Sydney Paediatric Therapy Centre uses evidence based Occupational Therapy approaches and Sensory Integration therapy to enhance skills and improve functional independence in the following areas:
Sensory Processing:
Sensory Processing deals with the ability to organize and interpret the information from the environment and body through the sensory systems. This helps us to respond and adapt to different situations, activities and environment.
Children with Sensory Processing difficulties may demonstrate:
§ Tactile defensiveness: Reacts emotionally or aggressively when touched, or getting hands dirty, playing with sand, play dough and paints.
§ Fear when feet leave the ground and dislikes “moving” playground equipment e.g. swings.
§ Difficulty sitting still on the mat and urge to frequently moves around the classroom
§ Can get upset by loud noises and may put hands over ears
§ Mouthing, sucking, chewing objects even if they are non-edible e.g. pencil, toys, eraser
§ Getting distracted by visual information and covers eyes, squints, keeps flicking objects in front of eyes
§ Difficulty maintaining personal space
§ Involved in aggressive behaviour and frequent melt downs/emotional outbursts
§ Difficulty in developing age appropriate play and social skills
Early intervention:
Early intervention helps in developing early sensori-motor, social and regulation abilities that are required for a healthy development at later stages.
Early intervention would benefit babies and infants with:
§ Delayed age appropriate developmental milestones in motor and social areas
§ Infants with high (spastic) or low (hypo) tone
§ Infants who have difficulties in rolling, sitting, crawling
§ Infants with traumatic births
§ Infants with neurological conditions like Birth Defects, Cerebral Palsy
Gross motor skills:
Gross motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday functions. Gross motor skills are important to enable children to perform every day functions, such as walking, running, skipping, as well as playground skills (e.g. climbing) and sporting skills (e.g. catching, throwing and hitting a ball with a bat).
Children with difficulties in gross motor skills may demonstrate:
§ Low tone, poor posture
§ Difficulties in hopping, skipping, jumping
§ Awkward movements, clumsy
§ Slower in completing activities than peers
§ Difficulty playing in playground
§ Difficulty catching throwing ball
§ Hand dominance and preference not definite
§ Delayed milestones
Fine motor skills:
Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscles of the hands to manipulate objects, such as when doing up buttons, opening lunch boxes or using pencils or scissors. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance.
Children with difficulties in fine motor skills may demonstrate:
§ Immature pencil grasp
§ Illegible letters
§ Underdeveloped in hand manipulation skills like cutting, colouring
§ Eye hand coordination activities difficult like lacing, bead stringing
Perceptual and Cognitive Skills:
Perceptual and Cognitive skills help the child in understanding the relationship and configuration of objects and self in the environment and space. They also include visual skills which enable a child to understand the characteristics of objects like shape, size and structure so that they make proper judgement. These skills are relied more during the preschool and school years.
A child with perceptual and cognitive difficulties may demonstrate:
§ Poor body awareness: frequent falls, leaning, stooping over desk
§ Cannot find things or frequently loses things
§ Stumbles, bumps in to things
§ Cannot place picture puzzle, jig saws
§ Difficulty in copying from board
§ Frequent letter reversals as compared to peers
§ Difficulty reading from book
§ Difficulty copying from board
§ Difficulty forming letters
§ Difficulty in copying simple shapes
§ Difficulty constructing designs, playing construction games e.g. Lego
Behaviour and Regulation:
Behaviour and emotional regulation of the child depends on the way the child perceives, interprets and adapts incoming information. The brain has to respond to innumerable stimuli that may have different levels of significance. A good regulation is demonstrated when the child is able to maintain his attention to perform his activities in given environment.
Difficulties in these skills may be demonstrated as:
§ Inappropriate, immature behaviour
§ Highly distractible, short attention span or impulsive behaviour
§ Highly active/ underactive or passive
§ Does not relate well to other children
§ Avoidance of new/novel tasks
§ Difficulty transitioning between activities
§ Frequently inconsolable
Play & social development:
Play is the way that children learn about the environment, their bodies and their place in the world around them. Play provides a medium to enhance the development of motor, sensory, cognitive and social skills in children. Social participation requires healthy interaction with others, maintaining appropriate behaviour and attention and self regulation.
Children with difficulties in play & social skills may demonstrate:
§ Inappropriate play as compared to age e.g. prefer solitary play
§ Does not understand rules or theme of play
§ Decreased social interactions and participation
§ More of solitary play inappropriate to age
§ Repetitive, stereotypical play
Independence in Daily Activities:
There are lot of activities that make the daily routine of children at home, school and other environments. Appropriate and independent engagement in these activities make children self reliant and further shape their contribution as student at school, as son/daughter, friend in their respective environments.
Children with difficulties in this area may demonstrate:
§ Difficulty in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) like toileting, eating, opening/closing lunch boxes, putting zippers, buttoning clothes, wearing socks n shoes etc.
Sensory Processing deals with the ability to organize and interpret the information from the environment and body through the sensory systems. This helps us to respond and adapt to different situations, activities and environment.
Children with Sensory Processing difficulties may demonstrate:
§ Tactile defensiveness: Reacts emotionally or aggressively when touched, or getting hands dirty, playing with sand, play dough and paints.
§ Fear when feet leave the ground and dislikes “moving” playground equipment e.g. swings.
§ Difficulty sitting still on the mat and urge to frequently moves around the classroom
§ Can get upset by loud noises and may put hands over ears
§ Mouthing, sucking, chewing objects even if they are non-edible e.g. pencil, toys, eraser
§ Getting distracted by visual information and covers eyes, squints, keeps flicking objects in front of eyes
§ Difficulty maintaining personal space
§ Involved in aggressive behaviour and frequent melt downs/emotional outbursts
§ Difficulty in developing age appropriate play and social skills
Early intervention:
Early intervention helps in developing early sensori-motor, social and regulation abilities that are required for a healthy development at later stages.
Early intervention would benefit babies and infants with:
§ Delayed age appropriate developmental milestones in motor and social areas
§ Infants with high (spastic) or low (hypo) tone
§ Infants who have difficulties in rolling, sitting, crawling
§ Infants with traumatic births
§ Infants with neurological conditions like Birth Defects, Cerebral Palsy
Gross motor skills:
Gross motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday functions. Gross motor skills are important to enable children to perform every day functions, such as walking, running, skipping, as well as playground skills (e.g. climbing) and sporting skills (e.g. catching, throwing and hitting a ball with a bat).
Children with difficulties in gross motor skills may demonstrate:
§ Low tone, poor posture
§ Difficulties in hopping, skipping, jumping
§ Awkward movements, clumsy
§ Slower in completing activities than peers
§ Difficulty playing in playground
§ Difficulty catching throwing ball
§ Hand dominance and preference not definite
§ Delayed milestones
Fine motor skills:
Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscles of the hands to manipulate objects, such as when doing up buttons, opening lunch boxes or using pencils or scissors. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance.
Children with difficulties in fine motor skills may demonstrate:
§ Immature pencil grasp
§ Illegible letters
§ Underdeveloped in hand manipulation skills like cutting, colouring
§ Eye hand coordination activities difficult like lacing, bead stringing
Perceptual and Cognitive Skills:
Perceptual and Cognitive skills help the child in understanding the relationship and configuration of objects and self in the environment and space. They also include visual skills which enable a child to understand the characteristics of objects like shape, size and structure so that they make proper judgement. These skills are relied more during the preschool and school years.
A child with perceptual and cognitive difficulties may demonstrate:
§ Poor body awareness: frequent falls, leaning, stooping over desk
§ Cannot find things or frequently loses things
§ Stumbles, bumps in to things
§ Cannot place picture puzzle, jig saws
§ Difficulty in copying from board
§ Frequent letter reversals as compared to peers
§ Difficulty reading from book
§ Difficulty copying from board
§ Difficulty forming letters
§ Difficulty in copying simple shapes
§ Difficulty constructing designs, playing construction games e.g. Lego
Behaviour and Regulation:
Behaviour and emotional regulation of the child depends on the way the child perceives, interprets and adapts incoming information. The brain has to respond to innumerable stimuli that may have different levels of significance. A good regulation is demonstrated when the child is able to maintain his attention to perform his activities in given environment.
Difficulties in these skills may be demonstrated as:
§ Inappropriate, immature behaviour
§ Highly distractible, short attention span or impulsive behaviour
§ Highly active/ underactive or passive
§ Does not relate well to other children
§ Avoidance of new/novel tasks
§ Difficulty transitioning between activities
§ Frequently inconsolable
Play & social development:
Play is the way that children learn about the environment, their bodies and their place in the world around them. Play provides a medium to enhance the development of motor, sensory, cognitive and social skills in children. Social participation requires healthy interaction with others, maintaining appropriate behaviour and attention and self regulation.
Children with difficulties in play & social skills may demonstrate:
§ Inappropriate play as compared to age e.g. prefer solitary play
§ Does not understand rules or theme of play
§ Decreased social interactions and participation
§ More of solitary play inappropriate to age
§ Repetitive, stereotypical play
Independence in Daily Activities:
There are lot of activities that make the daily routine of children at home, school and other environments. Appropriate and independent engagement in these activities make children self reliant and further shape their contribution as student at school, as son/daughter, friend in their respective environments.
Children with difficulties in this area may demonstrate:
§ Difficulty in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) like toileting, eating, opening/closing lunch boxes, putting zippers, buttoning clothes, wearing socks n shoes etc.