Occupational Therapy
Calm and Connected’s Occupational Therapy sessions provide assessment and strategies on a range of areas for families. What we can help you with:
- Self-regulation; helping kids to be calm and alert so they can learn and listen
- Sensory processing; feeling safe in their bodies and maintaining concentration
- Listening and attention
- Handwriting
- Sleep
- Morning and afternoon routines
- Understanding Emotions
- Seperation anxiety
- Social Skills
- Body awareness and coordination
FIRST APPOINTMENT
Our First Appointments are conducted at your home with a mixture of playing/assessing your child and discussing with the parents/caregivers your concerns. This allows us to gain an overview picture of the difficulties that are occurring and what strategies would work best for your family.
For some children it may be recommended to complete a school observation session to see how they are managing in the classroom. Some parents prefer this to occur before the first home visit so that their child does not recognise the therapist when they are sitting in their classroom.
At the end of the first session the therapist will discuss with you their findings and recommendations for home strategies. A plan can be discussed if further sessions are required and what these could look like. Parents are then able to make informed choices on what areas they would like support with and therefore what therapy the child requires. A goal summary report is provided after the initial appointment as required by the family.
Prior to your first appointment we ask families to complete our Caregiver Pre Therapy Questionnaire, which will be emailed to you once you have booked your initial appointment.
FOLLOW UP SESSIONS
Follow up sessions can occur at your home or school.These sessions build on the goals developed in the first session. The aim of these sessions is to support the family in problem solving through recommendations, strategies, resources, programs and/or further referrals to specialized health professionals.
The cost for follow up appointments are $140 for Private, $170 for NDIS, with travel fees added. Please allow up to 1 hour for sessions. You are welcome to invite key adults that are involved in your child’s life to appointments, so that they also have an understanding of how to implement the therapy strategies suggested. For example if a grandmother often looks after your child, then ask to come along to learn some new techniques.
ATTEND CASE CONFERENCES AND PARENT MEETINGS
Parent teacher meetings and case conferences are a valuable opportunity to problem solve and plan for the additional support your child might need in the classroom. Often parents can have difficulty communicating information that was provided by therapists or discussing what it is they want for their child at parent teacher meetings. Following either an assessment or a consultation session, consider asking your therapist to attend this meeting with you, in order to make the most out of this opportunity. Support can also be given prior to these meetings to help you collate your thoughts on; what concerns you have for your child, what possible outcomes that you would like to achieve and what supports as a parent you are able to offer.