Occupational Therapy
The main objective of Paediatric Occupational Therapy is to help children do all the things children normally do.
What do our Paediatric Occupational Therapists do?
Paediatric Occupational Therapists (OTs) are health professionals able to provide comprehensive services for children and adolescents who may be experiencing difficulties or have delays across all areas of development. OTs have a holistic focus and target a broad range of areas to develop life skills. We offer assessment and therapy at our Clinic in Seaford, in the child’s home, daycare, kindergarten or school, as well as via our Telehealth services. The main objective of Occupational Therapy is to enable children to do all the things children do in everyday life, by identifying barriers to their participation and working with the child and their caregivers in creating strategies to help them achieve their goals. Our aim is to assist children to cope with demands, adapt to tasks, build skills and overcome challenges to be independent and engaged with their peers and environments. We do this by providing:
- Comprehensive assessment and observation of the child’s developmental difficulties using functional and standardised assessment tools.
- Implement and provide Functional Interventions for the child’s home, school, kinder or day-care facility, to help your child translate what they learn with us in therapy, into their daily living environments.
- Provide consistent support, monitoring and evaluation of their clinical programs in conjunction with families, teachers and integration aides.
“WE BUILD SKILLS FOR LIFE”
Why do we need an OT and when should I refer my child?
Parents, Teachers and Guardians are our children’s best experts and are most able to identify if there is a problem with meeting their developmental milestones. A referral for OT at Bright Start should be made if your child is having difficulty in any of the following areas:
- Attention and concentration difficulties
- Learning difficulties
- Regulatory difficulties in sensory, behavioural and emotional regulation
- Visual Perception: hand/eye coordination, visual tracking and scanning, balance
- Functional skill difficulties: feeding, toileting, dressing, doing buttons/zippers, brushing teeth and hair, tying shoe laces, sleep etc.
- Fine Motor Difficulties: in hand manipulation, motor planning, grasp on toys, on cutlery and objects in general, and handwriting
- Gross Motor Difficulties: in sequencing, spatial awareness, motor planning and coordination
- Sensory Processing difficulties: a child’s ability to process and interpret sensory stimuli either with an over-reactive or under-reactive response to sensation
- Sensory Integration difficulties relating to sensory inputs: touch, sound, sight, smell, taste and also sensations that relate to body awareness and movement
- Emotional regulation
Sometimes a child may require professional advice and intervention. Occupational Therapy intervention may be just a short-term burst or an ongoing process to build skills and allow your child to gain the confidence they need to maximise their own potential and reach their goals.
If you are worried about your child’s development, please call and we will be happy to discuss your child’s needs with you. Our Occupational Therapists will work with you and your child to determine both the child and family’s needs and develop goals and a treatment plan to assist those needs. We are also happy to educate other professionals involved with your child as we believe strongly in a collaborative approach to therapy.
