Firstly, what is OT?
Paediatric Occupational Therapy (OT) supports children to develop their participation, performance, and enjoyment within their different occupations. Occupations are the activities in which occupy time within our day. For children occupations commonly include; play, self-care, socialising, sleep, learning, sports/activities etc. At Occupational Therapy Helping Children our therapists use purposeful and engaging activities and a wholistic and collaborative approach to support children to do the things they need to or want to do.
But how do I know if my child needs OT?
Children may benefit OT when they are requiring more support to participate and perform in the occupations they need to or want to do than expected. Teachers, educators and other health professionals may refer children to OT for a range of concerns, however a formal referral is not required.
Some of the common reasons children are referred to OT, include;
- Delays in meeting fine and gross motor milestones such as; developing their pencil grip, handwriting skills, shoelace tying, and their ability to do up buttons, zippers.
- Frequently tripping or bumping into things, or difficulties learning new motor skills.
- Sensory seeking, sensory sensitivities or other sensory concerns in which impact their ability to engage in their occupations.
- Requiring support with self-care tasks such as dressing, bathing, grooming and eating,
- Difficulties with organising belongings, time management and planning skills.
- Difficulties with identifying, expressing and regulating their emotions.
- Requiring support to manage changes in routine or with transitions.
- Requiring support to engage with peers, including making and maintaining friendships, sharing, turn taking or engaging in social conversations.
- Frequent distractibility and difficulties maintaining attention to a task impacting their ability to complete everyday occupations
What if I am unsure?
If you are not sure whether your child would benefit from OT, our team is here to help! At OTHC, the first step is to have a parent planning meeting via telehealth, to discuss your child’s strengths and challenges. Within this meeting the therapist will ask you a range of questions about your child’s routines, current and past supports, and engagement in a range of different occupations (such as, self-care, socialisation, handwriting, sports and physical activities, etc.). From this information the therapist will be able to provide you with recommendations regarding the most appropriate steps forward.
If the therapist determines that an observation of your child’s skills is required to determine the best support for them, they may recommend a discovery session. During this session the therapist will observe your child engaging in a range of different tasks. The tasks chosen will be based off the information they have gained in the parent plan meeting.
Tasks that may be observed;
- Engagement in games or activities that require fine motor skills such as pincer grasp, finger isolation, in-hand manipulation etc.
- Writing or drawing activities to observe pencil grip, pencil control, letter alignment, fluency etc.
- Written expression tasks to observe the use of punctuation, sentences and paragraph structure, planning and organisation, etc.
- Activities that require visual motor and visual perception skills e.g. Design copying, ispy, matching games, mazes etc.
- Activities that require cognitive skills e.g. planning, designing and executing an obstacle course, overcoming problems, using flexible thinking when plans change.
- Self-care skills e.g. taking off and putting on shoes, cooking, hair brushing.
- Gross motor activities e.g. climbing, swinging, balancing, ball skills, motor planning etc.
- Bilateral co-ordination activities e.g. Star jumps, scissor jumps etc.
- Sensory activities e.g. messy play, bouncing, swinging, tactile discrimination etc.
- Emotion identification e.g. identifying their own and others’ emotions etc.
- Social-emotional skills e.g. initiating play, turn taking, negotiating skills etc.
- Play skills e.g. Imaginary play.
Following the discovery session, the OT will provide you with feedback regarding what they observed and recommend. They may provide some quick strategies and/or activities for home or school to support your child.
My child needs OT, now what?
If it is recommended that your child would benefit from Occupational Therapy the therapist will speak to you about what style of therapy may suit them best. At OTHC we offer many different services, including;
- Individual weekly or fortnightly sessions (either in clinic or via telehealth)
- Holiday Intensives
- Aqua OT
- Term group sessions
- Holiday group Sessions
- Dyad or Triad sessions (2-3 children with 1 therapist)
- Parent information nights
- Parent coaching via telehealth
- School based OT (only available at some local schools).
If you have any questions about your child’s development and whether Occupational Therapy would be suitable for them, please contact us at (02) 9913 3823 Or at hello@occupationaltherapy.com.au.
