Occupational Therapy at Whole Child Therapy

What is Occupational Therapy?

 

Occupational Therapy (OT) helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of daily activities. Occupational Therapy works with both the physical, sensory and mental health aspects of activity.
A child’s main occupation is play as this is how they learn and develop. Thus OT treatment often looks a lot like play. Therapeutic play uses activities that are playful, fun and meaningful to the children in order to develop or enhance the child’s skills.  Occupational Therapy is an evidence- based approach deeply rooted in science.
Through therapeutic play children develop the capacity to: be regulated, be organised in their bodies, generate ideas and plans for action, problem solve and form relationships. 

 

Occupational Therapy at Whole Child Therapy

Whole Child Therapy believes in a multidisciplinary, trauma informed approach, to supporting our clients and their families.
At Whole Child Therapy we believe in a thorough assessment to understand the child holistically and consider the child’s strengths and weaknesses, the environment the child is in and the tasks the child needs to perform to develop the child’s ability to perform optimally. From our thorough assessment we are able to ascertain the best way to support your child.

 

At Whole Child Therapy, we deliver therapy to support

  • Attention and Concentration
  • Social interaction and emotional regulation
  • Coordination
  • Motor planning (Praxis)
  • Assuming and maintaining a good sitting posture
  • Handwriting
  • Drawing, colouring-in and cutting

OT treatments look to help children with physical, cognitive and sensory difficulties find ways to engage with their everyday activities. 

 

What we offer

Based on your assessment and goals we will draw on one or several of these therapeutic approaches to support your child in therapy.

  • Sensory integration therapy
  • Therapeutic listening
  • Intensive interaction
  • Play as a therapeutic medium
  • Attachment and development theory
  • Primitive reflex integration
  • Sensory motor
  • Neurological developmental theory
  • DIR/ Floortime
  • Astronaut Program

Ultimately we want to support your child to reach their full potential across all.

 

Therapy sessions

Occupational Therapy sessions will be tailored to meet the individual needs of the person, working with the child/young person and you to maximise their skills.
We believe in collaborating together with you and the child/young person to capture their voice in determining therapeutic goals and outcomes where possible.
Therapy sessions are delivered within the clinic and within the educational setting.

 

How long do therapy sessions last?

Therapy sessions will depend on the child/young person’s individual needs, which includes how they respond to therapy. A typical therapy session lasts 45 minutes, whereby the therapist will work directly with the child/young person and yourself and will also include time to discuss progress, model strategies/activities to support their therapy at home and/or in the educational setting. 

 

Assessments

We offer 3 main assessment packages, however believe in an individualised approach to each child and their families. A detailed assessment may take up to 2 hours of clinical time. All our assessment packages include a full report and feedback session to plan next steps.

 

Sensory Processing assessment

This package is best for children who already have a specific diagnosis such as Dyspraxia, Autism, Hypermobility, Down Syndrome and all other childhood conditions known to have some sensory processing disruption. In addition, the assessment is valuable both for young children in pre-school and foundation/key stage one, and children who would not engage in a more structured and standardised assessment process. The assessment focuses on the sensory system and a child’s relationship with the environment to include movement. It is a great precursor to a therapy programme.

 

Full assessment

This assessment is an educational assessment. It will provide a child with a detailed account of their functioning for fine and gross motor activities, sensory processing, muscular tone and function. This assessment will support a diagnostic process informing the clinical team and parents of a child’s functioning in all aspects of daily living for young people. This will include, as appropriate, visual assessment, auditory assessment and age appropriate handwriting or pre-handwriting assessment. The team will use clinically recognised standardised assessments so the report can be used as a valuable resource in school and with other clinical services.

 

Early years assessment

This assessment is for children under the age of five.
This assessment will explore the developmental milestones of your child and unpack, where your child may be getting “stuck” in their development.
From here we will be able to address how best to support your child’s development.

 

Formal assessments we can offer

  • The Peabody Developmental Motor Scale (P-Body) – This assessment assesses fine and gross motor skills of children from birth to six years old relative to their peers. It looks at four gross motor areas- reflexes, Stationary performance, Locomotion (movement) and object manipulation. It has two fine motor areas – Grasping and visual motor integration.
  • Miller Function and Participation scale (M-FUN) – This assessment assesses the child’s functional performance related to school participation of children 2 years old to 7 years 11 months old. This assessment reviews the child’s ability in the areas of hand function, non-motor visual perceptual abilities, postural abilities and executive function and participation.
  • The Goal-Oriented Assessment of Life skills (GOAL) – This assessment assesses the functional motor abilities needed for daily living. Designed for children 7 to 17, the GOAL consists of seven Activities, fun and motivating tasks based on real occupations of a child’s daily life. This assessment reviews the child’s gross motor and fine motor skills.
  • Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) -The COPM is a client-centred outcome measure for individuals to identify and prioritise everyday issues that restrict their participation in everyday living. This measure focuses on occupational performance in all areas of life, including self-care, leisure and productivity.
  • The Children’s Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment (CAPE) and the Preferences for Activities of Children (PAC) – These are 2 self report questionnaires that explore the Child’s participation in leisure and recreation activities outside of mandatory school activities. This assessment explores 5 dimensions of these activities – This includes diversity (number of activities done), intensity (frequency of participation measured as a function of the number of possible activities within a category), and enjoyment of activities.
  • Developmental Test of Visual Perception 3rd Ed (DTVP3) and The Developmental Test of Visual Perception Adolescent and Adults (DTVP-A) – This assessment assesses the participants visual perceptual skills. The DTVP-3 identifies visual-perceptual deficits in children and yields scores for both visual perception (no motor response) and visual-motor integration ability.
  • Beery-Buktenica Visual Motor Integration test (Beery VMI) – This assessment assesses the extent to which individuals can integrate their visual and motor abilities. It has 3 sub tests: Visual motor integration subtest, which involves copying, Visual perception subtest which involves identifying the matching picture and a motor coordination subtest which includes drawing forms between pathways.
  • Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting (DASH) – this assessment assesses handwriting and hand writing speed of children 9 years old to 16 years old.
  • SCAN-3 Tests for Auditory Processing Disorders (SCAN-3) – This is a battery of tests to detect auditory processing disorders in children and adolescents. SCAN-3 helps differentiate disorders from auditory comprehension skills and auditory attention difficulties.
  • Sensory Processing Measure (SPM) – Is a self report questionnaire that explores a child’s sensory processing across various settings.
  • Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration (EASI) – This assessment assesses sensory perception, postural/ocular/bilateral motor integration, praxis, and sensory reactivity. The EASI tests are designed for children 3-12 years old.
  • Structured Observation of Sensory Integration- Motor (SOSI-M) – This assessment assesses proprioceptive and vestibular processing, motor planning, and postural control.

 

Education settings

At Whole Child Therapy, we provide a range of services to Nurseries, Primary and Secondary schools, Colleges and within Special Education settings.
In the Education setting, we currently deliver EHCP contracts, provide support for students/young people on the SEN register, deliver group therapy to support social communication, we deliver training to school staff on various topics (e.g. communication friendly school), deliver programmes and provide supervision to therapists within the Special Education Setting.
Please contact us for further information on how we can support you within your educational setting.