In paediatrics, OT’s work with children with a variety of difficulties, including, amongst others, sensory processing disorders; dyspraxia; ADHD; autistic spectrum disorders; developmental delays; neurodevelopmental diagnoses and genetic disorders.  

Paediatric Occupational Therapy helps children develop skills that enable them to execute the meaningful activities that form part of everyday life. It aims to help children to maximise their potential and to be as independent as possible. This is done through use of play and goal-directed, functional activities. Play is the primary way through which children learn and explore their environments. It helps them to participate and interact in a purposeful way that enhances development of sensory integration abilities, gross and fine motor skills, visual-perceptual skills and self-care abilities. 

 Occupational Therapy also helps to develop a child’s self-confidence, sense of achievement, and emotional well-being. A child’s strengths are built on by meeting the child where they are at whilst challenging them to develop skills that they have difficulty with. A warm, nurturing and appealing environment is created for the child and they have fun during sessions.

Some of the areas worked on include the following:

This involves the larger muscles of the body and needs whole body movements. It enables the child to execute everyday functions such as walking, running, climbing on playground equipment, engaging in sports and maintaining an upright sitting posture at their desk. Gross motor skills also include eye-hand coordination skills such as ball skills and riding a bicycle. Children with gross motor difficulties often dislike engaging in physical activities and tend to avoid them.

Gross motor abilities can impact on fine motor abilities e.g., a child who struggles to maintain an upright sitting posture at their desk may find fine motor activities such as handwriting, drawing and cutting, challenging. This in turn could impact negatively on their focus in class and may affect their ability to learn.

This involves the coordination of small muscles in the hand and fingers along with movements of the eyes. It includes smaller actions such as threading beads, cutting, colouring-in, drawing, handwriting and picking up items between the thumb and fingers. Children with fine motor difficulties may display avoidance and disinterest in these activities. They may also find it challenging to get dressed independently, to do up buttons or zips, tie shoelaces and feed themselves.

 This is the ability of the brain to receive and make sense of information coming through the eyes. It can impact on reading and writing; knowing which lines to write on and recognising sight words, copying words from the blackboard; finding an item in a busy background, recognising letters and numbers; mathematical skills; learning basic concepts and building puzzles.

Visual motor integration involves integrating visual perceptual skills together with fine motor skills. This allows us to use our eyes and hands in a coordinated and effective manner e.g., eye-hand coordination, copying patterns, forming shapes, letters and numbers and eventually handwriting.

are everyday behaviours linked to self-regulation, problem solving and social interaction. 

These include the following abilities:

• Impulse Control- Being able to think before acting

• Emotional Control- Being able to keep emotional responses in check

• Flexible Thinking- Being able to adapt to unforeseen changes

• Task Initiation- Getting a task or activity started

• Working Memory- Being able to keep information in mind for the purpose of completing a task

• Self-monitoring- Being aware of how one is doing during or after completing a task.

• Planning and prioritising- Being able to set and achieve goals

• Task initiation- Taking necessary action to begin a task or activity.

• Organisation- Being able to keep work areas, play areas and materials in an orderly manner.

Enables one to study and learn effectively. Good study skills can increase a child’s confidence and can reduce anxiety about tests and deadlines.

Skills focused on include the following:

•Exploring different learning styles 

• Organisational Skills

• Time management

• Summary techniques