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The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable children to participate in the activities of everyday life.
These activities may include being a participator in play, a self-maintainer (feeding, dressing, toileting and hygiene activities) and calm and regulated enough to attend to their environment. Sensational Kids experienced Occupational Therapists work with children to assist them to become more independent and skilled in these areas.
Our Occupational therapists at Sensational Kids will also assist your child with difficulties in the following areas if required:
- Attention and concentration difficulties including ADHD / ADD.
- Disorders of relating and communicating such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
- Functional challenges (e.g. feeding, toileting, dressing, shoe tying, bike riding)
- Fine Motor Difficulties including limitations in motor planning, grasp and handwriting.
- Gross Motor Difficulties including limitations in motor planning, coordination and sports related activities. Children with gross motor challenges may have difficulty-negotiating stairs, frequently trip up on small objects and/or over nothing at all.
- Sensory processing / sensory integration challenges: including limitations in processing sensory information and interpretation. Children with challenges in this area can be either over-responsive or under-responsive to sensation. Sensational Kids Occupational Therapists look at these sensory inputs: touch, sound, sight, smell, taste and also sensations that relate to body awareness and movement (proprioception). Please see our extensive explanation of Sensory Integration on our Therapeutic Programs tab.
- Visuo-spatial processing/visual perceptual challenges
- Learning disabilities
- Regulatory disorders including children with difficulties in sensory, behavioural and emotional regulation.
- Learning challenges
Motor planning (also referred to as 'praxis'- meaning 'to do') is the brain's ability to develop an idea, organise the steps, and carry out the motor response of a novel task (Wilbarger, J, 2005). For example, climbing new playground equipment, moving over a fallen object, picking up a twig off the ground or learning to climb onto a swing.
When children have motor planning difficulties (referred to as 'dyspraxia'), they may have difficulty conceiving plans, sequencing plans and executing plans in a smooth and coordinated manner. The breakdown can occur at any or all of these levels and the ability to form efficient motor plans is highly dependant on the sensory information (sight, touch, smell, movement etc.) we take in about the demands of the task. Motor plan execution is also dependant on the person's posture and body parts to work effectively as the plan requires.
If a child has difficulty motor planning they may appear clumsy or uncoordinated. They may seem to approach motor tasks in strange ways. They may miss steps in tasks. They may have difficulty at sports. They may be the last to try activities in PE class, watching how everyone else does it. They may have messy or slow handwriting. They may have difficulty dealing with change and may appear controlling or rigid (for example, not trying new things or setting achievable expectations knowing they can achieve a task). They may have trouble with dressing or hygiene tasks, using utensils, tying their shoes or learning to ride a bike.
This is an area of motor planning difficulty where the child also has limitations in the parts of the body that sense body position and movement. Some children have difficulty coordinating both sides of their body in an organised way. The may also have difficulty following simple sequences of motor actions.
Sensational Kids offers therapy following the DIR-Floortime model. Floortime is a child and family-centred approach to treatment that takes into account children's developmental levels & individual differences to formulate an appropriate treatment plan. Every child has recognised individual differences that can impact on their function and their understanding of the world. Floortime's primary value is to establish strong communication and emotional growth within children and assists the child to follow a strong developmental pathway from verbal to abstract ideas. It is a natural play-based therapy and helps children develop robust and meaningful interactions incorporating their sensory needs and gross and fine motor skills.
Traditional therapy is also offered for school-age children or for those children requiring therapy for school-readiness.
Sensational Kids is an integrated service allowing for referrals, as appropriate to our Speech Pathologists (for communication difficulties), Psychologists, Social or Developmental Groups. This team approach allows for integrated and consistent management of your child.
 Meet Our Occupational Therapists
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