Assessment & advice
We offer a variety of assessment packages individualised to your needs. With our knowledge of the component skills needed to complete activities, we are able to identify the causes of a child’s difficulties and establish where your child needs support. Once we have the ‘what’ and ‘why,’ we can then plan the next steps with you.
Contact our office-based paediatric occupational therapists to discuss your needs so they can advise on the most suitable assessment package.
Initial Consultation Service for parents
If you are unsure about the right pathway to take and concerned about the cost of an OT assessment, then our initial video consultation may be a helpful starting point. Our initial paediatric consultation service has been created for parents and guardians simply seeking some practical advice from a specialist paediatric OT and to gain confidence about the right next steps.
Whilst a consultation is not a substitute for a full assessment, where appropriate our OT will discuss strategies and programs that can be immediately implemented by yourself or your child's school. It maybe that the day-to-day difficulties that a child is experiencing, could to varying extents, be managed through practical advice to parents or schools. During the consultation, our paediatric OT will discuss with you whether this is an appropriate and sufficient alternative option to a full assessment, and if not, explain what a full assessment would provide to ensure you are well informed to decide on next steps.
Why we have created our initial video consultation service for parents:
- We appreciate the cost of an OT assessment can be daunting and we want to offer a more widely accessible starting point
- If you are unsure of what an OT assessment will provide, to ensure you are well informed and give you confidence to proceed with a full assessment if appropriate
- If possible, immediately give you some practical and actionable advice and/or programs you can implement yourself or at school.
- Because it is delivered remotely, we can draw on our entire nationwide network to ensure there is no waiting for availability and we are not constrained by location to provide you with access to some of the very best paediatric OTs in the UK.
Find out more about our Initial Consultation Service on our dedicated page.
Treatment options
Following an initial functional assessment and consultation with you, we will devise a treatment plan orientated toward the goals you and your child want to achieve.
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###One-to-one treatment sessions
These intensive therapy sessions focus on specific skill development at home and / or school. They are generally delivered in blocks of eight sessions where our aim is to address a child’s difficulties, help boost their confidence and self-esteem, review progress, and ultimately equip them to be as independent as possible.
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###Home and / or school-based program, designed by us and delivered by you
Not all children need one-to-one treatment sessions. This bespoke program is designed around using a child’s strengths to build on their areas of weakness. The programme incorporates activities throughout your child’s day, giving them increased opportunity to practice and develop their target skills. Individual OT treatment sessions can be provided to support the implementation of the programme, if needed.
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###Techniques and strategies
These are provided as part of your OT report and provide practical advice to improve your child’s skills. In addressing the school setting, the report may include strategies for the teacher to improve your child’s classroom participation and learning. For the home environment, OTs may offer strategies to maximize a child’s independence and management of daily challenges.
All parents will receive options two and three as part of their assessment package, and some will also require the one-to-one sessions for additional support.
Handwriting assessment & programmes
The OT Practice has developed a handwriting programe that will be individually tailored to meet the specific needs of your child. There are many component core skills that need to be inline to have successful writer, it only takes one to need developing and the effect can be significant. By learning what the difficulties are you can be proactive in helping a child address them. We work with children of all ages to identify and target these core skills leading to an improvement in your child’s handwriting.
Some children benefit from one to one treatment sessions in a block of 8 to provide targeting and intensive support. Other children and families are more suited to a home and / or school based treatment programe specifically to address the issues we have identified; the program is carried out by parents or staff but designed by your handwriting expert occupational therapist. Our approach is flexible around the needs of your child and family.
Our programs are goal orientated with the aim of improving a child’s handwriting by developing:
- A mature pencil grip
- An effective sitting posture
- Letter formation & spacing
- Concentration strategies
- Pre-writing & copying skills
- Visual perception
- Activities to increase core & shoulder stability
- Fine motor, hand strength and dexterity
- Organisation of work on the page
- Confidence and self esteem around handwriting and school work.
Case transitions
We often look after children that are moving from another practice or occupational therapist for a variety of reasons. In these cases we recognise that it is likely a recent paediatric occupational therapy assessment may have been completed, in which case there is no need for us to repeat it.
At the time you contact us our office based paediatric OT will discuss the recent intervention with you. It is likely that the next steps would involve us reviewing the previous report and then coming to meet the child and family for us all to review and make a plan for the next steps.
Training
Training is offered to schools, parents or carers on a variety of topics. The aim of occupational therapy for children is to facilitate independence so the techniques and strategies needed to do this often need to be incorporated into classroom, play ground and home life.
Training allows us to 'up-skill' the people that support a child 24/7 to ensure consistency from all people in a caring role and alongside any other treatment happening. Training sessions can be generic i.e. covering diagnosis or difficulties such as handwriting or autism, or can be specific around the needs of a particular child.
Group treatment for schools
We regularly work with schools to maximise their budgets for therapy provision whilst still ensuring that children receive the highest levels of clinical support.
One way to do this is to offer groups for children identified as having the same or similar difficulties. Whether it be handwriting (the most common group we run), self care (for those struggling with dressing before and after PE for example), gross or fine motor skills, sensory or balance, we will structure the group length and content to the individual school.
Typical groups run for a half term (6 weeks) with progress reports and action plans for home and school provided at the end.
EHCP OT provision
Our team of paediatric occupational therapists have extensive experience in the assessment, writing and delivery of EHCPs.
We can provide therapy weekly, termly or reviews annually as the EHCP dictates and regularly work with LEA's, parents and schools to ensure occupational therapy provision is available to children who have it as part of their plans.
Complex needs
We appreciate that some children will come to us with complex physical needs. Among the services offered by our experienced paediatric occupational therapists are splinting, home adaptations, property advice, professional guidance regarding equipment & environmental control systems, seating & postural management, and moving & handling.
In-house therapy services
We work with many schools and nurseries throughout the UK to provide in-house occupational therapy services.
Sometime we provide just a day a week temporary cover and in other situation we provide full time OT support on a more permanent basis. We will work with you to establish the requirement and how best to deliver services in a practical and economical way.
We often cover for maternity, sick leave, holidays or while permanent staff are recruited, but also provide permanent support for an academic year. What ever the reason we can help schools ensure they have the necessary paediatric occupational therapy support.
Therapeutic listening
We have a team of paediatric occupational therapists who have the skills and experience to provide bespoke therapeutic listing programmes to children.
In general children listen to a specific (therapist selected) CD for 2 weeks, twice per day for 30 minutes each. The programme is designed specifically for your child and the difficulties they are experiencing, no two programmes will be the same. Your occupational therapist will provide a programme of activities for your child to complete whilst they are listening to their selected programme, reviewing and adjusting the programme every 2 weeks.
Research suggests that progress can be made over 6 months but many children listen for much longer to maximise the benefits. Whilst some results can be seen quickly and dramatically others are more subtle and can be seen over time.
Often therapeutic listening is combined with other occupational therapy programmes to produce results faster than a listening programme would alone.
International services
A select team of our children's occupational therapists travel overseas to provide one-to-one specialist assessment, treatment and training where needed.
We often provide intensive blocks of treatment in the holidays, but also travel to the child’s home to train and support parents or an existing team of nannies. Our team are able to provide a responsive and flexible approach to providing treatment overseas.
Additionally we see children that travel to the UK for short periods of time such as expat families returning home or families that come to the UK specifically for an intense period of therapy. Whatever the reason, we can send an experienced paediatric occupational therapist to deliver high quality care at a location that is convenient for you.
Within The OT Practice we have developed a dedicated specialist team who respond to our paediatric enquiries and manage our cases here in the UK and overseas. To find out more about OT Practice Kids, meet the team and watch our videos please visit our page dedicated to OT Practice Kids.
