WHAT IS OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY?
The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable children to participate in the activities of everyday life.
Occupational Therapy helps children to overcome obstacles and to be as independent as possible. All children have specific roles that they play in life such as being a family member, student or sporting team member.
Occupational Therapists provide children with fun, positive activities to help them improve their cognitive and motor skills to become more independent in the activities of their daily lives.
The primary goal of Occupational Therapy is to enable children to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by enabling children and families to do things that will enhance their ability to participate or by modifying the environment to better support participation.
Some of our specialised treatment approaches include:
- Sensory Integration
- Therapeutic Listening™
- Therapressure™ Brushing
- MORE approach
- Auditory Processing
- Social skills groups and training
- Behavioural support and intervention
Occupational Therapy aims to improve children’s development in the following areas:
Attention and concentration difficulties including ADHD / ADD.
Disorders of relating and communicating such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
Self Care – This refers to the self-help skills required to participate in daily routines such as dressing, toileting, using cutlery, tying shoe laces.
Fine Motor Difficulties including limitations in motor planning, grasp and handwriting.
Gross Motor Difficulties including limitations in motor planning, coordination and sports related activities. This Involve the child’s large muscle groups, which enable the child to accomplish physical challenges (climbing, running, swinging)
Sensory processing / sensory integration challenges: including limitations in processing sensory information and interpretation. Children with challenges in this area may demonstrate over sensitivity to certain sensation, sensation seeking behaviour, defensiveness and difficultly maintaining a calm alert state. Kids Focus Occupational Therapists look at these sensory inputs: touch, sound, sight, smell, taste and also sensations that relate to body awareness and movement (proprioception).
Visual perceptual challenges– Relates to the ability to understand what is seen and can impact on development of reading, spelling and general learning within the classroom.
Learning disabilities
Regulatory disorders including children with difficulties in sensory, behavioural and emotional regulation.
Occupational therapists work with children to assist them to acquire necessary skills and the underlying sensory or physical components for daily activities at home (e.g. eating and dressing), preschool (e.g. drawing, cutting and jumping) and school (e.g. handwriting, attention, memory).Occupational therapy also assists children in developing their social skills or who have trouble coping with social situations. Our aim is to enable children to develop and generalise skills and abilities in order to be able to participate to their full potential.
