What is Occupational Therapy?
Occupational Therapy is a degree-based Allied Health profession that helps individuals to participate and engage in everyday activities and occupations. We work with individuals across the lifespan, to help them engage in activities that are meaningful to them, otherwise known as their “occupations”.
When it comes to working within the paediatric space, a child’s occupations include all the things that they need and want to do in their life, that are appropriate for their age and stage of development.
This may include:
- Being able to participate in self-care tasks such as eating, going to the toilet, getting dressed etc.
- Being able to engage in play and leisure activities
- Being able to participate activities at home, school, kindy
- Being able to access their community safely
It is also important that our children can participate and engage in these occupations across their required environments as well as to be able to engage in them to fulfill their ‘occupational roles’ (i.e. being a sibling, son/daughter/ friends, student).
Engagement and participation in everyday occupations is important to support the growth, development and general health and well-being of your child (Children’s Health Queensland, 2022).
How do our OTs at Cooee Help Children?
At Cooee Speech Pathology, our team of OT’s support children who may be experiencing difficulties with their motor skills, sensory processing, regulation, attention and executive function, play and social skills, learning and development. These are some of the underlying skills which we need to be able to engage in our daily occupations.
Our team of OT’s will assess and investigate what might be happening for your child’s development, set collaborative goals with the family and then carry out an intervention plan that can support your child to reach their full potential. To do this, we work collaboratively with the family, teachers and other healthcare professionals, while building a fun and safe environment for the child to develop these skills.
How can I learn more about what OT is and what Occupational Therapists do?
Our team will be running a complimentary Interactive Parent Workshop about roles of Occupational Therapists and Speech Pathologists at Cooee Speech Pathology on Saturday 17th December. If this is something you are interested in, click on the link below to reserve your spot!
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/interactive-parent-workshop-tickets-478680816207
If you have any questions or are concerned for your child’s development and would like further information regarding therapy or the intervention process, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Occupational Therapists via [email protected] or call us at the clinic on (07) 3265 4495.
Ashley Hannan
Registered Occupational Therapist
