What is Paediatric Occupational Therapy?
Paediatric OT focuses on helping children develop the skills and strategies they need to participate in everyday life/activities. Including:
- Fine motor skills: Writing, drawing, cutting, buttoning, tying shoelaces, and using utensils.
- Gross motor skills: Running, jumping, climbing, throwing, catching, balance, coordination.
- Sensory processing: How children experience, interpret and respond to sensory information (touch, sound, sight, smell, taste, movement).
- Self-care skills: Dressing, toileting, grooming, sleeping, eating.
- Play skills: Imaginative play, social interactions, turn-taking.
- Social-emotional development: Understanding emotions, building on capacity to regulate emotions, co-regulation supports, strengthening relationships, developing social connections.
- Cognitive skills: Attention, memory, problem-solving, planning, organisation, executive function.
While every child develops at their own pace, if you are noticing any delays or have any questions in the above areas, OT input may be beneficial for your child and family.
When to Consider Paediatric OT:
While every child develops at their own pace, some signs that may indicate a need for OT include:
- Fine motor delays: Difficulty with writing, drawing, cutting, using utensils, buttoning clothes.
- Gross motor delays: Clumsiness, difficulty with running, jumping, climbing, poor balance.
- Sensory processing challenges: Over- or under-sensitivity to touch, sound, light, movement.
- Difficulties with self-care: Challenges with dressing, toileting, grooming.
- Social-emotional difficulties: Difficulty making friends, managing emotions, engaging in social play.
- Academic difficulties: Challenges with handwriting, attention, organisation.
The role of an Occupational Therapists is to ask ‘why is the skill difficult’ (that is, ‘why is the roof so shaky’?) and then to review the underlying foundations and physical abilities (the foundations and walls) to determine where the origin of the challenge is, to then deduce appropriate strategies to support the child and his family.
Paediatric Occupational Therapists Work Alongside Families, Teachers and Healthcare Services to:
- Enable children to develop confidence and independence to perform life skills.
- Promote development and inspire children to learn and be more meaningfully involved in the world around them.
- Assist children to develop and strengthen their skills that support learning, play and their relationships at home and at school.
Parent Involvement
When a child is having some developmental challenges and needs to work with an Occupational Therapist, their parents enter a world of therapists and services that is new and unfamiliar to most of them. The process of evaluation and development of an intervention plan can be intimidating. It may be tempting for parents to rely on the therapist to “fix” the problem. However, when parents make an effort to understand their child’s diagnosis and become active participants in the intervention process, there are benefits not just for the child but for the parents and therapists as well.
Given the number of hours per day a child spends with family versus therapist, opportunities for practice are multiplied when parents encourage practice outside of therapy sessions. Extending therapy targets into the child’s home environment promotes learning.
The therapy process affects the entire family, not just the child attending therapy. Parents and other family members who are actively involved in the therapy process are more likely to be comfortable giving valuable feedback to the therapist. Such feedback can help the therapist determine the next steps in the continuing evolution of therapy goals. It may also help the therapist recognize what they do that works well for the child and their family and what they do that is not as effective. We lay the foundations in the clinic room and then regular practice and transfer of skills needs to happens in day to day ‘real’ life. Home practice is the key to success!
— Lize Roos
Children’s Skill Development is Much Like Building a House.
Before erecting the walls and the roof of a house, a solid foundation must first be laid. In the same way a child must first master underlying (hidden) abilities before being able to successfully perform more refined tasks/activities.
Foundation:
The ability to effectively process sensory information (touch, sight, taste, sound and smell) that allows the child to register the world around them, as well as to know how to use their bodies.
Walls:
Physical components such as finger strength, hand dexterity, postural control.
Roof:
Refined skills like bike riding or handwriting, getting dressed, feeding themselves, tying shoelaces, catching a ball, etc.
We are all unique, each one of us has our own strengths and weakness, our own amazing and creative ways of thinking and our own personalities. When we look at all the beautiful “houses” in our village we see that together we create something magical. Here at Building Blocks Therapy we are invited to be a part of a families journey – your village, this is by no means a role we take lightly and we see it as the biggest privilege.
Our Programs & Services
Parents, educators, and referrers: Discover our range of OT programs and learn about funding options. We highly recommend that you visit our dedicated program page (link) for a complete list programs and program-specific servcies.
Interested in individual services? Scroll below to explore our comprehensive service offerings.
Service Funding Options
Our services can be accessed through the funding streams listed below.
Building Blocks Therapy Servcies
