The Importance of Park Play
What are the benefits of taking your child to the park? The big, bright red apple…spinning, spinning, spinning, that’s the memory I remember most about [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Ten Quick Tips for Improving Handwriting
Ten Quick Tips for Improving [..]
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How to Help Your Child Start the New School Year on a Positive Note
Portrait of young businessman with toy paper wings. Success, creative and startup concept. It’s not long now until children in Australia return to school. For [..]
Read moreOccupational Therapy Insights
Does Your Child Need Occupational Therapy?
How do you know if your child needs Occupational Therapy?
These are some of the red flags to look out for: -
· Does your child have difficulty hopping, [..]
Read moreHandwriting
The Importance of Good Sitting Posture for Handwriting
Maintaining good posture ensures your body is in good alignment and that stress on your muscles, joints and ligaments are distributed evenly across your body. Poor [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Extremely Useful iPad Apps for Letter Formation
Is your child having difficulty forming their letters or numbers correctly? Or have they mastered the pre-writing shapes and now starting to learn those letters? [..]
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School-based Therapy: How does it work?
At Occupational Therapy Helping Children, we conduct treatment in a number of settings. These include our private clinics, the school setting and occasionally in [..]
Read moreHandwriting
Helping your left handed child written by a left handed OT
August 13th is international left handers day, the one day of the year that all left handers can celebrate. What do we know about being left handed? Left handers [..]
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Part 2 – School Readiness – Is My Child Ready to Start School
Part 2 - School Readiness. Is your child ready to start [..]
Read moreSchool
Part 1 – School Readiness – Is My Child Ready to Start School
Welcome to part 1 of our School Readiness blopost. It’s that time of the year where Occupational Therapist’s start receiving lots of pre-schooler [..]
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