School-Aged Children
Therapy for Children
Paediatric occupational therapy and speech pathology for school-aged children
Our team works to support school-aged children, teachers, and parents by tailoring occupational therapy techniques to children’s specific needs. We’ll work with children from prep through to Year 12.
How our therapy for children supports your child
Your child is an individual, so naturally, their needs will be too. We tailor our support to target your child’s particular requirements, whether they’re at school or in the home. Big believers in building on existing
strengths, we’ll utilise your child’s talents to help them learn and develop new skills.
Occupational therapy and speech pathology supports your child to thrive. That might mean boosting their self esteem, growing independence, developing better confidence, learning social skills, and generally improving their wellbeing. Occupational therapy and speech pathology can help to set your child up for a successful and happy life.
Your child or teenager may need therapy for any of the following reasons.
- They need a different way to learn a particular skill
- They’ve missed learning a skill previously
- They’re gifted or twice exceptional
- They have specific learning or developmental needs
How our therapy for children supports parents
When we take on your child for occupational therapy or speech pathology, we’re teaming up with the whole family. Of course, our therapists work to fill each appointment with value for your child. However, the techniques and strategies we establish will need to be implemented in the home as well. As a parent you’re there to support your child while they’re at home or out and about in the world. So, we’ll provide you with the tools you need to help your child thrive.
We’ll work with you to develop strategies and ideas you can use at home to support the skills we’re developing.
The Key Areas Our Therapists Help In
Self Care
Daily Routines
Your child will learn to structure their day and follow routine — this might include items like getting ready for school on time.
Eating
We’ll guide your child through learning to prepare their own food, use cutlery, and expand their food preferences.
Sleep
Targeting bedtime routines here, we’ll help your child achieve a restful and quality sleep.
Dressing
This is where we’ll address those key parts of dressing independently: tying shoelaces, doing up buttons or zippers, and tolerating different clothing types.
Personal Hygiene
We’ll work with your child to learn independence in those daily hygiene routines. They’ll learn to bathe, brush their teeth, brush their hair, and use the toilet on their own.
Independence
Whether it’s a school camp or sleepovers with friends or family, we’ll build up your child’s independence.
Learning
Attention & Concentration
Targeting their focus, we’ll try and improve their classroom and homework concentration.
Planning & Organising
We’ll support your child to effectively plan their own tasks and organise their own work or belongings.
Classroom Participation
We’ll support classroom behaviour and engagement through extension, support and specialist lessons.
Handwriting & Typing
We’ll target those key skills behind writing neatly, using the correct formations and punctuation, and touch typing efficiently.
Memory
Here your child will develop their ability to remember multi-step instructions to complete tasks at school or home.
Transitioning
Transitioning to a new school or even a new grade or classroom can be tricky. We’ll support you and your child to prepare and plan effectively.
Social & Leisure Participation
Social & Emotional Competence
We’ll work with your child to build confidence in playing, developing and maintaining friendships, and with management of their emotions throughout the day.
Community Participation
We’ll support your child’s access to the community. We’ll build their confidence in the community: joining activities, using public transport, safety, going to a sleepover, or eating at a restaurant.
Sport Participation
Here, we’ll support your child’s confidence in sport and leisure activities, as well as their gross motor skills.
Communication
Speech Skills
We will continue to target clear speech sound production in this age-group.
Language Skills
We will support your child to develop the receptive and expressive language skills required for classroom learning. Classroom language requires children to progress from the informal language we use in conversation to the more formal, literate language skills we require to develop written expression skills.
Literacy Skills
We will target skills required for successful reading and spelling as well as reading comprehension and written expression skills.
What To Expect From Therapy
At OCC Therapy, our focus is helping your child achieve the very best outcomes, whether that means building confidence, encouraging participation, or building vital skills. Our sessions are tailored to your child. So, if they’re having difficulty at home, we’ll come work with them there, if it’s at school, we’ll partner with their teacher in the classroom.
Meeting your child where they are, we’ll build on their interests and skills. Then, we’ll shape our supports accordingly. Parents and teachers are invaluable in your child’s progress. We’ll ensure you’re involved and work as a partner in the process.
When working with teenagers, they may prefer we work around them. This means meeting and chatting strategies with others in their support network (teachers, parents, etc). This way, we can set up appropriate supports and strategies without involving ourselves directly.
Your child or teenager’s session might mean:
- One-on-one time with your child, working on specific skill development
- Teaming up with parents to develop strategies and share information
- Teaming up with your child’s teacher, develop a specific plan to meet their goals
- Meeting and talking with others on your child’s support team
- Assisting with specific documents
- Working at our clinic, your child’s school, at your home, or out in the community
- Developing specific programs including therapy and classroom screenings
Information for Teachers
Teachers have such an important and vital role in the lives of the children they teach. Our occupational therapists and speech pathologists recognise the pressures they face in running classrooms and educating children, as well as their expert understanding of the curriculum. So, when we partner with teachers to help gifted or twice exceptional students, we’re there to help the child reach their educational goals without getting in the way. Each classroom is unique, so we tailor our school-based sessions to both the student and the teacher, adapting to meet the school’s needs too.
We might support your school through:
- Working together to collaborate on strategies that actually fit your classroom
- Assistance to develop policies and programs within the school
- Classroom wide programs or classroom and homework programs to support attention, writing or fine motor development
- Subcontracted OT or SP to support school staff and meet the specific needs of the school
- Whole class screenings (commonly for writing and fine motor development)
- Individual assessment and intervention, focused on educational goals
- Professional development and support for parents and staff
Training Workshops for Educators & Families
These workshops can be tailored to the specific topics or needs of the educator or family we’re connecting with. These might include:
- Attention and executive function skills in the classroom
- Writing skill development and remediation
- Supporting “twice exceptional” learners
- Fine motor skill development in the early years
- Building social and emotional competence at school
- Supporting oral and written communication for classroom learning
- Supporting literacy skills
