Pepper Kids Therapy
Occupational Therapy
If you’re looking for a passionate, caring and dedicated paediatric occupational therapist for your child - reach out to our friendly team to find out more.
How can Occupational Therapy help my child?
Paediatric Occupational Therapists work with children of all ages and their families to help children perform daily activities that they may find challenging by addressing sensory, social, behavioural, motor, and environmental issues.
Paediatric OT's have specialist skills and experience in helping children through crucial periods of development with activities such as:
Self care:
dressing, bathing, using the toilet, eating, toothbrushing, grooming, doing chores, making a snack and organising themselves.
School:
tasks involved with participating in a learning environment such as concentrating, following instructions and handwriting and typing skills.
Play and leisure:
playing alone or with others, imaginary play and participating in leisure/sport activities.
Our therapists are experienced in conducting both standardised assessments as well as unstructured play based assessments across all areas of paediatric Occupational Therapy including:
Play
Self-care Skills
Executive Functioning
Fine Motor Skills
Toileting
Social skills
Life Skills
Emotional Regulation & Behaviour
Handwriting & Typing
Sensory Processing & Self Regulation
Gross motor skills & coordination
Attention, learning & organisational skills
Visual Perception & Visual-Motor Integration
Other challenges associated with conditions such as Developmental Delay, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Developmental Coordination Disorder/Dyspraxia, Dyslexia and more.
Initial Appointment
At Pepper Kids Therapy, the initial appointment with an occupational therapist is made up of 3 parts:
Part 1 : 30 minute phone consultation between parent/carer and therapist to gather background information and discuss the goals for therapy. This allows for the child's parent or carer to freely discuss their concerns & reasons for referral without the child present, at a time that is suitable for the parent/carer.
Part 2 : First face to face session at the clinic, where the therapist will build on the background information provided and commence assessment with your child.
Part 3 : 30 min non face to face supports which may include liaising with your child’s teacher or other providers/professionals working with your child, completion of scoring, analysis & interpretation of any standardised assessments completed, formulation of therapy goals & a therapy plan for the child to be discussed with you at the next session. It may also include a telephone call with the parent/carer if required to clarify any other information required prior to the next session.
After the Initial Appointment
Your OT will set goals with your family and child, and support your child to achieve these goals by:
Recommending ongoing OT intervention sessions. These are usually recommended as either weekly or fortnightly sessions of 40 minutes duration.
Helping your child to build their skills through targeted and fun activities.
Providing you with specialist advice and support to adjust your child's activity or environment, in order to help your child to participate better.
Providing guidance to you and to other important people in your child's life, such as teachers, so that you know how to support your child to reach their potential every day.
Resources will be given to parents, teachers, and other caregivers to engage them in the therapy process, and where a multi-discipline team is working with your child, the therapists will engage in regular collaboration to provide the best possible outcomes for your child.
We will assist you, your child and your family in any way that can improve daily function and activities and enable your child to reach their full potential.
Assessments
We offer clinical and standardised assessments across a number of areas, including:
Gross motor skills
Fine motor skills
Handwriting
Self-care skills
Life skills
Sensory Processing skills
Executive Functioning skills
Behaviour
Social skills
After an Assessments
After an assessment, a comprehensive report including standardised scores, a written narrative of the assessment findings and their impact on your child’s development will be compiled.
The report will include recommendations that can be put into place at your child’s natural settings (home, childcare, school) which will promote your child’s strengths and support them to develop their areas of need. Recommendations for required therapeutic intervention will also be included.
The therapist will discuss the findings of the report with you and therapy goals will then be agreed.
Ongoing Therapy Appointments
Following on from your initial appointment and/or an assessment, weekly or fortnightly therapy sessions of 40 mins in duration will be recommended.
Resources will be given to parents, teachers, and other caregivers to engage them in the therapy process, and where a multi-discipline team is working with your child, the therapists will engage in regular collaboration to provide the best possible outcomes for your child.
NDIS Reports
Occupational Therapy reports can be provided on request for many different purposes and are billed at the standard hourly rate. Please let us know if you would like a report, giving as much notice as possible and your OT can let you know the time required to complete the report.
You can request reports for:
Report for your paediatrician prior to an upcoming appointment;
Report for your child’s teacher including recommendations that can be put in place to support your child at school which will promote your child’s strengths and support them to develop their areas of need;
Report following any standardised assessments completed including standardised scores with a written narrative of the assessment findings and their impact on your child’s development with recommendations that can be put into place at home and childcare/school;
Report for the NDIS to support an Access Request for an NDIS plan;
A summary report outlining your child’s needs, the services provided so far, progress towards goals and future recommendations.
NDIS Review Report prior to your child’s NDIS Review Meeting which will outline your child’s progress against their current NDIS Goals, recommendations for future NDIS Goals and further funding for therapy, assistive technology or other supports;
A comprehensive functional capacity assessment report which provides detailed information about your child’s needs and identifies and documents funding needs for NDIS plans.
Telehealth Service (Optional)
At Pepper Kids Therapy we also offer telehealth services. These can be a fantastic way to complement your in-clinic therapy where distance prevents regular visits, or if something happens and you are unable to make it to the clinic, instead of cancelling a session you may make use of a telehealth appointment where possible. Your occupational therapist can observe and interact with your child all from the convenience of your home via a video call (simply click on a link that will be emailed to you from any device). This also enables the therapist to better understand how your child performs in their home environment and to tailor treatment for at-home success.
Alternatively, you may prefer to have a telephone consultation with your child’s therapist about their progress and to seek advice about how best to support your child with therapy at home. You can also request helpful resources, information and home programs from your therapist that you can implement with your child to increase the speed of their progress.
Are you ready to get started?
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